Karel van Mander the Elder Meulebeke near Courtrai 1548 - 1606 Amsterdam

Reznicek suggested (loc. cit.) that this drawing must be a preparatory study by Van Mander for a painting, although no such painting is now known.  Stylistically, Professor Reznicek associated the drawing with the depictions of the Passion, in Rotterdam, and a drawing of The Preaching of St. John the Baptist, in the Albertina, Vienna.  Those drawings can be dated 1596 and 1597 respectively, indicating that this is also a late work by the artist.

The subject of this drawing is one that is rarely represented.  In the Biblical text, we read that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in his dream, and told him that the Holy Spirit had entered into Mary his wife, who would bear him a son, and that Joseph should not be angry, but should look after her.  The angel also told Joseph to name the child Jesus.  Although the subject was occasionally depicted in northern art during the seventeenth century, Reznicek noted that he had not found any earlier examples, and that it therefore seems likely that this drawing is the earliest representation of The Dream of Joseph by a Netherlandish artist.