Gallery Label The subject of the picture, previously identified as Tarquin and Lucretia, seems rather to show Tamar being raped by her brother, Amnon. According to II Samuel 13:1–22, Amnon, a son of David, fell in love with his sister Tamar. With a friend he conceived of a ruse whereby he feigned illness and requested that his sister attend him. When alone, he turned on her and raped her. Overcome with revulsion for what he had done, he then had her expulsed from the bedchamber. Their brother, Absalom, discovered the deed and had Amnon slain.
Provenance Nourri, Paris (his sale, Paris, February 24, 1785, no. 104, as by Eustache Le Sueur "fait dans l'école de Vouet. . . une composition de trois figures dans un intérieur enrichi d'architecture; l'on voit sur le devant une femme assise à qui un soldat presente une coupe d'une main, et tient de l'autre un poignard; 71 pouces de haut sur 57 pouces 6 lignes de large"; for 400 Livres to Folliot); private collection (until 1983; sale, Christie's, London, December 2, 1983, no. 45, as "Tarquin and Lucretia" by the circle of Simon Vouet; for £108,000 to Stair Sainty Matthiesen); [Stair Sainty Matthiesen, New York, 1983–84; sold to MMA]
References Alain Mérot. Letter to Guy Stair Sainty . April 30, 1984, considers it a work of Le Sueur's youth, painted between 1636 and 1638, at the time of his apprenticeship to Vouet.in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1984–1985 . New York, 1985, pp. 24–25, ill., considers the picture an early work of Le Sueur's, probably executed while he was still in Vouet's shop; identifies the subject as the Rape of Tamar rather than Tarquin and Lucretia, the former story being more consistent with the figures in our painting; concedes, however, that neither story can account for the raised cup and overturned urn; notes that athough we do not know the original location for which the picture was conceived, it was likely a specific room in a grand Parisian 'hôtel'.Eustache Le Sueur (1616–1655) . Paris, 1987, p.168, no. 11, ill., ascribes it to Le Sueur and suggests an early date, about 1636–38; points to the hardness of Tamar's head as evidence of another hand, possibly a fellow student in Vouet's shop; suggests this picture may be identical with one attributed to the circle of Vouet at the Nourri sale (Paris, Febuary 24, 1785, no. 104); credits Alistair Laing with the identification of the subject as the Rape of Tamar; observes that the picture is unpublished.in The Wrightsman Pictures . New York, 2005, pp. 141–43, no. 39, ill. (color).in Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977–2008 . New York, 2009, p. 34.
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