Pieter Jansz Saenredam’s artistic career was largely devoted to so-called “church portraits”: images that meticulously describe ecclesiastical interiors. In this sheet, the artist’s subject is Haarlem’s Nieuwe Kerck (New Church), designed by his friend Jacob van Campen and built between 1645 and 1649. Over the course of the following decade, Saenredam returned to the church on numerous occasions, producing a series of drawings that explore the monumental building from a variety of viewpoints. In the absence of narrative details, the subject of these studies is the classically ordered and light-filled interior space of the Nieuwe Kerck itself.
Pieter Jansz Saenredam (1597–1665), Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk of Haarlem, 1650. Pen and brown ink and watercolor with red chalk over black chalk, 14 13/16 x 20 inches. Thaw Collection, 2010.108.