Oil on panel.
Barely legible signed lower left. 29 x 36,5 cm (11,4 x 14,3 in).
With old label on verso.

We are grateful to Dr. Jan Kosten, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, for his kind help in cataloguing this lot.

PROVENANCE: Christie's London, 12 June 1935, lot 97.
Rasmussen, Copenhagen, 6/7 November 1979, lot 29.
Private collection South Germany.

The scene from the Old Testament, an episode from the story of Jacob, was taken from the Book of Genesis. Arnold Houbraken, who gained particular fame for his art-theoretic writing 'De groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen' from 1718, depicts the very moment in this scene in which Rahel proposes her sister Lea to trade the mandrakes her son Ruben had gathered for a night with Jacob. Of both the women married with Jacob, Rahel, whom he prefers, hopes to fulfil her husbands wish for a child by eating the root. Within visual arts, this high-quality work makes for a rare example of an exceptional artistic realization of a biblical scene. [CM].