Emanuel de Witte

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"Interior of a Church", by Emmanuel de Witte c. 1660

Emanuel de Witte (1617 – 1691) was a Dutch perspective painter, born in Alkmaar. He joined the Guild of St Luke in 1636. After a few years in Rotterdam he was trained by Evert van Aelst in Delft. Initially, Emanuel de Witte painted portraits as well as mythological and religious scenes. Records tell about his gambling habit.

After his move from Delft in 1651 he more and more specialized in representing church interiors. In contrast to Pieter Jansz Saenredam, who emphasized accuracy, De Witte was especially concerned with atmosphere. He painted sometimes fictional interiors and combined aspects of different churches. De Witte painted the old church in Amsterdam from almost every corner.

His works excel in composition and use of light, while the interiors are usually inhabited by churchgoers, sometimes accompanied by a dog. The created atmosphere thereby appears the real theme of each painting.

Emanuel de Witte settled in Amsterdam in 1651, where his wife died in 1655. He remarried with a 23 year old orphan, with a bad influence on his daughter. Both were condemned in 1658 for stealing from the neigbors over the roof. His pregnant wife had to leave the city for a period of eight years, the child got into custody. Lysbeth van der Plas, his wife, probably died from the plague in 1663.

Manuel got the help from several maecenas, but it did not work out well. He was shouting at his clients and at the people watching him in the church.

Emanuel de Witte committed suicide in 1691, after an argument about the rent. On a very cold evening he jumped from a bridge, but the cord broke and Manuel drowned. The corpse was found after eleven weeks, because of the freezing of the canal.