Interior of the Oude Kerk, Delft, with the Pulpit of 1548
by HOUCKGEEST, Gerard, Oil on panel, 49 x 41 cm
In this scene set around the pulpit in the Oude Kerks’s nave, Houckgeest departs from his main interest in the works of 1650-51 which are concerned with the Delft churches themselves and their most important tomb monuments. Here the principal points of interest include the casual encounter of a man and woman in the foreground, the illusionistic curtain and wood frame; the picturesque sunlight streaming through crystalline air; the coral colour of the column bases, of the brick arches in the transept, and of figures in the stained-glass.
The painting is signed in monogram and dated centre bottom on the fictive frame, in foreshortening: GH 165(1).