Moses Striking the Rock | Abraham Bloemaert | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signed and dated (lower right): A·Blomaert·fe / ao·1596

Gallery LabelBloemaert worked in Utrecht and taught many of the leading artists of that city during the course of his long career. This painting is characteristic of the mannerist style which he adopted in the last decade of the sixteenth century. In the middle ground at the left Moses strikes the rock to provide water for the Israelites in the desert. The subject is an Old Testament prototype for salvation through baptism, and the woman with a jug may embody the saving properties of water.

NotesA drawing in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 20.483) is probably a copy after a study by Bloemaert for the painting.

The illustration of the painting in the catalogue of the Munich exhibition of 1962 shows the standing male figure at right with overpainting of drapery. This overpainting had been removed by the time of the Poughkeepsie exhibition of 1970.

Roethlisberger [see Ref. 1993] lists three lost paintings by Bloemaert of this subject.

Provenance?Jan Vincent Coster, Amsterdam (in 1622); John Andrews (until 1832; his estate sale, Christie's, London, March 3, 1832, no. 65, for £8.8 to Tuck); Isidor Sachs, Vienna (until d. 1871; his estate sale, Posonyi, Vienna, December 17, 1872, no. 97); [H. O. Miethke, Vienna, about 1889–92]; Carl Franze, Tetschen (until 1916; posthumous sale, Lepke's, Berlin, November 7, 1916, no. 63); Prof. Curt Glaser, Berlin (by 1928–33; his anonymous sale, Internationales Kunst- und Auktions-Haus, Berlin, May 9, 1933, no. 241, to Gurlitt); [Wolfgang Gurlitt, Munich, 1933–at least 1962]; [Adolphe Stein, Paris, until 1965; sold for $8,000 to Kleinberger]; [Kleinberger, New York, 1965–66; sold to Reid]; Bagley Reid, New York (1966–72; sold to MMA)

Exhibition History

Munich. Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt. "Meister des Manierismus: Gemälde, Handzeichnungen, Druckgraphik," 1962, no. 8.

Poughkeepsie. Vassar College Art Gallery. "Dutch Mannerism: Apogee and Epilogue," April 15–June 7, 1970, no. 3.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Abraham Bloemaert, 1564–1651: Prints and Drawings," September 11–November 4, 1973, no. 1.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965–1975," December 6, 1975–March 23, 1976, unnumbered cat.

The Hague. Mauritshuis. "Great Dutch Paintings from America," September 28, 1990–January 13, 1991, no. 8.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Great Dutch Paintings from America," February 16–May 5, 1991, no. 8.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age," September 13–November 30, 1997, no. 1.

Baltimore. Walters Art Gallery. "Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age," January 11–April 5, 1998, no. 1.

London. National Gallery. "Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age," May 6–August 2, 1998, no. 1.

St. Petersburg, Fla. Museum of Fine Arts. "Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651) and His Time," January 28–April 8, 2001, no. 3.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.

References

Theodor Frimmel. Kleine Galeriestudien. 1, Bamberg, 1892, p. 120 n. 2.

[Theodor von] Fr[immel]. "Neuerwerbungen der Sammlung Matsvanszky in Wien." Blätter für Gemäldekunde 5 (May 1909), p. 67 n. **.

Gustav Delbanco. Der Maler Abraham Bloemaert (1564–1651). Strasbourg, 1928, pp. 24–25, 74, no. 8, fig. VIII 1.

Catharinus Marius Anne Alettus Lindeman Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht. De Oorsprong, Ontwikkeling en Beteekenis van het Romanisme in de Nederlandsche Schilderkunst. Utrecht, 1928, p. 233.

C. M. A. A. Lindeman. Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael. Utrecht, 1929, pp. 120, 233.

Frits Lugt. Inventaire général des dessins des écoles du nord: école hollandaise. 1, [Paris], 1929, p. 13, under no. 86.

Marilyn Aronberg Lavin. "An Attribution to Abraham Bloemaert." Oud Holland 80, no. 2 (1965), p. 125.

Marcel Röthlisberger in 14. Ausstellung. Exh. cat., Galerie Friederike Pallamar. Vienna, 1967, pp. 20–21.

Mary Lee Bennett and Agnes Mongan. Loan Exhibition: Selections from the Drawing Collection of David Daniels. Exh. cat., Minneapolis Institute of Arts. [Cambridge, Mass.?], 1968, unpaginated, under no. 5.

Lillian Hill in Dutch Mannerism: Apogee and Epilogue. Exh. cat., Vassar College Art Gallery. Poughkeepsie, 1970, pp. 18–19, no. 3, pl. 38.

Leonard J. Slatkes. "Dutch Mannerism." Art Quarterly 33, no. 4 (1970), p. 432.

Marcel Röthlisberger. Letter. June 12, 1972.

Anne Walter Lowenthal. "Wtewael's 'Moses' and Dutch Mannerism." Studies in the History of Art 6 (1974), pp. 128, 130 n. 13, p. 131, 133, fig. 5.

John Walsh Jr. "New Dutch Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 99 (May 1974), pp. 340–41, 349 nn. 1–2, fig. 1.

Anthony M. Clark in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965–1975. New York, 1975, p. 92, ill.

Anne Walter Lowenthal. "The Paintings of Joachim Anthonisz. Wtewael (1566–1638)." PhD diss., Columbia University, New York, 1975, pp. 69, 74, fig. 11.

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 276, 278, fig. 498 (color).

Larry Nichols. "Abraham Bloemaert's 'Christ and the Samaritan Woman'." Pharos 17, no. 1 (1980), p. 6, fig. 1.

Anne W. Lowenthal. Joachim Wtewael and Dutch Mannerism. Doornspijk, The Netherlands, 1986, pp. 69–70, fig. 34.

Peter C. Sutton. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986, pp. 179–80, fig. 254.

Ben Broos. Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis. The Hague, 1990, pp. 165–68, no. 8, fig. 1 (detail), ill. p. 164 (color).

Peter C. Sutton in Ben Broos. "Recent Patterns of Public and Private Collecting of Dutch Art." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis. The Hague, 1990, p. 104.

William W. Robinson. Seventeenth-Century Dutch Drawings: A Selection from the Maida and George Abrams Collection. Exh. cat., Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Lynn, Mass., 1991, p. 20 n. 3, under no. 1.

Walter Liedtke in Masterworks from the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1992, p. 95, under no. 11.

Marcel G. Roethlisberger. Abraham Bloemaert and His Sons: Paintings and Prints. Doornspijk, The Netherlands, 1993, vol. 1, pp. 22, 92–93, no. 46; vol. 2, colorpl. IV, figs. 81–85 (overall and details).

C. J. A. Wansink in The Dictionary of Art. 4, New York, 1996, p. 150.

Christopher Brown. Utrecht Painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. London, 1997, pp. 22–23, 70, fig. 6 (color) and frontispiece (color detail).

Gero Seelig in Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Baltimore, 1997, pp. 132–35, 271–72, 408, no. 1, ill. (color).

Joaneath A. Spicer in Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Baltimore, 1997, p. 24.

Peter C. Sutton in Dutch Classicism in Seventeenth-Century Painting. Exh. cat., Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Rotterdam, 1999, p. 124, under no. 15.

Marcel G. Roethlisberger. "Abraham Bloemaert: Recent Additions to His Paintings." Artibus et Historiae 21, no. 41 (2000), pp. 160–61, fig. 11.

Marcel G. Roethlisberger and Sally Metzler et al. Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651) and His Time. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts. St. Petersburg, Fla., 2001, pp. 14, 16–17, 19, 30–31, 33, 53, 56, no. 3, ill. p. 38 (color).

Jaap Bolten. Abraham Bloemaert, c. 1565–1651: The Drawings. [The Netherlands], 2007, vol. 1, pp. 29, 31.

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. x, 42–44, no. 9, colorpl. 9.

Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), pp. 59, 67, fig. 68 (color).

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