The ''Adoration of the Shepherds'' by the
Le Nain Brothers
The three Le Nain brothers were painters in 17th-century France: Antoine Le Nain (c.1600–1648), Louis Le Nain (c.1603–1648), and Mathieu Le Nain (1607–1677). They produced genre works, portraits and portrait miniatures.
Lives and work
The ...
is in the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
in London. The painting dates from about 1640, and is relatively unusual as a religious subject or
history painting
History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...
in their ''oeuvre''; they are best known for
genre painting
Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...
, especially groups of peasants. As with most of the works of Antoine (c 1600–1648), Louis (c. 1603?–1648) and Mathieu (1607–1677) Le Nain, it is not possible to establish which brother, or combination of brothers, painted it. This painting is unsigned, but when they signed their works, from 1641 to 1648, it was simply as ''Lenain''.
Description
The painting is in oil on canvas and in good condition, with minor losses; it measures . The ''
Adoration of the Shepherds'' is a very common subject in the
Nativity of Jesus in art
The Nativity of Jesus has been a major subject of Christian art since the 4th century.
The artistic depictions of the ''Nativity'' or birth of Jesus, celebrated at Christmas, are based on the narratives in the Bible, in the Gospels of Matthew a ...
, and the composition is an arrangement of the conventional components, including the
Holy Family
The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first ...
, the
ox and ass or
donkey
The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...
, angels, and three shepherds, two old and one young. One shepherd and an angel are glancing out to the viewer's left, and it has been suggested that they have seen the approach of the
Biblical Magi
The biblical Magi from Middle Persian ''moɣ''(''mard'') from Old Persian ''magu-'' 'Zoroastrian clergyman' ( or ; singular: ), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, also the Three Magi were distinguished foreigners in the G ...
, which may have been the subject of a matching painting. There are ''
pentimenti
A pentimento (plural pentimenti), in painting, is "the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over". The word is , from the verb , meaning 'to repent'.
Significance
Pentimenti may show that ...
'' showing what appears to have been the original composition: on the wall above the lefthand angel dim traces of a head of the Virgin can be seen, slightly bowed to the left matching
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
just to her right. On the donkey the trace of a curved rein can be seen, starting where the white chest meets the foreleg; the whole animal may originally have been lower.
Michael Levey
Sir Michael Vincent Levey, LVO, FBA, FRSL (8 June 1927 – 28 December 2008) was a British art historian and was the director of the National Gallery from 1973 to 1986.
Biography
Levey was born in Wimbledon, London, and grew up in Leigh-on-Sea ...
describes the treatment of the scene as "partly 'realistic' and humbly rustic and partly idealized", and the National Gallery detect the influence of
Orazio Gentileschi
Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) was an Italian painter. Born in Tuscany, he began his career in Rome, painting in a Mannerist style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other artists. After ...
, who had worked in Paris, in the figures of Mary and Joseph, and the ass.
Dates in the 1630s have been suggested, and also that the painting is by Mathieu, or Louis. Elements of the architectural setting have been compared to those in a painting by
Laurent de La Hyre
Laurent de La Hyre (; 27 February 1606 – 28 December 1656) was a French Baroque painter, born in Paris. He was a leading exponent of the neoclassical style of Parisian Atticism.
Life
La Hyre was greatly influenced by the work of Italian ...
in the
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...
dated 1638, ''Mercury confiding Bacchus to the Nymphs'' (in reverse), and the ass is very similar to that in ''The Milkmaid's Family'', also in the Hermitage, a Le Nain painting thought to date to 1641. There is an ''Adoration'' attributed to the brothers, and at least in a similar style, in the
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...
, which shares some aspects of the composition. Another, more realist, ''Adoration of the Shepherds'' in
the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
was long attributed to the Le Nains, but is now given to
Jean Michelin and dated 1659.
Provenance
As with most Le Nain paintings, the original commissioner is not known, nor whether it was intended for a church or other religious institution, or a domestic setting. It first appears in England in the 1770s. Possibly it was the painting of the subject sold at
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
7 February 1771, as by Le Nain (lot 21), realizing the good price of £42, and/or that sold on 20 March 1773, again at Christie's, this time for only £14 4s 6d (lot 85, as "Le Naine"). It was certainly at
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace (pronounced ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non-royal, non- episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, on ...
by 1777, now attributed to
Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain.
Ear ...
, in the collection of
George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough
George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, (26 January 1739 – 29 January 1817), styled Marquess of Blandford until 1758, was a British courtier, nobleman, and politician from the Spencer family. He served as Lord Chamberlain between 1762 a ...
. It remained in the Marlborough collection until the epic sales in the 1880s of the
8th Duke, when it was once again sold at Christie's on 7 August 1886 (lot 652, £52 10s), bought by a dealer. It was later bought by
Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk
Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, (27 December 184711 February 1917), styled Lord Maltravers until 1856 and Earl of Arundel and Surrey between 1856 and 1860, was a British Unionist politician and philanthropist. He served as Postmas ...
and is recorded as hanging in the "Prince's Bedroom" at
Arundel Castle
Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established during the reign of Edward the Confessor and completed by Roger de Montgomery. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War a ...
in 1902, still as a Giordano. In 1962 it was sold by
the 16th Duke to the National Gallery, as a Le Nain. It is catalogued as NG 6331, and hangs in Room 18.
[Wine, 206, whose notes suggest (n. 10) that the misattribution to Giordano may have been deliberate, to increase the market value paid by the Duke, and that Charles Davis of 147 ]New Bond Street
Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the l ...
, the dealer who bought the work in 1886, acted for the Duke of Norfolk & may have done so here, or sold it to him later (n. 4).
See also
*
''Adoration of the Shepherds'' (Poussin), another French painting, 1633-34 by
Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...
, also in the National Gallery
Notes
References
*
Blunt, Anthony
Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy.
Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...
, ''Art and Architecture in France, 1500–1700'', 2nd edn 1957, Penguin
*
Levey, Michael, ''The National Gallery Collection'', 1987, National Gallery Publications,
*Wine, Humphrey, National Gallery Catalogues (new series): ''The Seventeenth Century French Paintings'', 2001, National Gallery Publications Ltd,
External links
National Gallery page with powerful roving zoom
{{Authority control
Collections of the National Gallery, London
French paintings
Le Nain
The three Le Nain brothers were painters in 17th-century France: Antoine Le Nain (c.1600–1648), Louis Le Nain (c.1603–1648), and Mathieu Le Nain (1607–1677). They produced genre works, portraits and portrait miniatures.
Lives and work
The ...
Angels in art
Cattle in art
Donkeys in art