Jan van Noordt
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Oil on canvas (relined). 65.6 x 58 cm.
Based on the Biblical text and pictorial tradition, Jan van Noordt has depicted his "Adoration of the Shepherds" at night. He places the Holy Family beside a stable that opens to the right. The Virgin holds up a candle to illuminate the infant Jesus. A bundle of straw lying on the ground skilfully catches the light. The shepherds form a group in the centre, dominated by a shepherd in the foreground. Seen from the side, this shepherd is kneeling to the left towards the infant Jesus and Mary's lap.
There is a privately owned drawing of the figure of the kneeling shepherd (de Witt, p. 193), which can be linked to a number of paintings that suggest our picture was painted around 1660.
Jan van Noordt was 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 analysed van Noordt's complex and multifaceted oeuvre and published his conclusions in a fundamental monograph in 2007.
Provenance
Probably Jan van de Capelle Collection, circa 1680 - 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 (possibly identical), - Cornelius Hofstede de Groot: Joan van Noord, in: Oud Holland 1892, p. 216, nr. 2. - David A. de Witt: Jan van Noordt. Painter of History and Portraits in Amsterdam, Montreal 2007, p. 104/5, no. 9.