PIETER JANSZ. SAENREDAM
1597-1665
105 The Choir and North
Ambulatory of the Church of
Saint Bavo, Haarlem
Red chalk, graphite, pen and brown ink, and watercolor,
incised for transfer (recto); rubbed with black chalk for
transfer (verso); H: 37.7 cm (i4I3/i6 in.); W: 39.3 cm
(i5^7 /ioin.)
88.GC.i3i (SEE PLATE 13)
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: Inscribed Dit aldus geteijck-
ent in November I intjaer 1634, is een gesicht inde I grootte
kerck binnen Haerlem I ende is even dus groot geschildert, Dit
volleijndt ofte ghedaen met schilderen Den 15. October 1635 on
right-hand pillar in brown ink by the artist.
PROVENANCE: Jonkheer J. P. Six (sale, Amsterdam,
Frederik Muller, October 16-18, 1928, lot 448); Frits
Lugt, The Hague; Jonkheer W. Six van Wimmenum,
Laren (sale, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, November, 1988,
lot 69).
EXHIBITIONS: Catalogue Raisonné van de Werken van Pie-
terjansz. Saenredam Uitgegeven ter Gelegenheid van de Ten-
toonstelling Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, Centraal Museum,
Utrecht, September-December 1961, no. 37 (catalogue
by H.J. de Smedt); Saenredam 1597-1665: Peintre des
églises, Institut Néerlandais, Paris, January-March 1970,
no. 10.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. T. A. Swillens, "Pieter Saenredam
aïs Teekenaar," Elsevier's Geillustreerd Maandschrift 90, no.
45 (1935), p. 380; idem, Pieterjanszoon Saenredam Schilder
van Haarlem 1597-1665 (Amsterdam, 1935); 2nd éd.
(Soest, 1970), pp. 37; 91 , no. 73; J. Bialostocki and M.
Walicki, Europàische Malerei in polnischen Sammlungen:
1300-1800 (Warsaw, 1957), p. 551, under no. 341; C. van
Hasselt, Rembrandt and His Century: Dutch Drawings of the
Seventeenth Century from the Collection of Frits Lugt, Institut
Néerlandais, Paris, exh. cat. (Pierpont Morgan Library,
New York, and Institut Néerlandais, Paris, 1978), pp.
147-48, n. 10 under no. 99; R. Ruurs, Saenredam: The
Art of Perspective (Amsterdam, Philadelphia, and Gron-
ingen, 1987), pp. 123, 136, no. 7; G. Schwartz and M.J.
Bok, Pieter Saenredam: The Painter and His Time (New
York, 1989), pp. 78, 112-13, I15'i^2 59> n°- 37> under no.
35 -THIS DRAWING OF NOVEMBER 1634 DATES FROM THE
beginning of Saenredam's greatest period of activity at
the church of Saint Bavo in Haarlem, which lasted until
1636. Among the most symmetrical and balanced of his
depictions of church interiors, this nearly square draw-
ing takes in a deep vista stretching from the Brewers'
chapel on the south side of the church across the side aisles
and nave and terminating in the Christmas chapel, di-
rectly opposite to the north. The left-hand column lead-
ing into the nave affords a partial view of the fifteenth-
century great organ of Saint Bavo, which Saenredam
included in a number of paintings and drawings. Known
as a construction drawing—a type of drawing he habit-
ually produced—this is a perspective rendering based on
a study done on the spot in October 1634 (Haarlem, Ge-
meentearchief inv. Stedelijke Atlas NR. 53-444). The
study bifurcates into a right-hand vista corresponding to
the present drawing and a left-hand view extending
across the transept and southern ambulatory to the
northern wall of the nave. The right-hand portion is
more heavily worked than the left-hand one, indicating
that Saenredam might have begun to think of treating the
former as an independent painting while executing the
study.
The Museum's drawing is a prime example of Saen-
redam's meticulous process of transforming a study
from life into a finely tuned, idealized spatial complex.
He appears to have begun with a series of vertical and
horizontal ruled graphite lines. Among other things,
these delineate the inner faces of the foremost side piers;
regularize relationships among the piers, middle column
capitals, organ, and set of pipes to its right; and establish
a central vertical axis along which are aligned the points
of the arches of the Brewers' and Christmas chapels and
the true vanishing point, plainly visible between the
three figures at the bottom. He then elaborately finished
the sheet in pen and ink, wash, and watercolor. Correc-
tions made during this phase include the removal of two
figures, one from in front of the column beyond the fore-
most pier on the right and the other from in front of the
column to the left of the visible figures.SAENREDAM • DUTCH SCHOOL 245