Skip to main content
Advanced Search
The North Transept and Choir Chapel of Sint Janskerk, Utrecht
The North Transept and Choir Chapel of Sint Janskerk, Utrecht

The North Transept and Choir Chapel of Sint Janskerk, Utrecht

Pieter Jansz. Saenredam (Dutch, 1597–1665)
1655
Medium/TechniqueOil on panel
Dimensions50.6 × 40.7 cm (19 15/16 × 16 in.)
Framed: 80.6 × 71.1 cm (31 3/4 × 28 in.)
Credit LinePromised gift of Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession numberL-R 77.2021
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPaintings
Collections
Description

In 1636, Saenredam spent five months in the city of Utrecht, making careful drawings of the numerous churches there. Years later, back in his Haarlem studio, he returned to one of those drawings to create this poetic painting. Look closely, for the painting is like an elegantly constructed jigsaw puzzle. Particularly appealing is the contrast between the straight lines and right angles in the lower half of the painting and the interplay of curves in the upper half. 

 

The tiny painted inscription over the lattice-work door at the right side of the choir screen identifies the site and gives the artist’s name and the painting’s date.

ProvenanceJohannes Lodewijk Strantwijk, Amsterdam; May 10, 1780, posthumous Strantwijk sale, Amsterdam, lot 226, sold to "Wubbins," probably Jan Wubbels (dealer; d. 1791), Amsterdam. April 16, 1791, anonymous sale, Greenwood, London, probably lot 40 [see note 1]. Possibly Rev. Thomas Kerrich (b. 1748 - d. 1828), Cambridge; possibly by descent through his daughter, Frances Margaretta Kerrich Hartshorne (b. 1805 - d. 1892), to her son, Albert Hartshorne (b. 1839 - d. 1910), Bradbourne Hall, Derbyshire [see note 2]; by inheritance to his cousin, Grace Evelyn Wyatt (b. 1867 - d. 1946); to her son, Oliver Evelyn Penfold Wyatt (b. 1898 - d. 1973), Maidwell Hall; by descent through the family; December 8, 2010, anonymous (descendant of Albert Hartshorne) sale, Bonhams, London, lot 61 [see note 3], sold to Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, London and New York, in partnership with Jan Six Fine Art, Amsterdam; August 2012, sold by Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox to Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, Boston.

NOTES:
[1] The title page of the catalogue states that the paintings were "recently imported from Holland." Three paintings of the St. Janskerk in Utrecht by Saenredam are known; the other two are presently in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, and the Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

[2] Provenance is taken from information in the 2010 Bonhams auction catalogue: "probably the collection of Thomas Kerridge and thence by descent to Albert Hartshorne and thence by descent to the present owner."

[3] Sold as by the Studio of Saenredam.