Lot 9: The interior of a church with elegant figures

Gerard Houckgeest (The Hague 1600-1661 Bergen op Zoom)
The interior of a church with elegant figures
signed and dated 'G. Houckgeest 1640' (lower right)
oil on panel
49.7 x 38.6 cm.

Amsterdam, Jacques Goudstikker Gallery, Collectie Goudstikker , October 1917, no. 25.
Amsterdam, Jacques Goudstikker Gallery, Collectie Goudstikker , November 1917, no. 23.
Amsterdam, Arti et Amicitae, Catalogus van de Collectie Goudstikker , November-December 1918, no. 30.
Copenhagen, Udstilling af aeldre og nyere Hollandsk malerkunst , 1922, no. 60. Rotterdam, Boijmans van Beuningen, Vermeer: Oorsprong en invloed, Fabritius, de Hooch, de Witte , 9 July-9 October 1935, p. 26, no. 58, illustrated.
The Hague, Picture Gallery of Prince William V, on loan.

with Asscher & Koetser, London.
with Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1920.
Looted by the Nazi authorities, July 1940.
Recovered by the Allies, 1945.
in the custody of the Dutch Government.
Restituted in February 2006 to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €5,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €5,001 and €400,000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €400,000. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.
Houckgeest is thought to have trained with Bartholomeus van Bassen (c. 1590-1652). He entered the painters' guild in The Hague in 1625 but by 1635, the year of his earliest known dated work, he had moved to Delft where he married the following year. His early output, which consists entirely of imaginary architectural views, is characterised by his use of a somewhat brownish tonality and deployment of small figures relative to the architectural space. The present composition is a good example of this.

The present picture is a turning point in Houckgeest's production and it shows the artist freeing himself from Van Bassen's influence. Houckgeest's architectural elements provides a more intimate atmosphere whereas Van Bassen used to depict monumental Renaissance-type church interiors with a particularly centralized spatial treatment. In the present composition, the vanishing point comes together in the altarpiece representing a Pietà . The composition is intentionally off-center, and open-ended on the left side, creating a greater sense of space in the depiction of the church interior.

A similar composition by Houckgeest, signed and dated 1638, was with Hôtel Georges V, Paris, December 1995, lot 51. Here Houckgeest re-used the overall architectural space but made changes in some of the details, for instance, the position of the gentleman and the lady depicted in the middle of the scene has been inverted. The dog's position is also slightly altered, while the upper part of the altarpiece on the left side of the composition is different and in the background the tomb has been replaced by an organ. In both pictures the architectural elements of the church have been depicted with a warm brown-yellow palette.