Christ seated disputing with the Doctors

The present lot belongs to a probably never completed series of small etchings depicting scenes from the childhood and youth of Christ, dating from 1654, that also includes The Flight into Egypt: crossing a Brook (B.55; New Holl. 277), Christ returning from the Temple with His Parents (B. 60; New Holl. 276),The Holy Family with the Cat and the Snake (see see lot 36) and The Circumcision in the Stable (see lot 37). Here the twelve year-old Jesus amazes and enthralls the doctors and scribes in the Temple with his knowledge and eloquence. It is a deliberately sketchy composition, but therefore full of life and tension. The doubting scholars, dignitaries and priests at upper right are reminiscent of those depicted on the left side of Christ healing the Sick ('The Hundred Guilder Print'), created six years earlier (see lot 45).