The Adoration of the Shepherds

Prints and Drawings

late 1650s

Gerrit van Battem
Dutch, c. 1636-1684

By preparing his paper with a dark-brown wash to which a white oil-based pigment was added, Gerrit van Battem achieved the strong and meaningful effect of light-dark contrast. In this Adoration scene Battem emphasized the wonder of the shepherds who come to greet the Christ child. Despite the scene’s nocturnal setting, so dark that the cow’s head in the background is barely visible, the divinity of the Christ child shines with an abundant brightness that causes the shepherds to raise their hands in amazement.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Gerrit van Battem
Title: The Adoration of the Shepherds
Place: Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1655–1659
Medium: White and gray opaque watercolor and black ink on cream laid paper prepared with brown wash
Inscriptions: Signed recto, lower right, in opaque white watercolor: "Battem"; lower left on mount, in graphite: "N 144"
Dimensions: 19.5 × 22.8 cm (7 11/16 × 9 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.895
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/185815/manifest.json

Keith Andrews, “‘Ein Rotterdamer Maler und Radierer geringer Ordnung’: On Some Gouaches by Gerrit van Battem,” in Essays in Northern European Art Presented to Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann on His Sixtieth Birthday (Davaco, 1983), p. 25.
H. Verbeek, “Gerrit Battem: Constrijck Schilder, 1636–1684” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Leiden, 1983), p. 23, cat. Hb 3.

Amsterdam, Rembrandthuis, Kleur en Raffinement: Tekeningen uit de Unicorno collectie, Mar. 19–May 29, 1994, p. 62–63, cat. 19 (ill.); also Dordrechts Museum, Oct. 22, 1994–Jan. 15, 1995.
Art Institute of Chicago, Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, June 3–July 30, 2006, p. 49, cat. 22(ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, Mar. 15–June 15, 2014, no cat.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Rubens, Rembrandt, and Drawing in the Golden Age”, September 28, 2019 - January 5, 2020, pp. 33 (ill.), 43, 288, 328, cat. 6, cat. by Victoria Sancho Lobis, et. al.

Possibly Louis Fabritius Dubourg (1693–1775), Amsterdam; sold, Amsterdam, Jan. 15, 1776, lot 82; Van den Brande (possibly Johan Pieter van den Brande (1707–1758)), Middelburg; by descent to E. C. Baron van Pallandt, Haarlem; sold, Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, Sept. 26, 1972, lot 275, to Mr. Saam Nijstad (1922–2011) and Mrs. Lily Nijstad-Einhorn, The Netherlands; sold, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, May 19, 2004, lot 111, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, Mass.; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.