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Judah and Tamar
Ferdinand Bol (Dutch, 1616–1680)
1644
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
123.2 x 172.4 cm (48 1/2 x 67 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Robert Dawson Evans Collection
Accession Number17.3268
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Like his teacher Rembrandt, Bol often painted Biblical subjects with strong human drama. In this Old Testament scene, Bol relates the moment of amorous deception when Judah gives the pledge of a ring, staff, and bracelets to a veiled harlot, who is actually his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Tamar, the widow of Judah's first two sons, disguised herself as a prostitute to deceive Judah because he had not redeemed his promise to marry her to his third son. The heightened psychological state of the figures is conveyed by contrasting the anxious lust of Judah with the cool determination of Tamar.
InscriptionsLower left: F. Bol. fecit / 1644
Provenance1894, Sir Walter Randolph Farquhar (b. 1842 - d. 1901), London; June 2, 1894, Farquhar sale, Christie's, London, lot 97 to Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris, for £73.10 [see note 1]; probably sold by Sedelmeyer to Peter Arrell Browne Widener (b. 1834 - d. 1915), Elkins Park, PA [see note 2]. Blakeslee Galleries, New York; by 1915, probably sold by Blakeslee to Maria Antoinette Hunt (Mrs. Robert Dawson) Evans (b. 1845 - d. 1917), Boston [see note 3]; 1917, bequest of Mrs. Robert Dawson Evans to the MFA. (Accession Date: November 1, 1917)
NOTES:
[1] Titled "The Marriage Contract."
[2] According to a letter from Edith Standen of the Widener Collection to the MFA (January 3, 1939), Mr. Widener purchased the painting in the 1890s, and it left his collection before 1908. It was included in the catalogue of his collection published in 1900 (Catalogue of the Paintings forming the Private Collection of P. A. B. Widener, part II, no. 169). At least one other painting in the Widener collection was acquired from the Farquhar sale through Sedelmeyer.
[3] Mrs. Evans bought a number of paintings from Blakeslee. She first lent this to the MFA in 1915, as "Ruth and Boaz."
NOTES:
[1] Titled "The Marriage Contract."
[2] According to a letter from Edith Standen of the Widener Collection to the MFA (January 3, 1939), Mr. Widener purchased the painting in the 1890s, and it left his collection before 1908. It was included in the catalogue of his collection published in 1900 (Catalogue of the Paintings forming the Private Collection of P. A. B. Widener, part II, no. 169). At least one other painting in the Widener collection was acquired from the Farquhar sale through Sedelmeyer.
[3] Mrs. Evans bought a number of paintings from Blakeslee. She first lent this to the MFA in 1915, as "Ruth and Boaz."