Govaert Flinck, Dutch, 1615-1660
Title: Bathsheba's Appeal to David
Date: 1651
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
105.5 x 152.6 cm
Signed: lower right: G. Flinck F 1651
Credit Line: Purchased, 1867
Object Number: NGI.64
DescriptionBathsheba bore King David a child named Solomon. When the prophet Nathan notified Bathsheba that Adonijah was to become king without David’s knowledge, she approached her dying husband to remind him of a promise he had made that Solomon was to succeed him. This painting represents the moment when she makes her appeal. Abishag the Shunammite, David’s attendant in his old age, holds the king’s crown and sceptre, while Nathan is standing in the background.
Flinck was first apprenticed in Leeuwarden by the painter and Mennonite preacher Lambert Jacobsz, who taught him the basic skills of drawing and painting. In 1633 Flinck moved to Amsterdam to further his education under Rembrandt. After this three-year training, he continued to paint large narrative scenes in the style of his final teacher. This painting dates from 20 years later, when Flinck painted in a more monumental and classicist style. Soon after he completed it, the artist was selected, along with other leading history painters, including Rembrandt and Ferdinand Bol, to decorate the walls of the newly built town hall in Amsterdam, the most prestigious public commission at the time.
March 2016
Flinck was first apprenticed in Leeuwarden by the painter and Mennonite preacher Lambert Jacobsz, who taught him the basic skills of drawing and painting. In 1633 Flinck moved to Amsterdam to further his education under Rembrandt. After this three-year training, he continued to paint large narrative scenes in the style of his final teacher. This painting dates from 20 years later, when Flinck painted in a more monumental and classicist style. Soon after he completed it, the artist was selected, along with other leading history painters, including Rembrandt and Ferdinand Bol, to decorate the walls of the newly built town hall in Amsterdam, the most prestigious public commission at the time.
March 2016
ProvenancePurchased, M. Anthony, London, 1867
Exhibition HistoryDutch Paintings of the Golden Age, Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum, Santa Ana, California; Midland Arts Council, Midland, Michigan; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina; Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, Florida; IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, New York, 1987
Label TextBathsheba bore King David a child named Solomon. When the prophet Nathan noti?ed Bathsheba that Adonijah was to become king without David’s knowledge, she approached her dying husband to remind him of a promise he had made that Solomon was to succeed him. This painting represents the moment when she makes her appeal. Abishag the Shunammite, David's attendant in his old age, holds the King’s crown and sceptre, while Nathan is standing in the background. Flinck trained with Rembrandt in the mid-1630s. This painting dates from 20 years later, when Flinck painted in a more monumental and classicist style.