Nicolaes Maes (Dordrecht 1634-1693 Amsterdam)

The drawing on the recto, with its characteristically dumpy figures, is a preparatory study for a lost painting of Isaac blessing Jacob, for which there is a first, very free, preparatory study in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam (Sumowski, op. cit., no. 1766; Fig. 1). The figural types are very close to those in The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael of 1653 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which must date from much the same period (Robinson 1984, op. cit., 1984, fig. 7). The quick study on the verso, however, is a preparatory drawing for the figure of Abraham in The Sacrifice of Isaac (Private collection; Robinson 1984, op. cit., pl. 1), and is one of a number of related drawings for the same picture. Further studies of the composition are in the Louvre (Robinson 1984, op. cit., figs. 3 and 5) and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Robinson 1984, op. cit., fig. 6). Robinson suggests a date for The Sacrifice of Isaac of 1655-58, and the present drawing must date from the same period, probably around 1655.