Interior of a cathedral
(1870-1875)

• Johannes BOSBOOM

Johannes Bosboom gravitated towards painting monuments and church interiors after training as a set painter for the theatre, including the Amsterdam Opera House. He found a niche in this genre fulfilling a demand for mementos of particular and identifiable churches and cathedrals throughout Holland. However, despite the find details he has recorded here, the identification of this small church remains elusive.

[1] The early provenance of this painting, prior to its acquisition by Sir John Day is not currently known. A couple of scenarios are likely: (1) the panel was acquired directly from the artist, or; (2) the painting was acquired by Day on the secondary art market from a dealer or another source. Frances Fowle (1993) notes that Day was one of the early customers of commercial dealer Alexander Reid (1854–1928), while The Times, in the report following the sale, stated that Day purchased a great deal from Bond Street dealer Obach & Co. Fowles, Frances, Alexander Reid in Context: Collecting and Dealing in Scotland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, vol. 1, PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993, accessed via Edinburgh Research Archive, https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/6976/1/489398_vol1.pdf and ‘Sale of Sir John Day’s Pictures’, The Times, London, 14 May 1909, p. 11. It is possible that the panel was supplied to Bosboom by Arthur Stevens (1825–99), brother of the painter Alfred, whose stamp is present on the reverse of the panel.

[2] According to the sale catalogue Day possessed two panel paintings of church interiors by Bosboom, sold as lots 2 and 3, the latter being a vertical, or portrait format. See Catalogue of the highly important collection of modern pictures and water colour drawings chiefly of the continental schools of the Right Hon. Sir John Charles Day, Christie’s, London, 13-14 May 1909, accessed via https://archive.org/stream/chieconti00chri#page/n7/mode/2up. One of these panels was purchased from the dealer Goupil & Cie in September 1881. It is not possible to determine from the Goupil stockbook entry whether it refers to the NGV painting or the other, vertical panel. Goupil & Cie. and Boussod, Valadon & Co. Records, Stockbook 10 (Livre no. 10) 1879–82, p. 183, no. 15639, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, accessed via http://hdl.handle.net/10020/900239b10.

Exhibited: Examples of the Dutch School, Guildhall, London, 1903, no. 83 as Interior of a cathedral[1]

[1] Temple, A. G., Catalogue of the Exbhition of a Selection of Works by Early & Modern Painters of the Dutch School, Guildhall Art Gallery, London, 28 April – 25 July 1903, no. 83, p. 60 accessed https://archive.org/stream/catalogueofexhib00guil_5#page/60/mode/2up.