Judah and Hira the Adullamite

Details

School of Rembrandt van Rhijn, circa 1640
Judah and Hira the Adullamite
oil on canvas
58 x 80½ in. (147.3 x 204.5 cm.)

Provenance

Mr. Hoffman, Vienna.
Anon. Sale [The Property of a Lady], Christie's, London, 17 July 1964, lot 34, as 'Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout: Jacob and Laban' (sold 850 gns.).

Literature

W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, IV, Landua/Pfalz, 1983, p. 2281, no. 9, as 'anonymes Schulwerk im Stil der 1640er Jahre'.
V. Manuth, Ikonographische Studien zu den Historien des Alten Testaments by Rembrandt und seiner frühen Amsterdamer Schule, diss. Freie Universität, Berlin, 1987, no. 62, as 'Anonymer Rembrandt-Schüler'.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

Please note that the page reference to Professor Sumowski's Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, should read as p. 2881 of volume IV.

Lot Essay

This picture shows a rarely depicted moment in the story of Judah and Thamar, when Hira the Adullamite, a friend and servant of Judah, returned with the kid that Judah had promised to his daughter-in-law, Thamar (Genesis XXXVIII:20): 'And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive [his] pledge from the woman's hand; but he found her not.'

A copy in Dresden after a lost preparatory drawing (pen and brown ink on paper, 181 x 233 mm.) and another copy, in a private collection in the U.S.A., show the same composition with Hira removing his hat, the kid under his arm, before the turbanned Judah whose left hand rests on his belt while gesturing with his right to Hira. On the right a shepherdess shears a sheep in the shade of a rise.

We are grateful to Professor Volker Manuth and Professor Werner Sumowski for their assistance in cataloguing this picture.

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