Description

In this dynamic drawing, Utrecht-based Abraham Bloemaert created a thoughtful compositional study for this scene from the early life of Christ. Bloemaert described the Virgin and the attendant figures in the foreground with expressive gestures—fingers spread and arms outstretched into space as if in an attempt to stop the circumcision taking place before them. A mass of faintly sketched figures in the background suggests how Bloemaert might have realized the composition in his next phase of execution.

Provenance

Dr. Carl Robert Rudolf (1884–1974), London [stamp (Lugt 2811b) twice, on verso of secondary support and recto lower right of mount, in black]. Paul Drey, London, 1971. Sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 23, 2008, lot 137, to Bob P. Haboldt & Co., New York and Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd.; sold by Jean-Luc Baroni, London, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, Mass., July 6, 2012; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

The Circumcision

Abraham Bloemaert

1601

Accession Number

215326

Medium

Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, heightened with white opaque watercolor, over black chalk, on buff laid paper, laid down on buff laid card

Dimensions

Primary support: 27.7 × 27.6 cm (10 15/16 × 10 7/8 in.); Secondary support: 28.2 × 28.2 cm (11 1/8 × 11 1/8 in.)

Classification

pen and ink drawings

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection