This shows the view from the interior (south transept looking towards west) of the St Laurens or Grote Kerk in Alkmaar, which Bosboom painted on numerous occasions. Bosboom’s wife was from Alkmaar. He met her in 1846 and they married in 1851. This picture was owned by Timon Henricus Blom Coster (1817-1904), an art collector and physician. Coster was born in Alkmaar and may have acquired the picture because of this association. He also owned works by Anton Mauve, Jacob and Willem Maris, Charles-François Daubigny and Jules Dupré.