Jephtah welcomed home from the battlefield by his daughter

This unpublished painting is an important addition to the oeuvre of the artist, who is mainly known as a portrait painter but for a Vanitas, signed and dated 1622, in the Westfries Museum, Hoorn (R.J. Spruit, Westfries Museum Hoorn, Antiek, 1991, p. 506, no. 10). The subject, taken from Judges, XI, 34, was earlier depicted by Pieter Lastman, circa 1610 (sold at Christie's London 22 April 1994, lot 12; A. Tümpel, P. Schatborn, Pieter Lastman, exhibition catalogue, 1991, pp. 86-87, no. 1, with ill.) whose composition was the same for that of the present lot.

See colour illustration