LEONARD BRAMER | KING HEROD ASKING THE SCRIBES WHERE JESUS WILL BE BORN

Baron León Janssen, Uccle, Belgium, by 1923; 

His sale, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, 26 April 1927, lot 7; 

Dr. Cornelis Johannes Karel Van Aalst (1866–1939), Huis-te-Hoevelaken, Holland;

Thence by descent to his son, Dr. N.J. van Aalst;

His sale, London, Christie's, 1 April 1960, lot 12, for 200 Guineas to Engell;

With Dr. J. Schlichte Bergen, Amsterdam;

From whom acquired in 1986.

W. Martin, Catalogue Collection Baron L. Janssen, Brussels 1923, cat. no. 7, reproduced;

H. Wichmann, Leonaert Bramer. Sein Leben und seine Kunst, Leipzig 1923, pp. 34 and 116–17, cat. no. 95, reproduced pl. XI;

J.W. von Moltke, Dutch and Flemish Old Masters in the Collection of Dr. C.J.K. van Aalst, Verona 1939, p. 82, reproduced fig. XIX;

J. ten Brink Goldsmith (ed.), Leonaert Bramer 1596–1674, Ingenious Painter and Draughtsman in Rome and Delft, exh. cat., Delft 1994, p. 162, cat. no. 43, reproduced;

A. Blankert et al., Jezus in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat., Zwolle and Rotterdam 2000, p. 68, reproduced in colour;

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M. J. Bok et al., At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 113, cat. no. 116, reproduced in colour;

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 4, Historien und Allegorien, Münster/Hamburg/London 2010, pp. 70–73, cat. no. 5, reproduced in colour.

Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Leonaert Bramer 1596–1674, Ingenious Painter and Draughtsman in Rome and Delft, 9 September – 13 November 1994, no. 43; 

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, Jezus in de Gouden Eeuw, 9 September 2000 – 7 January 2001, unnumbered;

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, no. 116. 

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

Leonaert Bramer was born in Delft and began travelling through Europe aged 18. He journeyed to France and down through Italy to reach Rome in 1619, where he lived until 1625. While there, Bramer was greatly influenced by the Caraveggesque painters and particularly Adam Elsheimer, a German artist also working in Rome. Bramer was inspired by Elsheimer’s night scenes and specialised in these himself, earning him the nickname ‘Leonardo delle Notti’.

This predilection for dark settings illuminated dramatically with candlelight is exemplified in the present work, where chiaroscuro adds significantly to the drama of the scene. The diminutive figures in cavernous surroundings are also typical of Bramer’s œuvre.

Bramer favoured mythological, historical and biblical subjects, as in the present painting, which has been interpreted both as a depiction of King Herod asking the Scribes where Jesus will be born (Mathew 2:3-5) and Saphan reading the book of Law aloud to Josiah (2 Kings 22:8-10), a scene that Bramer painted several times. 

Dr. Cornelis Johannes Karel Van Aalst (see Provenance) was a banker and president-director of Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij NV. He owned a considerable and important collection of Dutch paintings, many of which were sold in 1960 (see Provenance), including Rembrandt's Juno, today in the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.1

1 https://hammer.ucla.edu/collections/armand-hammer-collection/#gallery_5f31d8fd0fd4d019a701bd74687760cf32d0e363