Working in Antwerp, the commercial center of the Spanish Netherlands, Jordaens catered to an international audience with Catholic devotional images such as this one, centered on the figure of the Virgin Mary. His earthy evocation of flesh influenced many artists, and his work was collected by both Vermeer and the court at The Hague. Despite his production of Catholic devotional images, Jordaens was taken after his death over the border into the Dutch Republic for a Protestant burial.
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Credit Line:Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876-1967), 1967
Object Number:67.187.76
Inscription: Signed and dated (top left): J.JOR[DAENS] Fe / 1616
?marquise du Blaisel (until 1850; sale, Laneuville, Paris, March 28, 1850, no. 16, as "Sainte Famille. Très beau tableau digne de Rubens."); ?[Sedelmeyer, Paris]; John Wanamaker, Philadelphia (by 1904–probably until d. 1934; cat., 1904, no. 235); [Mortimer Brandt, New York, until 1940]; Adelaide Milton de Groot, New York (1940–d. 1967)
New York. Mortimer Brandt Gallery. "Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678)," February 17–March 16, 1940, no. 1.
Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Jacob Jordaens, 1593–1678," November 29, 1968–January 5, 1969, no. 10.
Athens. National Gallery Alexandros Soutzos Museum. "From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," December 13, 1992–April 11, 1993, no. 10.
Antwerp. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. "Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678)," March 27–June 27, 1993, no. A7.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met," October 16, 2018–October 4, 2020, no catalogue.
"Buitenland: Vereenigde Staten." Opregte Haarlemse Courant 214 (September 12, 1892), p. 5, as "kind Jezus" (Child Jesus).
E. C. Siter. Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures by the Old Masters & of the Early English Schools & Mihály Munkácsy, Compiled from the Latest Biographies Encyclopedia & Museum Catalogue by E. C. Siter. Philadelphia, [1904], p. 107, no. 235, pl. 178, as from the collection of the marquis du Blaisel; reproduces it in its overpainted state.
Julius S. Held. Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678). Exh. cat., Mortimer Brandt Gallery. New York, 1940, unpaginated, no. 1, ill. (frontispiece).
Julius S. Held. "Unknown Paintings by Jordaens in America." Parnassus 11 (March 1940), pp. 27–29, ill. p. 26.
"A Jordaens Exhibition in New York." Burlington Magazine 76 (March 1940), p. 100, pl. B
.
"Jordaens, Dutch Eclectic, Seen in New York." Art Digest 14 (March 1, 1940), p. 6, ill.
Julius S. Held. "Jordaens' Portraits of his Family—I." Art Bulletin 22 (March 1940), p. 75.
Harry B. Wehle. "The de Groot Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 6 (June 1948), pp. 264, 266, ill.
Leo van Puyvelde. Jordaens. Paris, 1953, pp. 27, 91, 173 n. 30, p. 187, pl. 13.
R[oger].-A. d'Hulst. "Jacob Jordaens, schets van een chronologie zijner werken onstaan vóór 1618." Gentse bijdragen tot de kunstgeschiedenis 14 (1953), pp. 114–16, 118, 125, 130, 137–38, pl. 13, as Jordaens's earliest dated work.
R[oger].-A. d'Hulst. De tekeningen van Jakob Jordaens. Brussels, 1956, pp. 41–42, 45, 50, 54, 58, 70, 319, fig. 10.
Rüdiger Klessmann. "Jacob Jordaens: Die Heimkehr der Hl. Familie aus Ägypten." Berliner Museen 8 (November 1958), p. 44, fig. 3.
H[orst]. Gerson and E. H. ter Kuile. Art and Architecture in Belgium 1600 to 1800. Baltimore, [1960], p. 129.
Rüdiger Klessmann. "'The Return of the Holy Family from Egypt' by Jacob Jordaens." Bulletin of Rhode Island School of Design 48 (December 1961), p. 3.
Rüdiger Klessmann. "Nachtrag zu Jacob Jordaens." Berliner Museen 10 (January 1961), p. 21.
Rüdiger Klessmann. "Ein neues Werk des Johann Liss in der Berliner Gemäldegalerie." Nordelbingen 34 (1964), p. 85, fig. 3.
L[eo]. v. P[uyvelde]. Le siècle de Rubens. Exh. cat., Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Brussels, 1965, p. 116, under no. 123.
Roger-A. d'Hulst. Tekeningen van Jacob Jordaens, 1593–1678. Exh. cat., Rubenshuis. Antwerp, 1966, p. 13.
Michael Jaffé. Jacob Jordaens, 1593–1678. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada. Ottawa, [1968], pp. 38, 41, 49, 67, 75–76, 144, no. 10, ill. p. 256, tentatively identifies it with the Adoration formerly belonging to Rubens, and listed in his inventory as no. 266 [but see Notes].
Michael Jaffé. "The Robust Virtuosity of Jordaens." Apollo 88 (November 1968), pp. 364, 366, 370, fig. 1.
Julius S. Held. "Jordaens at Ottawa." Burlington Magazine 111 (May 1969), p. 271.
Joseph Philippe. "Nouvelles découvertes sur Jordaens." Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (1970), p. 228 n. 58.
Justus Müller Hofstede. "Abraham Janssens: Zur Problematik des flämischen Caravaggismus." Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 13 (1971), pp. 278–79, 286, 288, 291 n. 288, pp. 292, 302–3, fig. 37.
R[oger].-A. d'Hulst. Jordaens Drawings. London, 1974, vol. 1, p. 68.
V. Denis. La peinture flamande 15e–16e–17e siècles. Brussels, 1976, p. 203.
Jean Lacambre inLe Siècle de Rubens dans les collections publiques françaises. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 1977, p. 103, under no. 64.
Marc Vandenven, ed. Jordaens in Belgisch bezit. Exh. cat., Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen. [Antwerp], 1978, p. 29, under no. 5.
Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 313, 320, 324, fig. 575.
Julius S. Held. The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens. Princeton, 1980, vol. 1, p. 450, under no. 324.
R[oger].-A. d'Hulst. Jacob Jordaens. Ithaca, N.Y., 1982, pp. 28, 44, 66, 71, 124, 330 n. 30, fig. 38.
Walter A. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 121–26, fig. 24 (radiograph); vol. 2, colorpl. IX, pl. 52, discusses it in relation to similar compositions from about 1615–18.
Walter A. Liedtke. "Flemish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum—II: Van Dyck, Jordaens, Brouwer, and Others." Tableau 6 (February 15, 1984), pp. 30–31, fig. 10 (color).
Introduction by Walter A. Liedtke inFlemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Antwerp, 1992, pp. 25, 217–19, no. 67, ill. in color (overall and detail).
Deborah Krohn et al. inFrom El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., National Gallery Alexandros Soutzos Museum. Athens, 1992, p. 306, no. 10, ill. (color) [catalogue section unpaginated].
Rüdiger Klessmann inVon Bruegel bis Rubens: Das goldene Jahrhundert der flämischen Malerei. Exh. cat., Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Cologne, 1992, p. 154.
Christiane Stukenbrock inVon Bruegel bis Rubens: Das goldene Jahrhundert der flämischen Malerei. Exh. cat., Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Cologne, 1992, p. 334, as "Anbetung der Hl. Drei Könige".
Hella Robels inVon Bruegel bis Rubens: Das goldene Jahrhundert der flämischen Malerei. Exh. cat., Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Cologne, 1992, pp. 531–32, under no. 130.5.
Peter C. Sutton. The Age of Rubens. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1993, p. 49, fig. 45.
R[oger].-A. d'Hulst et al. inJacob Jordaens (1593–1678). Ed. Hans Devisscher and Nora de Poorter. Exh. cat., Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. Vol. 1, "Paintings and Tapestries."Brussels, 1993, pp. 7, 23, 58–61, no. A7, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Ben Broos. Intimacies & Intrigues: History Painting in the Mauritshuis. The Hague, 1993, pp. 155, 157, fig. 2.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 285, ill., as "The Holy Family with Shepherds".
Hans Vlieghe inLa pittura nei Paesi Bassi. Ed. Bert W. Meijer. Milan, 1997, vol. 2, pp. 309, 403 n. 65.
Dennis P. Weller. Sinners & Saints, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and His Dutch and Flemish Followers. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. Raleigh, 1998, p. 158, fig. 2, under no. 27.
Kristi Nelson. Jacob Jordaens: Design for Tapestry. [Turnhout, Belgium], 1998, p. 4.
Fiona Healy inA House of Art: Rubens as Collector. Exh. cat., Rubenshuis, Antwerp. Schoten, Belgium, 2004, pp. 188, 190, fig. 36a.
Görel Cavalli-Björkman inRubens & Van Dyck. Exh. cat., Nationalmuseum. Stockholm, [2010], p. 264, under no. 73.
Walter Liedtke. "Frans Hals: Style and Substance." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 69 (Summer 2011), p. 17, fig. 15 (color).
Karolien de Clippel and Filip Vermeylen inFrans Hals: Eye to Eye with Rembrandt, Rubens, and Titian. Exh. cat., Frans Hals Museum. Haarlem, 2013, fig. 6 (color).
Alexis Merle du Bourg inJordaens. Ed. Alexis Merle du Bourg. Exh. cat., Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris. Paris, 2013, pp. 13, 111.
Nico Van Hout inRubens: The Power of Transformation. Exh. cat., Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Munich, 2017, pp. 72, 77 n. 14.
Martin Gammon. Deaccessioning and Its Discontents: A Critical History. Cambridge, Mass., 2018, p. 215.
Erik Eising inFrans Hals: Master of the Fleeting Moment. Ed. Dagmar Hirschfelder, Katja Kleinert, and Erik Eising. Exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin, 2024, p. 226, fig. 1 (color).
The date of 1616 is the earliest date found on any work by Jordaens. The entire figure of the shepherd was once painted over, but there is no reason to doubt the signature and date. Radiography (see Liedtke 1984, fig. 24) reveals that, initially, Jordaens included the head of an old woman to the right of the Virgin. This clarifies the relationship of our painting to similar compositions from about 1615–18. Some of these must be earlier than the Museum's picture (see Liedtke 1984).
Although Michael Jaffé (1968) identifies this picture with the Adoration formerly belonging to Rubens and listed in his inventory as no. 266, that picture was on canvas and The Met's work was originally on wood, later transferred to canvas.
After Jacob Jordaens (Flemish, Antwerp 1593–1678 Antwerp)
17th century
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