Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Spanish, 1618-1682
Saint Joseph and the Sleeping Christ Child
INV-1488
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Spanish, 1618-16821670/75
Saint Joseph and the Sleeping Christ Child
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Spanish, 1618-1682 →pen and ink drawingsdrawings (visual works)
Date
1670/75
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper, laid down on beige wove card
Dimensions
Primary support: 16.4 × 13.6 cm (6 1/2 × 5 3/8 in.); Secondary support: 17.9 × 15.3 cm (7 1/16 × 6 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
A rare but poignant scene of fatherhood, this sheet depicts the rough and bearded Joseph looking helplessly down at the sleeping, recumbent form of the Christ child; his thoughts could be dwelling on how he will be unable to protect his son from the sacrifice he would have to make. Saint Joseph was especially popular in 17th-century Counter-Reformation Spain, as he was reputed to have helped heal Saint Teresa of Ávila’s paralysis. This tender picture is one of only about 70 known autograph drawings by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, founder of a drawing academy in Seville and one of the most esteemed artists of the Spanish Baroque.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Female Saint Holding Skull
Possibly Bartolomé Estéban Murillo Spanish, 1618-1682
Saint Anthony of Padua
Possibly after Bartolomé Estéban Murillo Spanish, 1618-1682
Head of an Old Man
Bartolomé Estéban Murillo Spanish, 1618-1682
Saint Francis Praying
Possibly after Bartolomé Estéban Murillo Spanish, 1618-1682