King David Handing the Letter to Uriah, 1611

  • Pieter Pietersz Lastman, Dutch, 1583-1633

Oil on oak panel

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

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John N. Lord

60.63

On View

  • Dutch Golden Age, Level 3, South

Department

European Painting

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.

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

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)

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.).

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.