Art Institute of Chicago the Holy Family With Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist

c. 1615

Peter Paul Rubens
Flemish, 1577–1640

With this work, Peter Paul Rubens presented a distinctly homo take on the figures of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The Holy Family lack the halos that frequently identify them, and the developed characters wear contemporary Flemish attire. Mary's exposed chest brings to heed Jesus'southward need for physical nourishment equally the human son of God. Her cardinal placement underscores the growing veneration of this saint in the Catholic customs of the Spanish Netherlands, while her pyramidal arrangement shows Rubens's attending to the principles of Renaissance fine art. Several versions of this painting exist, suggesting that it was an admired composition for individual devotion.

Status: On View, Gallery 208
Section: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens
Title: The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist
Origin: Flanders
Date: 1610–1620
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 114.five × 91.5 cm (45 one/eight × 36 in.)
Credit Line: Major Acquisitions Fund
Reference Number: 1967.229
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John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, London, 1830, vol. 2, p. 246.
Max Rooses, 50'Oeuvre de Peter Paul Rubens, vol. 1. Antwerp, 1886, p. 301, no. 227I.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner, "Rubens' Paintings in America," Art Quarterly ix (1946), pp. 160, no. 69, fig.five.
Jan-Albert Goris and Julius Due south. Held, Rubens in America, New York, 1947, pp. 32–33, no. 46, plate 33.
Erik Larsen, P. P. Rubens, with a complete catalogue of his works in America, Antwerp: 1952, p. 217, no. 52.
Beneth A. Jones, The Bob Jones Academy Drove of Religious Paintings, Greenville, S Carolina, 1968, p. l. `
John Rowlands, Rubens Drawings and Sketches, exh. true cat., The British Museum, London, 1977, p. 67, under no. 67.
Art Establish of Chicago, 1 hundred masterpieces, Chicago, 1978, pp. 52–53, no. 15.
John D. Morse, Old Primary Paintings in Northward America, New York, 1979, p. 242.
Julius S. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens. A Critical Catalogue, Princeton, New Bailiwick of jersey, 1980, p. 645, under no. A41.
James North. Forest and Katherine C. Lee, Master Paintings in the Art Establish of Chicago, Chicago, 1988, p. 28.
Michael Jaffé, Rubens, Catalogo Completo, trans. By Germano Mulazzani, Milan, 1989, p. 219, no. 376, fig. 376.
Christiaan Schuckman, Hollstein'southward Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700, vol. 43, Lucas Vorsterman I, ed. D. de Hoop Scheffer, Roosendaal, The netherlands, 1993, p. 47, under no. 43.
Jon Margolis, "Off-the-wall lessons in history: One man's unorthodox view of the Art Found," Chicago Tribune Magazine, September 17, 1995, sick. on cover, p. 18.
Onetime Chief Paintings, Drawings and Picture Frames, auction catalogue, Christie's East, New York, November 13, 1997, under no. 48.
Andrew D. Hottle, "Commerce and Connections: Peter Paul Rubens and the Defended Print," Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 55 (2004), pp. 67-69.

Los Angeles, Los Angeles Canton Museum, Loan Exhibition of Twoscore-Three Paintings by Rubens, and Twenty-Five Paintings past Van Dyck, November 19–December 22, 1946, no. 21.
New York, Wildenstein, A Loan Exhibition of Rubens for the Benefit of the Public Teaching Association, February 20–March 31, 1951, no. 12.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, "The Holy Family in Art," Dec, 1985.

Jacques Langlier, Paris, who acquired it in iii pieces and had it conserved by the successors to Godefroid before selling it to Antoine Poullain for 24,000 fr [annotation in the copy of the Poullain sale in the Philadelphia Museum of Art; information on this and related annotations in other copies of this sale catalogue were kindly supplied by Burton Fredericksen, email of December thirteen, 2013 in curatorial file; information technology was presumably when the three vertical boards were reassembled that a narrow horizontal lath was added across the top of the panel]; Antoine Poullain, Paris; sold J. B. P. Lebrun, Paris, March xv, 1780, lot 22 for 11,000 fr. to Orsay [co-ordinate to annotated catalogue cited in a higher place and catalogue of the Orsay sale]; Comte d'Orsay, Paris, sold Basan, Paris, 14 Apr 1790, lot 65 [see likewise Rooses, 1886, p. 301]. The painting was taken to England simply remained unsold and was returned to Paris [co-ordinate to Smith 1830, p. 246, nether no. 837]. Nicolas Lerouge; Paris, offered for sale January 16, 1816, lot xix, only bought in [according to annotated sale true cat. at the Johnson Drove, Philadelphia Museum of Fine art (the proper noun Castalan or Catalan is also mentioned as the consigner, see Rooses 1886, p. 301)]; Chevalier Sebastian Erard; his estate sale, Château de la Muette, August 7, 1832, lot no. 126, for 6,020 fr. to Hope [according to catalogue of Hope sale]; William Williams Hope, Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire; sold, Hôtel des Commissaries-Priseurs, Paris, May xi, 1858, lot no. 7 for 4200 fr. [annotated catalogue at the Frick Art Reference Library]. M. Thirion, Paris; sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 10, 1907, lot 17 for 59,000 fr. to de Jonghe [according to letter of May two, 1967 from Julius Weitzner to Charles Cunningham in curatorial file, Paris; the painting has frequently been confused with the larger version on canvas formerly in the Marlborough and Butler collections, Rooses no. 227)]; S. de Jonghe, Paris (died c. 1943), who sent information technology to George Blumenthal in New York in 1938 [according to Weitzner alphabetic character cited above, noting that Blumenthal was de Jonghe's partner at Lazard Frères]; transferred on de Jonghe's death to Alavoine and Visitor for sale [letter of Julius Weitzner cited above]; sold to Julius H. Weitzner, London and New York by 1946 [he lent it to Los Angeles 1946]; given to his daughter Marjorie Weitzner Gambino, Rome, and sold on her behalf to the Art Institute, 1967.

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