Pieter van der Werff (Kralingen-Ambacht 1665-1722 Rotterdam)

This composition derives from one by Pieter's elder brother, Adriaen van der Werff, today in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden. In her monograph on Adriaen, Barbara Gaehtgens noted that the figure of Saint John closely resembles that in Nicolas Poussin's The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Saint Elizabeth, jointly owned by the Norton Simon Art Foundation, Pasadena and The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (see B. Gaehtgens, Adriaen van der Werff, p. 336, no. 84).

Another version of this painting, also by Pieter van der Werff but with a different landscape background and slightly larger dimensions, was sold Sotheby's, London, 13 December 2001, lot 120 (£9,600).