PIETER NEEFS THE ELDER (Antwerp 1578 / 1590 – Antwerp 1656 / 1661)
Interior of a Gothic Cathedral
Indistinctly signed on a pillar in the center left
oil on canvas
38 ½ x 71 inches (96.5 x 180.3 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Property of the Trustees of the Stoneleigh Settlement, the Executers of the late 4th Lord Leigh and the Stoneleigh Abbey Preservation Trust Ltd., Christie’s, London, October 30, 1981, lot 110
Lane Fine Art, London, by March 1984, from whom acquired by
Private Collection, Connecticut, March 1984 until the present time
Pieter Neefs the Elder is presumed to have been born in Antwerp the son of Aart Neefs, a silk merchant and innkeeper, and Margareta Verspreet. He was the half-brother of the engraver Jacob Neefs. Although Neefs’ early training is undocumented, it is believed that he worked closely with Hendrick van Steenwyck the Younger as well as to some degree with his father Hendrick van Steenwyck the Elder, as their influence on his work is unmistakable. A church interior dated 1605, his earliest known work, is in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden (inventory no. 1183). In 1609 he became a master in the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp.[1]
In 1612 he married Maria Lauterbeens with whom he had four children. Two of his sons Lodewyck and Pieter the Younger were also artists and who most closely assimilated his style. By the 1630s Neefs along with his sons “must have had an active studio”.[2]
Neefs’ oeuvre is almost entirely devoted to church interiors, but he painted at least one exterior scene, a few Liberations of St. Peter, and at least one work depicting Baal’s priests consuming offerings.[3] Although Neefs did paint his own staffage, he is known to have collaborated with Jan Brueghel I, Gonzales Coques, Frans Francken II, Frans Francken III, Hieronymus Janssens, Bonaventura Peeters, Adriaen van Stalbemt, David Teniers the Younger, Theodoor van Thulden and Sebastiaen Vrancx.[4]
In Antwerp during the first half of the seventeenth century paintings of church interiors proved immensely popular.[5] The setting of a gothic church with its intricate architectural details, soaring heights, dramatic contrasts of light and dark set in a non-symmetrical format produced a truly innovative pictorial composition. The high vantage point and subtle coloration advanced the resounding feeling of otherworldliness.[6]
Neefs’ paintings formed part of the permanent collections of most major museums including the cities of Amsterdam, Bonn, Brussels, Budapest, Cologne, Dublin, Frankfurt, Glasglow, Lille, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, New York, Paris, Rotterdam, Saint Petersburg, Stockholm and Vienna among many others.
[1] Biographical information taken from Jeremy Haworth, The Steenwyck Family as Masters of Perspective, Brepols, Turnhout, 2009, p. 8; “Peeter Neefs the Elder”, National Gallery of Art, www.nga.gov; and “Pieter Neefs (I)” on rkd.nl (RKD Explore) website.
[2] Howarth, op.cit., pp. 86-87; and “Pieter Neefs (I) rkd.nl., op.cit.
[3] Howarth, op.cit., p. 85.
[4] Jan de Maere et al., Illustrated Dictionary of 17th Century Flemish Painters, volume 2, Brussels, 1994, p. 848; and
Frans Boudin, “Neefs”, Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, 2016.
[5] Hans Vlieghe, Flemish Art and Architecture 1585 – 1700, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998, p. 200.
[6] Howarth, op.cit., pp. 49-51.