Church in Trier

Johannes Bosboom's 'Church in Trier' (1885) shows his range beyond Dutch Protestant church interiors — the great Romanesque cathedral of Trier (one of the oldest Christian communities in Northern Europe) provided a subject of very different architectural character from his characteristic Dutch Reformed interiors. Trier's cathedral, founded on the site of a Roman palace, had accumulated centuries of architectural modifications from the Roman period through Baroque additions, and its interior offered a combination of Romanesque mass, Gothic embellishment, and Baroque furnishing that created a richer and more complex architectural subject than the austere Dutch interiors he primarily painted.

Bosboom renders the Trier church interior with the atmospheric light handling he brought to all his church subjects, adapting his approach to the very different character of the Romanesque-Catholic interior — the warmer, more complex light of candles and colored windows, the richness of Catholic furnishing (altars, sculpture, ornament), and the massive stone construction creating an atmosphere quite different from the clear, austere quality of Dutch Reformed interiors.