The Circumcision

Prints and Drawings

1601

Abraham Bloemaert
Dutch, 1566-1651

In this dynamic drawing, Utrecht-based Abraham Bloemaert created a thoughtful compositional study for this scene from the early life of Christ. Bloemaert described the Virgin and the attendant figures in the foreground with expressive gestures—fingers spread and arms outstretched into space as if in an attempt to stop the circumcision taking place before them. A mass of faintly sketched figures in the background suggests how Bloemaert might have realized the composition in his next phase of execution.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Abraham Bloemaert
Title: The Circumcision
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.: 1601
Medium: Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, heightened with white opaque watercolor, over black chalk, on buff laid paper, laid down on buff laid card
Inscriptions: Signed recto, lower left, in brown ink: "A Bloem: fe: 1601" [date may be added at a later time according to Bolten]
Dimensions: Primary support: 27.7 × 27.6 cm (10 15/16 × 10 7/8 in.); Secondary support: 28.2 × 28.2 cm (11 1/8 × 11 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.897
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/215326/manifest.json

Marcel G. Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemaert and his Sons, Paintings and Prints (Davaco: Ghent, 1993), 2 vols. 1:94, under no. 48, vol. I, p. 94 and cat. No. D7, p. 422, reproduced vol. II, fig.108.
J. Bolten, Abraham Bloemaert, c. 1565–1651: The Drawings, 2 vols. (Leiden: J. Bolten, 2007), vol I: p. 56, no.112, vol II: p. 63 (ill.).
Bob Haboldt, ed., Singular Vision: Haboldt & Co.’s Old Master Paintings and Drawings Since 1983 (Amsterdam, New York, Paris: Haboldt & Co., 2012), p. 66 (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. 156-58, 160 (ill.), 280, 289, cat. 54, cat. by Victoria Sancho Lobis, et. al.

Dr. Carl Robert Rudolf (1884–1974), London [stamp (Lugt 2811b) twice, on verso of secondary support and recto lower right of mount, in black]. Paul Drey, London, 1971. Sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 23, 2008, lot 137, to Bob P. Haboldt & Co., New York and Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd.; sold by Jean-Luc Baroni, London, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, Mass., July 6, 2012; 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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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.

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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.