Jan van Noordt The Adoration of the Shepherds Oil... Lot 1036

Jan van Noordt The Adoration of the Shepherds Oil on canvas (relined). 65.6 x 58 cm. Provenance Probably Jan van de Capelle collection, c. 1680 - Auction Sotheby's, London, 12.12.1002, lot 178 - Dutch private collection. Literature Abraham Bredius: De schilder Johannes van de Capelle, in: Oud Holland, 1082 10: 26-40, p. 34 (probably identical to this painting). - Cornelius Hofstede de Groot: Joan van Noord, in: Oud Holland 1892, p. 216, no. 2 - David A. de Witt: Jan van Noordt. Painter of History and Portraits in Amsterdam, Montreal 2007, p. 104/5, no. 9. Following the biblical text and pictorial tradition, Jan van Noordt placed his "Adoration of the Shepherds" at night. He places the Holy Family by a shed that opens to the right. The Virgin holds up a candle to illuminate the infant Jesus. A bundle of straw lies on the ground and cleverly catches the light. The shepherds form a group in the center, dominated by a shepherd in the foreground. Seen from the side, the shepherd is kneeling to the left towards the baby Jesus and Mary's womb. There is a privately owned drawing of the figure of the kneeling shepherd (de Witt, p. 193), which can be linked to several paintings and suggests that our painting was created around 1660. Jan van Noordt is one of the Dutch painters of the Golden Age who never achieved the fame and recognition they deserved. Werner Sumowski, the doyen of the Rembrandt school, wrote as late as 1986: "The oeuvre of Jan van Noordt is one of the most urgent desiderata of art historical research". David A. de Witte subsequently studied van Noordt's complex and multifaceted oeuvre and published his findings in a fundamental monograph in 2007.