The Rest on the Flight to Egypt: P.14975-R

Current Location: In storage

Titles

The Rest on the Flight to Egypt

Maker(s)

Printmaker: Bleeck, Pieter van
Painter: Werff, Adriaen van der (After)

Entities

Description

After the painting by Adriaen van der Werff (1659-1722), The Rest on the Flight to Egypt (1706; National Gallery, London, NG3909, bought in 1924), in reverse. Mary lays the sleeping Christ child gently down upon a blanket. The child clutches flower petals, some of which have fallen onto the ground. Joseph is asleep on his hands in the background to the right beneath the shade of a tree, the lower branches of which can be seen at far right. Mountains in the distance.

Notes

History note: VanSittart gave 1,485 engravings to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1879 and this mezzotint was probably included within this group. The number written in pen and ink on the verso presumably relates to Vansittart's own cataloguing system and that written in graphite to some kind of count by curators at the time of the acquisition. See also, for example, P.14973-R, P.14974-R.

Legal notes

Given by Augustus Arthur VanSittart, ?1879

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1879) by VanSittart, Augustus Arthur

Dating

17th Century#
Production date: AD 1748

Note

Mezzotint, printed in black ink. Date and monogram engraved in the margin at lower left: '1748 PVB'. Engraved in sloping script below: 'Done from one of the most capital Pictures of the Chevalier Van der Werf which was painted in / the year 1706 for the Elector Palatin, who presented it to Cardinal Ottoboni at Rome, after whose death it / was brought into England by Robert Bragge M.D., and is now in the Collection of the Rev.d D.r Newton.' Chaloner Smith mentions this mezzotint in his entry on Van Bleeck, but does not include it in his numbered list: 'Amongst his subject-pieces are a Virgin, Child, and St. Joseph, after Vanderwerf, dated 1748' (Chaloner Smith, p.1397). Inscribed on the verso in graphite: 'VanSittart Collection'. A VanSittart number, '787' written in pen and ink on the verso at upper centre and in graphite at the centre in large script: '429' (see Notes); in graphite at lower right: 'm 3'.