Pieter Neefs d. J., 1620 Antwerpen – 1675 Lot n° 213

INTERIOR OF THE ST. WALBURGIS CHURCH IN ANTWERP Oil on canvas. Doubled. 38.7 x 52.7 cm. Signed and dated "Peeter Neeffs 1656" to the right below the window. The painting is registered at the RKD in The Hague under number 106475. View from the transept of the church into the bare-looking high nave with rood screen, to which a higher staircase leads. The left aisle with three altars; a mass is being held in front of the central one with a priest and kneeling visitors. Open side doors on the left and right, through which the outside light enters. Numerous staffage figures in the interior of the church to emphasize the oversize of the altars and the nave. The nave and aisles are predominantly painted in beige, while a two-tone chessboard floor can be seen in the foreground, in which a few gravestones were probably set. Strict, geometrically precise depiction in fine painting, in a restrained color scheme and in the typical manner of the well-known artist. Pieter Neefs the Younger studied under his father, the famous architectural painter Pieter Neefs the Elder (around 1578 - after 1656). He specialized in architectural subjects, in particular Gothic church interiors and some dungeon interiors. His earliest surviving work dates from 1646. Provenance: Collectio Artium (since 2016). Hindman Auctions & Private Sales Chicago, September 29, 2016, lot 6. Sotheby's London, 22.2.1967, lot 6, as Pieter Neefs the Elder. Collection Stanley Gillen. Elizabeth Doyle Collection, Marco Island, Florida. Literature: B. G. Mailllet, Interieurs d'eglises 1580 - 1722, la peinture dans les ecoles du Nord, 2012, no. M-0964 as Pieter Neefs the Elder (1401501) (18) Pieter Neefs the Younger, 1620 Antwerp - 1675 THE CHURCH INTERIOR OF SAINT WALBURGA IN ANTWERP Oil on canvas. Relined. 38.7 x 52.7 cm. Signed and dated "Peeter Neeffs 1656" on the right beneath the window. Literature: B. G. Mailllet, Interieurs d'eglises 1580 - 1722, la peinture dans les ecoles du Nord, 2012, No M-0964 as Pieter Neefs the Elder.