The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)c. 1615
View the original$18
Type
Size · in
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
Peter Paul Rubens’s distinctive blend of fleshy figures and heroic actions dominated the artistic ethos of Antwerp (in present-day Belgium) for much of the 1600s. Here, he translated a sacred subject into vernacular language. The infant Jesus cuddles on the lap of his mother, Mary, whose exposed breast serves as a visual reminder of the human needs of Jesus, also the child of God. Her elderly cousin Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s son, John the Baptist, look on in wonder and awe, and Joseph, Mary’s husband, tends to a lamb, a symbol of Jesus’s eventual self-sacrifice. Notably, not one of these figures bears a halo, and they are all wearing contemporary dress. Furthermore, not one engages with the viewer; rather, they participate in a series of interlocked gazes that ultimately lead back to Mary. Rubens energized the European art market with his robust and monumental forms, inspired by those of Michelangelo and Raphael that he had seen in Italy. A consummate businessman, Rubens not only directed assistants to paint multiple variants of this composition, but he also commissioned engravings after it. It was an early success for the young, ambitious painter, who achieved a harmonious blend of emotional tenderness and moral strength within each figure.
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Original size
- 114.5 × 91.5 cm (45 1/8 × 36 in.)
Museum record · 10 owners · 3 exhibitions
Provenance
- Jacques Langlier, Paris, who acquired it in three pieces and had it conserved by the successors to Godefroid before selling it to Antoine Poullain for 24,000 fr.
- Antoine Poullain, Paris; sold J. B. P. Lebrun, Paris, March 15, 1780, lot 22 for 11,000 fr. to Orsay.
- Comte d’Orsay, Paris, sold Basan, Paris, 14 April 1790, lot 65.
- The painting was taken to England but remained unsold and was returned to Paris.
- Nicolas Lerouge.
- Paris, offered for sale January 16, 1816, lot 19, but bought in.
- Chevalier Sebastian Erard; his estate sale, Château de la Muette, August 7, 1832, lot, for 6,020 fr. to Hope.
- William Williams Hope, Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire; sold, Hôtel des Commissaries-Priseurs, Paris, May 11, 1858, lot for 4200 fr..
- M. Thirion, Paris; sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 10, 1907, lot 17 for 59,000 fr. to de Jonghe.
- S. de Jonghe, Paris (died c. 1943), who sent it to George Blumenthal in New York in 1938; transferred on de Jonghe’s death to Alavoine and Company for sale; sold to Julius H. Weitzner, London and New York by 1946; given to his daughter Marjorie Weitzner Gambino, Rome, and sold on her behalf to the Art Institute, 1967.
Exhibitions
- Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum, Loan Exhibition of Forty-Three Paintings by Rubens, and Twenty-Five Paintings by Van Dyck, November 19–December 22, 1946.
- New York, Wildenstein, A Loan Exhibition of Rubens for the Benefit of the Public Education Association, February 20–March 31, 1951.
- Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, "The Holy Family in Art," December, 1985.
