Anthonie de Lorme

Anthonie de Lorme[1] (Tournai 1610 or between 1600 and 1605 – Rotterdam, 1673)[2] was a painter known for his depictions of interiors of existing or imaginary churches.

[4] 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.

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.

The earliest dated painting known by de Lorme from 1638 (at Sotheby’s London on 17 April 1996) shows van Bassen's influence.

In his early career he mainly painted imaginary church interiors, to which he at times added architectural elements borrowed from actual buildings.

[7] Around 1652 he started to paint simple and accurate depictions of local churches populated with a few figures.

[6] In the 1660s De Lorme abandoned his realistic style for a more decorative treatment, by using the church's architectural elements to create an elegant geometric pattern rather than an objective view.