The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 20, 2024
Interior of a Church
c. 1680
(Dutch, c. 1617–1692)
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.)
Location: 213 Dutch Painting
Did You Know?
In the 1600s, Dutch churches functioned as public gathering places—even dogs were allowed!Description
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.- Until 1927Theodor Stroefer [1843-1927], Nürnberg1927-1937Family of Theodor Stroefer, Nürnberg1937(Julius Böhler, Munich, Stroefer sale, Oct. 28, 1937, no. 122 [13,000 Reichsmarks, sold to Curt Bohnewand)11937 - 1969Curt Bohnewand [1888-1966], Berlin and Rottach-Egern, Germany11969(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, OhioProvenance Footnotes1 The price list, annotated with buyers' names, of the Bayerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv's copy of the Stroefer sale catalogue shows that the de Witte was sold to "Bohnewald" [sic].2 1Bohnewand, a successful tobacconist and art collector, purchased the de Witte at the Stroefer sale according to the price list in the Böhler archives. Ilse Manke’s 1963 monograph on de Witte situates the painting in 1953 with “Kunsthandel Steinmeyer, Munich,” a gallery founded by Julius Wilhelm Böhler and Fritz Steinmeyer in Lucerne (not Munich). This reference is most likely erroneous, as the painting remained with Bohnewand until his death and was sold in the posthumous sale of his collection in 1969. Prior to Steinmeyer, Manke gives the following provenance, in reverse chronological order: Bohnewand; a Berlin private collection; and Stroefer. The Berlin private collector is likely Bohnewand, given what we know about his dates of ownership of the painting. Volume XXXVI of Thieme-Becker, published in 1947, also situates the painting in a Berlin private collection, which, again, must refer to Bohnewand. The provenance given by Thieme-Becker for the CMA painting lists the Stroefer sale and then notes, “zuletzt bei Ed. Plietzsch,” which indicates that the most recent owner had been Eduard Plietzsch. Plietzsch was specialist in Dutch and Flemish painting who played a large role in the development of Goering’s collection as the chief assistant to Kajetan Mühlmann, a major figure in the Nazi art confiscations. The reference to Plietzsch in connection with the CMA painting appears incorrect: First, we know that the painting was with Bohnewand from 1937 until his posthumous sale in 1969. Second, there is no documentary evidence confirming Plietzsch’s ownership of this painting, and in fact, it’s possible that at some point the provenance of the CMA painting was confused with that of other paintings of church interiors by de Witte that were connected to Plietzsch, whether before or after the Stroefer sale: Interior of a Church was confiscated from the Jaffe collection (Munich Central Collecting Point no. 4061) by the Dienststelle Mühlmann, and two de Witte church interior scenes appear in the liquidation sales of the Berlin branch of Plietzsch’s gallery, Galerie van Diemen (Paul Graupe, Jan. 25th and April 26th, 1935).
- Julius Böhler. Sammlung Theodor Stroefer, Nürnberg: [freiwillige Versteigerung der alten Gemälde und Plastiken der Sammlung Theodor Stroefer, Nürnberg durch Julius Böhler…28 Oktober 1937]. Munich: Julius Böhler, 1937.Schmidt, Robert, Friedrich Winkler, and Otto von Falke. Aus der Sammlung Curt Bohnewand. Munich: F. Bruckmann, n.d. [c. 1944?] Mentioned: pp. 13, 50; Reproduced: p.29Bohnewand, Curt. Aus der Sammlung Curt Bohnewand. [Berlin?]: C. Bohnewand, 1944.Trautschold, Eduard, in Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker, Fred. C. Willis, and Hans Vollmer. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1907. Mentioned: vol. 36 (1947) p. 125Manke, Ilse. Emanuel de Witte, 1617-1692. Amsterdam, Netherlands: M. Hertzberger, 1963. Reproduced: p. 105, no. 114Kunsthaus Lempertz. Sammlung Curt Bohnewand. 1969.Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1971." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 1 (January 1972): 3-46. Mentioned: cat. no. 57 www.jstor.orgStechow, Wolfgang. "A church Interior by Emanuel de Witte." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no.10 (October, 1972): 228-235. Reproduced: p. 228, fig. 1Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 157 archive.orgThe Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Entry by Jean Kubota Cassill. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 290; Reproduced: p. 291Ford, Terence, ed. RIdIM/RCMI Inventory of Music Iconography, no 8: The Cleveland Museum of Art, compiled by Ross Duffin. New York: Research Center for Musical Iconography, 1986. Mentioned: p. 9, no. 186.Maillet, Bernard G. Intérieurs d'églises: la peinture architecturale des écoles du nord: 1580-1720. Wijnegem, Belgium: Pandora Publishers, 2012. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 482
- Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 17, 2010-January 17, 2011).Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973).Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972).
- {{cite web|title=Interior of a Church|url=false|author=Emanuel de Witte|year=c. 1680|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1971.1