King David Handing the Letter to Uriah

1611

Pieter Pietersz Lastman Dutch, 1583-1633

On View

Dutch Golden Age, Level 3, South Wing

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About the Artwork

Pieter Lastman, who was Rembrandt's teacher for six months in 1625, painted many particularly rare biblical subjects. In this painting he shows a scene from the story of King David. After having committed adultery with Uriah's wife Bathsheba, David commands Uriah to visit her to disguise the fact that he has impregnated Bathsheba. But Uriah, unconscious of this deception, feels duty bound to rejoin his regiment on the battlefield. Lastman shows the moment when David hands Uriah a letter for his commander asking that Uriah be placed in the front ranks of battle, where he will eventually be killed (II Sam. 11). The scene illustrates how an otherwise righteous ruler can be led into temptation and then turn into a murderer.

Title King David Handing the Letter to Uriah

Artwork Date 1611

Artist Pieter Pietersz Lastman

Life Dates 1583-1633

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Dutch

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on oak panel

Dimensions Unframed: 20 1/8 × 24 1/8 inches (51.1 × 61.3 cm) Framed: 28 × 32 × 2 5/8 inches (71.1 × 81.3 × 6.7 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John N. Lord

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 60.63

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower left: P. Lastman Fec 1611

Provenance

ca. between 1918 and 1938, State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments for Bohemia (Prague, Czechoslovakia)

1938, Galerie St Lucas (Vienna, Austria)

1938, Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)

1938-1939, Dr. Richard Neumann (Vienna, Austria and Paris, France)

1940, Geza Solpray (Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris)

ca. 1953, Dr. Richard Neumann (New York, New York, USA)

ca. 1956, Mrs. Elizabeth M. Drey (New York, New York, USA)

1959, Mr. Lawrence A. Fleischman (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

1960, gift to the Archives of American Art

Mr. and Mrs. John N. Lord

1960-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Baldass, L. "Studien über Jacob Pynas." Belvedere, vol. 13. Vienna, 1920, pp. 158-159.

Exhibition of a Selected Group of Dutch and Flemish Pictures XVa to XVII Century from the Goudstikker Collection of Amsterdam (catalogue XXIV). Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1923, p. 11.

Rembrandt and his Pupils. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. Raleigh, 1956, p. 121, cat. 60 (ill.).

The Young Rembrandt and his Times. Exh. cat., John Herron Institute of Art and Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego. Indianapolis and San Diego, 1958, p. 31, cat. 27 (ill.).

Richardson, E.P. "Pieter Lastman and Nicolaes Moeyaert." Bulletin of the DIA 40, no. 1 (1960-61): pp. 3-6 (ill.).

The Hebrew Bible in Christian, Jewish and Muslim Art. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum. New York, 1964, cat. 86 (ill.).

Montias, J.-M. "Trois ventes de tableaux aux enchères à Amsterdam vers 1620." Curiosité: études d'histoire de l'art en l'honneur d'Antoine Schnapper. Paris, pp. 285-295, esp. pp. 291-292, pl. LXV (fig. 114).

The Institute Collects. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1964, p. 14.

Tümpel, A. "Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert." Oud Holland 88 (1974): pp. 1-163 (fig. 42).

Tümpel, C. The Pre-Rembrandtists. Exh. cat., Crocker Art Gallery. Sacramento, 1974, pp. 140, 150, note 107.

Het Varraad David geeft de brief aan Uriah: een schilderij van Pieter Lastman. Exh. cat., Groninger Museum. Groningen, 1980, pp. 12, 62, 64-65.

Gods, Saints & Heroes. Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, et al. Washington, DC, 1980, p. 130, under cat. 22.

Sutton, P.C. Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, 1986, p. 82 (fig. 118).

Pieter Lastman, the man who taught Rembrandt. Exh. cat., Museum Het Rembrandthuis. Amsterdam, 1991, pp. 108-109 (fig. 12.1), cited under cat. 12.

Montias, John Michael. Art at Auction in 17th Century Amsterdam. Amsterdam, 2002, pp. 228–229 (ill.).

Masters of Dutch Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2004, pp. 134-135.

Tümpel, C. "La réception des Antiquités judaiques de Flavius Josèphe dans la peinture d'histoire hollandiase aux xvie et xvii siècles." Rembrandt et la Nouvelle Jérusalem. Exh. cat., Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme. Paris, 2007, p. 39 (fig. 9).

Golahny, Amy. "Pieter Lastman’s Painting of David's Death Sentence for Uriah, 1611 and 1619." InThe Primacy of the Image in Northern European Art, 1400–1700, eds. Debra Taylor Cashion, Henry Luttikhuizen and Ashley D. West. Boston, 2017, pp. 500–514 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Pieter Pietersz Lastman, King David Handing the Letter to Uriah, 1611, oil on oak panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John N. Lord, 60.63.