Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009137Interior of a Church
Also known as: Protestant Gothic church with Motifs of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam
About the Artwork
Although this spacious church interior is largely imaginary, Emanuel de Witte’s precise description of architectural forms convinces us that he depicted an actual place. To create a sense of familiarity, he included some specific architectural features from the Oude Kerk (Old Church) in Amsterdam. In the late 1500s, militant Protestant sects occupied Catholic churches in the Netherlands and stripped them of rich decorations and “idolatrous” images. The resulting spare, whitewashed interiors became a favorite subject of Dutch artists, who were intrigued by the interplay of light and shadow over the unadorned walls, and by the challenge of depicting perspectival space.
Provenance
Until 1927: Theodor Stroefer [1843-1927], Nürnberg 1927-1937: Family of Theodor Stroefer, Nürnberg 1937: (Julius Böhler, Munich, Stroefer sale, Oct. 28, 1937, no. 122 [13,000 Reichsmarks, sold to Curt Bohnewand)1 1937 - 1969: Curt Bohnewand [1888-1966], Berlin and Rottach-Egern, Germany1 1969: (Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, Bohnewand sale, March 28, 1969, no. 25, probably sold to Schaeffer Galleries) Probably 1969-1970: (Schaeffer Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1971-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972). Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973). Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 17, 2010-January 17, 2011).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Emanuel de Witte (Dutch, c. 1617–1692)
- Date
- c. 1680
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 89.5 x 80.5 x 6.5 cm (35 1/4 x 31 11/16 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 62 x 54 cm (24 7/16 x 21 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 1971.1
More by Emanuel de Witte in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009137
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