Saint Joseph with the Christ Child

Previously associated with Valdés Leal, this sheet is in fact a characteristic drawing by the little-known Jerónimo de Bobadilla. He is thought to have trained in the workshop of Francisco de Zurbarán around 1638-40 and is known to have supported the Academy of Seville financially in 1667 (J. Hoffmann-Samland, in The Spanish Gesture. Drawings from Murillo to Goya in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, exhib. cat., Meadows Museum, Dallas and elsewhere, 2014-15, p. 114). This sheet can be related to two drawings by the artist in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, of which one is signed and dated 1685, both showing Saint Joseph with the Christ Child (inv. 38489 and 38490; ibid., pp. 114-7, 188, nos. 4 and 5, ill.). The treatment of the landscape, the rendering of the figures and their halos and aureoles are particularly close to those in the present sheet.

We are very grateful to Benito Navarrete Prieto for suggesting the attribution to Bobadilla and for his assistance in cataloguing this drawing.