Saint Bartholomew

Rembrandt van Rijn

1606-1669
Saint Bartholomew
ca. 1657
Oil on canvas
48-3/8 x 39-1/4 in.

Known primarily for his portraits and landscapes, Rembrandt remained interested throughout his life in history and biblical painting. The subject of this large, dramatic painting from the artist's mature period is St. Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles. The apostle, flayed alive for his beliefs, holds in his right hand a butcher's knife, a symbol of his martyrdom. The saint's slightly unsettled pose and animated expression suggest that he is contemplating an ethical problem.

Rembrandt conveys a mood of introspection in his late works--in contrast to his earlier, more theatrical pictures--and renders light, textures, and the sense of form in space with complex schemes of loose brushwork and glazes.

Visit the Rembrandt in Southern California information site prepared by The Getty Museum.

Provenance:

Jonathan Richardson, London, sale by Mr. Cock, Covent Garden, London, March 3, 1747, lot 49, to William Fauquier [1]
William Fauquier, (London?) [2]
Dr. Robert Bragge, sale (Prestage), London, February 9, 1757, lot 48, to Sir Joshua Reynolds, London, for 26 guineas [3]
Possibly lent by Sir Joshua Reynolds to “Mr. Humphreys, King Street,” around 1770 [4]
Acquired, possibly at Paris, by Jean Charles François (Ivan Stepanovich) de Laval de la Loubrerie, Count Laval (1761–1846) (St. Petersburg), by 1790(?) [5]
By inheritance to Ekaterina Ivanovna “Katacha,” Countess Laval (1800–1854), 1846–1854
By inheritance to Elisaveta Sergeevna, Princess Trubetskaia (Trubetskoy) (1834–1918), 1854–1912
By gift to Princess Trubetskaia’s grandson, Vassili Vassilievich Davydoff (1877–unknown), by 1912
Sold to Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, by V. V. Davydoff, 1912
Possible sale to Henry Goldman by Duveen, New York, 1912 [6]
Collection Henry Goldman (d. 1937), New York, by 1912–37
“Bought from estate of Henry Goldman, deceased,” by Wildenstein, New York, December 22, 1947 [7]
Acquired by the Putnam Foundation, 1952 [8]

Provenance Notes:

[1] The confusion between the Timken “St. Bartholomew” and the Getty Museum “St. Bartholomew” is resolved convincingly by Francis Broun (Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Collection of Paintings [Doctoral dissertation, Princeton University, 1987], pp. 45–47, no. 4). It now appears clear that the painter and collector Jonathan Richardson owned the Timken piece, not the Getty painting.

[2] Though the identity of William Fauquier is uncertain, he may have been William Fauquier, London (1708–1788), who had been admitted to the Royal Society a few weeks before this sale, on January 29, 1747. Fauquier’s brother Francis (1703–1768) was colonial governor of Virginia.

[3] Price per Broun, 1987

[4] Broun, 1987

[5] The primary source regarding the Russian ownership history of the piece, including its sale to Agnew, is Alexander Davydoff (Russian Sketches: Memoirs [Hermitage Press, New Jersey, 1984], pp. 61–65, “St. Bartholomew”). This source corrects a number of inaccuracies, including the identity of the first Franco-Russian owner, the Count Laval (Broun, 1987, incorrectly suggests Anne-Adrien-Pierre de Montmorency, duc de Laval, b. 1768). The date given by Davydoff for Laval’s acquisition of “St. Bartholomew” (around 1790) corresponds well with the suggestion by Francis Broun (1987) that Reynolds had already disposed of the piece prior to his 1791 sale at Ralph’s, London.

[6] C. Hofstede de Groot (A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 8 vols. [London, 1908–27]: Vol. 6 [1916]:120, no. 169. [Reprinted Teaneck, New Jersey, 1976]) reports that Goldman purchased the painting in 1912 from Duveen in New York; other sources show that it had been purchased from V. V. Davydoff by an agent of Agnew, also in 1912, at Berlin.

[7] From Elliott W. Rowlands, Wildenstein, December 2000. The breakup of Goldman’s collection is also reported in Art News, (February, 1948), p. 38 ff.

[8] Every Picture Has a Story: Looking at History through Art (Timken Museum of Art, San Diego), October 2000–February 2001, exhibition brochure, ill. provides additional detail regarding the 19th- and 20th-century provenance of “St. Bartholomew,” including information on sale prices and the condition of the painting.

Anne T. Woolett of the J. Paul Getty Museum, who performed research on the painting in preparation for the 2005 Late Religious Portraits exhibition, supports its ownership by the 18th-century collectors, Richardson, Fauquier, and Bragge.