A darkened church interior with elegant figures

Anthonie De Lorme established his reputation as a painter of imaginary, often candlelit, interiors inspired by his teacher Jan van Vucht and Bartolomeus van Bassen. Likely born in Doornik around 1610, he is first recorded in Rotterdam in 1627, when he acted as a witness for Van Vucht. De Lorme married in the city in 1647 and died there in 1673. His earliest known picture dates from 1639 and shows a church interior that is derived from, although not identical to, the St. Laurenskerk in Rotterdam. Throughout the 1640s he painted only imaginary church interiors such as the present painting, which is particularly characteristic for this period as it is a night scene. Around 1652 de Lorme painted his first real view of the interior of the St. Laurenskerk and thereafter the majority of his oeuvre consists of paintings of that church.

De Lorme employed the design for the present church interior on several occasions, including the 1642 painting in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, and one dated 1645 that sold at Sotheby's, London, 3 January 1997, lot 90 (£106,000). The 1935 sale catalogue attributed the staffage to Anthonie Palamedesz. (Delft 1601-1673 Amsterdam), noting that a preparatory oil sketch for his figures is in the Galleria Nazionale, Rome.

We are grateful to Ellis Dullaart of the RKD in The Hague for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.