Interior of a Church (c. 1680): Art, History and Details

Interior of a Church (c. 1680) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Emanuel de Witte (Dutch, c. 1617–1692).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Interior of a Church
• Date: c. 1680
• Creator attribution: Emanuel de Witte (Dutch, c. 1617–1692)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Painting
• Technique: 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.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1971.1

A detail from the museum

In the 1600s, Dutch churches functioned as public gathering places—even dogs were allowed!

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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?]
• Bohnewand, Curt. Aus der Sammlung Curt Bohnewand. [Berlin?]: C. Bohnewand, 1944.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.