Jan Victors Amsterdam 1619 - after January 1676 Indonesia

Fabre sale, Paris, Lebrun, 6-8 January 1813, lot 39;
Michalon sale, Paris, Henry, 30 March-4 April 1818, lot 221;
Dumuy sale, Paris, Laneuville, 16 November 1820, lot 60;
Edmund Macrory, K.C., London
His sale, London, Christie's, 9 July 1904, lot 139 (titled: Isaac, Eleazer and Rebecca);
Egon Ritter von Oppolzer, Munich
By whose Estate sold, Munich, Helbing, 3 December 1906, lot 18;
Probably Ferdinand Langenberg
By whom sold, Dordrecht, Mak, 1-11 May 1939, lot 36;
Sarah Dreyfus and Armand Dreyfus, presented to the present owner in 1953.

C. Hofstede de Groot, Egon Ritter von Oppolzer.  Meine Kunst Sammlung, Munich 1906, cat. no. 18;
A. Pigler, Barockthemen. Eine Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikonographie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Budapest 1956, vol. I, p. 77;
D. Miller, Jan Victors (1619 - 1676), phD thesis, Delaware 1985, no. 53, reproduced;
V. Manuth, Ikonographische Studien zu den Historien des Alten Testaments bei Rembrandt und seiner Amsterdamer Schule. Mit einem kritischen Katalog der biblischen Gemälde des Amsterdamer malers Jan Victors, phD thesis, Berlin 1987, no. 29, reproduced; 
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. IV, Landau/Pfalz 1989, p. 2600, under no. 1739.

The present impressive canvas has been known to scholars only through photographs since its public sale in 1906. It is a good example of Victors' work, datable to the early 1650s, relating closely, both in style and composition, to a Joseph's Coat Brought to Jacob in the Warsaw Muzeum Narodwe, which is signed and dated 1649. 

While he did paint portraits and secular subjects, Victors became best known for his grandiose and eloquent portrayals of Biblical subjects, most often drawn from the Old Testament. Within the scope of the scriptures, he chose to portray multifigural and often quite esoteric episodes (his mostly Calvinist audience being much better versed in the Bible than the modern viewer). These were also selected for their didactic potential. In the case of Jacob Being Shown Joseph’s Robe it seems likely that some sort of message about filial piety is meant to be invoked. Certainly Victors own piety was notable; he gave up painting at the end of his life to become a ziekentrooster or “consoler of the sick for the Dutch East India company, even dying in the East Indies.   

Victors artistic heritage is somewhat elusive. It seems clear that he was influenced heavily by Rembrandt, and perhaps more particularly by Rembrandt’s pupils of the 1630s. In fact, Debra Miller relates Victors' anguished figure of Jacob clasping his hands heavenwards in the present composition to a similar pose in Rembrandt's drawing of Jacob Lamenting, of circa 1635 in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (see Literature below). There is also evidence in this work of the influence of the so-called 'pre-Rembrandtist' artists, and thus Victors' style here dovetails well with the prevailing artistic trends in his native city of Amsterdam at this period. 

A copy of the present painting was offered London, Sotheby's, 21 April 1993, lot 234.