Description:

brown wash over traces of black chalk on partially prepared paper
225 x 305 mm

Provenance:

Professor John Isaacs
His sale, Sotheby’s, London: 28 January 1965, Lot 135 (as by Gerard Seghers)
Private collection, UK

Note:

The present drawing, formerly attributed to Gerard Seghers (Antwerp 1591-1651), depicts the moment in which Pontius Pilate, the governor of the Roman province of Judaea, washes his hands in public to signify his refusal to be morally implicated in the decision to have Christ crucified.

Until his rediscovery by Bernhard Schnackenburg in 1994, the Flemish artist Jacques de l'Ange was only known to art historians as the 'Monogrammist JAD'. In the ensuing years de l'Ange's biography and oeuvre have been reconstructed, yet until the recent rediscovery of the present drawing he has remained completely unknown as a draughtsman.

We are grateful for the assistance of Prof. Dr. Gert Jan van der Sman (NIKI, Florence) who has written the catalogue entry and proposed that this is the first known drawing which can be convincingly attributed to the artist. Please contact us for the full catalogue entry.