JACOB LOIS | THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 2 February 1951, lot 162, for £14 to Bell;

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 4 October 1996, lot 108, when acquired.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, Jezus in de Gouden Eeuw, 9 September 2000 – 7 January 2001, unnumbered;

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, cat. no. 53.

L. van der Zeeuw, Rotterdamse Meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat., Zwolle 1994, p. 287, reproduced;

A. Blankert et al., Jezus in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat., Zwolle and Rotterdam 2000, pp. 78–79, reproduced in colour;

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M. J. Bok et al., At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 71, cat. no. 53, reproduced in colour;

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 4, Historien und Allegorien, Münster/Hamburg/London 2010, pp. 214–19, cat. no. 33, reproduced in colour.

Jacob Lois appears to have been a man of diverse talents. Apparently a lifelong citizen of Rotterdam, he is known to have been a merchant, painter, draughtsman, engraver, architect, historian, collector, and he co-owned two dying business with his brother, Samuel, as well as holding a number of public offices, including captain of the local militia.

Lois is known through very few paintings, two of which - including the present lot - are in the SØR Rusche Collection (the other painting, Portrait of a woman with a book, will be offered in September). A pair of portraits, signed and dated 1645, in which the sitters are dressed as a shepherd and shepherdess, are in the Schielandshuis, Rotterdam.[1]

The reverse of this panel is stamped twice with the mark of a panel maker who is yet to be identified. He is known to have been active in the Rotterdam and Delft areas during the second and third quarters of the 17th century. The same mark has been found on panels used by Anthonie Palamedesz. (1601-73)[2], Herman Saftleven (1601-81),[3] and on the reverse of the marine painting by Justus de Verwer, offered in this sale (lot 20).

1 https://museumrotterdam.nl/collectie/item/66439-A-B?itemReturnStart=0&objectrow=1&itemReturnSearch=lois

2 Sale, Phillips, London, 8 December 1992, lot 116.

3 National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, inv. no. 1508; https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/5394/christ-preaching-boat?search=1508&search_set_offset=17