Anthonie de Lorme

Anthonie de Lorme (Tournai 1610 or between 1600 and 1605 – Rotterdam, 1673) was a painter known for his depictions of interiors of existing or imaginary churches. Born in the Spanish Netherlands, he spent his entire career in the Dutch Republic. He regularly collaborated with Anthonie Palamedesz. and Ludolf de Jongh who painted the staffage in his interior scenes. The only old source - the Index of Painters compiled by doctor Jan Sysmus from Amsterdam between 1669 and 1678 - states that Anthonie de Lorme was a good painter of peasant fairs and of churches, and was a pupil of Jan van der Vucht. As with other artist entries in the Index, there is doubt about these remarks: firstly, because there are no known peasant fair paintings by de Lorme and it is unlikely he ever painted them in view of his known output of church interiors. Secondly, Jan van der Vucht was born in 1603, while de Lorme around 1610 or even earlier around 1605 according to some sources. This would mean the two artists were of approximately the same age, making a master-pupil relationship rather unlikely. The two artists were known to each other as de Lorme acted several times as a witness for van der Vucht, but is this does not prove a master-pupil relationship. He married in Rotterdam on 12 May 1647 to Maertje Floris van der Werf (died 1671). At the time of his marriage he lived on the Botersloot in the centre of Rotterdam. He made his will in 1649. In the will he declares he had a shop selling linen, stockings, candles, ribbons etc. Around 1652 he started to paint simple and accurate depictions of local churches populated with a few figures. This shift reflects possibly the influence of painters in nearby Delft. His church interiors of the 1650s are bathed in light and atmosphere and offer a very close-up view. He painted the Church of Saint Lawrence in Rotterdam at least 17 times. His paintings were used by the restorers of the church after World War II.

The figures in his church paintings were painted by other local painters including Anthonie Palamedesz. and Ludolf de Jongh. Notes and references