Known for his paintings of boisterous genre scenes with moralizing overtones, and religious subjects set in contemporary domestic interiors, Jan Steen represents here the beguiling Bathsheba as a fashionable young woman. The Biblical source for this subject is ii Samuel 11:2–4. Through the window in the upper left, king David is seen upon a terrace, watching as an old woman delivers his love letter. The letter begins “Liefe minne…,”
(“sweet love…”).
This painting is perhaps the most subdued of the three by Steen on display. However the theatrical leitmotif, as well as its narrative on human nature and misjudgement, are ever present in all of Steen’s pictures. His works have the appearance of being casually composed, yet their careful structure is designed to lead the eye through the story. Here, the angle of Bathsheba’s hand and pointed finger leads in a straight line that extends along David’s balcony wall to the top left corner of the composition, and emphasizes that she looks not toward the letter, but to its author.
Details
- Artist Name: Jan Steen (Dutch, c.1626-1679)
- Title: Bathsheba
- Date: late 1660s
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Dimensions: 15 x 12-1/2 in. (38.1 x 31.8 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1972.09.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Possibly van Slingelandt collection, The Hague.
Marquis of Bute, London, by January 1800- still in 1938.
[Galerie Internationale, The Hague (H. Maas), 1938.]
[Firma D. Katz, Dieren, by 1938? Sold 2 August 1940 [stated to be sold under duress to];
[Goudstikker/Miedl, Amsterdam (inv. no. 5238), sold through];
[Galerie Almas, Munich, to];
Linz Collection (no. 1108), Reichskanzlei 17 October 1940. Recovered and transported to; Munich Collection Point, Munich nr. 2349 (or 2348), who returned it to the Dutch government in Dutch run nr. 15 (transport VI USFET). Returned by Dutch Government 13 November 1947 to;
[Nathan Katz (1893-ca.1950), The Hague (sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 7 December 1950, lot. 58, for ff. 480,000)].
[Cramer Oudekunst, The Hague];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Catalogue of the Collection of Paintings Lent for Exhibition by the Marquis of Bute, K.T.
- London, Bethnal Green Branch Museum, 1883 to
Jan Steen Exhibition
- London, Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, 1909 to
[on loan]
- Oberlin College, Dudley Peter Allen Art Museum, 1972-05-10 to 1973-05-08
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973-05-09 to 1974-11-26
The Expressive Body: Memory, Devotion, Desire (1400-1750)
- Norton Simon Museum, 2021-10-15 to 2022-03-07
Encountering the Dutch Likeness: Portraiture in 17th Century Holland
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-09-02 to 1996
- Gerson, Horst, The Connoisseur, fig. 12
- Buchanan, William, Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution, no. 45 p. 304
- Smith, John, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, no. 158 p. 53
- van Westrheene, T., Jan Steen: Études sur l'art en Hollande, no. 100
- Hofstede de Groot, C., A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, no. 14 p. 11
- Kirschenbaum, Barauch D., The Religious and Historical Paintings of Jan Steen, no. 14, fig. 70 pp. 49, 69, 91, 115-116, 152
- Jan Steen, no. 10
- Hoet, Gerard; and Pieter Ter Westen, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, meet derzelven pryzen Zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren Zoo in Holland, 1770, no. 16 p. 652
- Descamps, Vie des peintres flamands et hollandais, 1842, p. 211
- Waagen, Gustav, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 1854, p. 477
- Anonymous, The Athenoem, 1882, p. 905
- Richter, Catalogue of the Collection of the Marquis of Bute, 1884, no. 161
- Martin, W., L'art flamand et hollandais, 1909, p. 156
- Schmidt-Degener, F.; and H. E. van Gelder, Jan Steen: Forty Reproductions I Photogravure of the Artist's Principal Works, 1927, pp. 17-18
- Gudlaugsson, Sturla J., Iconographische Studien über die holländische Malerie und das Theater des 18 Jahrhunderts, 1938, pp. 72-73
- Braun, Karel, Alle tot nu toe bekende schilderijen van Jan Steen, 1980, no. 311 pp. 132-133
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 58
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 775 p. 337
- Ariane van Suchtelen et al, Jan Steen's Histories, 2018, fig. 17 pp. 19-21
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