This painting dates from the last year of the artist’s life, and the visit to Diksmuide is recorded in a letter written by the artist on the 25th August 1861, to his daughter, Christine Bicknel, from Bruges: ‘early on Friday morning we left for Dixmunde some 20 miles from here, a church which is rendered interesting by one of the most gorgeous and beautiful (screens) even to be found in this country’. The painting is of particular interest as the Church itself was completely destroyed during the First World War, and subsequently rebuilt.