HENDRICK VAN VLIET (Delft 1611/1612 – Delft 1675)
An Interior of the Old Church in Delft with the Tomb of Admiral Maarten Tromp on the left and the Tomb of Admiral Piet Hein in the center behind the Wooden Choir Screen
signed on the base of the column in the lower left VVliet
oil on canvas
19 7/8 x 23 3/4 inches ( 50.6 x 60.5 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Art trade, Brussels, circa 1958 – 1965 where acquired by
Private Collection
NOTE
We are grateful to Drs. P.A. Terwen for pointing out this is the interior of the Old Church in Delft specifically.
Hendrick van Vliet first studied with his uncle the portrait painter Willem van Vliet, and received further instruction from Michiel van Mierevelt. By 1632 he was a member of the painter’s guild in Delft. Prior to 1650 only portraits, as well as one biblical scene, and a landscape are known by the artist. It would not be until around 1651 that Van Vliet discovered his true métier in the painting of Gothic church interiors. Although his scenes were never imaginary, but based on the church interiors of Leiden, Delft, Gouda, Haarlem, The Hague, and Utrecht, artistic license was employed. His formative inspiration came from the work of Gerard Houckgeest and Emanuel de Witte. He in turn influenced the work of Cornelis de Man, Anthonie de Lorme, Daniël de Blieck, Job and Gerrit Berckheyde as well as Johannes Coesermans.[1]
Works by Van Vliet were part of the permanent collections of museums in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Baltimore, Berlin, Bremen, Copenhagen, Delft, Detroit, Frankfurt, Kansas City, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Maastricht, Memphis, Moscow, New York, Ponce, Rotterdam, Schwerin, Stockholm, and Utrecht among others. A similar picture showing A Interior of the Old Church in Delft from 1660 – 1670 by Van Vliet’s hand is part of the permanent collection of the Louvre, Paris.
Our painting is a mature work, dating from the 1660’s or early 1670’s, when Van Vliet revived the Antwerp tradition of deep central recessions as the focus of these compositions. The coloration of the canvas is also typical for this period dominated by “bright cream shapes”. As depicted here, “he generally preferred a forest of columns to just a few, and he made them tall and far enough away so that their towering height can be appreciated”.[2] Due to the even distribution of light throughout, all areas of the composition are highlighted. Such details as the cracks and chips on the base of the nearest columns emphasize the reality of the scene. Van Vliet painted his own staffage employing these charming vignettes to also provide scale to the soaring grandeur of the structure. The painting shows the interior of the Old Church in Delft with the Tomb of Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromp, a mausoleum richly decorated with weapons of war and the Battle of Ter Heijde in which Tromp was killed, between the pillars in the background on the left. Behind the strolling figures and richly executed wooden choir screen in the center, which no longer is present in the Old Church today, is a sketch-like depiction of the mausoleum of Dutch Admiral Piet Hein, the naval hero who intercepted a very valuable Spanish silver fleet during the Eighty Years’ War.
[1] Biographical information taken from Walter Liedtke, “Hendrick van Vliet” in Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, volume II, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, p. 921; and “Hendrick van Vliet” on rkd.nl (RKD Explore) website.
[2] Walter Liedtke, Architectural Paintings in Delft, Davaco Publishers, Doornspijk, 1982, pp. 58, fn. 2, 61, 64, 66, 68.