Emanuel de Witte was born in Alkmaar in 1617. According to Arnold Houbraken, De Witte studied under Evert van Aelst, a still-life painter in Delft. He became a member of the St Luke's guild in Alkmaar in 1636, in 1642 of the guild in Delft. By 1652 he was active in Amsterdam, where he commited suicide in 1692. Starting as a painter of biblical and mythological scenes, De Witte began to specialize in church interiors after 1650.