Provenance
Charles de Croy, 4th duc d'Arschot [1560-1612], Château de Beaufort, Hainaut;[1] his estate; purchased 1619 from his widow, Dorothée, by George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham [1592-1628], York House, London;[2] by inheritance to his son, George Villiers, 2nd duke of Buckingham [1628-1687], York House;[3] purchased 1650 in Antwerp by Leopold Wilhelm, archduke of Austria [1614-1662], on behalf of his brother, Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor [1608-1657], and brought to Prague;[4] Hapsburg Imperial Collection, Prague Castle, until 1876, and then Vienna;[5] Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; sold February 1952 through (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York, and Paris) to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The picture is listed, together with its companion-pieces by Veronese, in the posthumous inventory of 1613 of the duke’s collection in his castle of Beaufort in Hainaut, no. 52: “Une pièce encoire sur thoille du susdit maistre, longue et large, et ces molures commes les précédentes, contenant la représentation d’une femme aiant les bras demy nud avecq ung viellard, ung nein, ung moriaume et pluisieurs chamaux” (A picture on canvas by the aforementioned master [Veronese], of the same dimensions and framing as the others, showing a woman with half-bare arms, an old man, a dwarf, a moor, and several camels). See Alexandre Pinchart, “La collection de Charles de Croy, duc d’Arschot, dans son château de Beaumont,” _Archives des Arts, Sciences, et Lettres_ 1 (1860): 164. Before the series was bought by the Duke of Buckingham in 1619, other English collectors, including the Earls of Somerset and Arundel, were alerted by their agents that they were available for purchase. See Philip McEvansoneya, “Some Documents Concerning the Patronage and Collections of the Duke of Buckingham,” _Rutgers Art Review_ 8 (1987): 29 n. 18; Beverly Louise Brown, “The So-Called Duke of Buckingham Series,” in _Nuovi studi su Paolo Veronese_, edited by Massimo Gemin, Venice, 1990: 231-232; Philip McEvansoneya, “Italian Paintings in the Buckingham Collection,” in _The Evolution of English Collecting:. The Reception of Italian Art in the Tudor and Stuart Periods_, edited by Edward Chaney, New Haven and London, 2003: 320. Charles de Croy's widow was his second wife and his first cousin once removed; they were married in 1605 and she died in 1661.
[2] The painting was acquired by Balthasar Gerbier in Antwerp in July 1619 on behalf of the Duke of Buckingham. See Philip McEvansoneya, “Some Documents Concerning the Patronage and Collections of the Duke of Buckingham,” _Rutgers Art Review_ 8 (1987): 29; Philip McEvansoneya, “Italian Paintings in the Buckingham Collection,” in _The Evolution of English Collecting: The Reception of Italian Art in the Tudor and Stuart Periods_, edited by Edward Chaney, New Haven and London, 2003: 320.
[3] The picture, described as “Paulo Veroneso. Abraham’s Servt and Rebecca,” is included in the 1635 inventory of Buckingham’s collection at York House in the Strand. See Randall Davies, “An Inventory of the Duke of Buckingham’s Pictures, etc., at York House in 1635,” _The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs_ 10, no. 48 (March 1907): 381.
[4] Brian Fairfax, _A Catalogue of the Curious Collection of Pictures of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham . . ._, London, 1758: 7, no. 5 (of the list of paintings by Veronese). For the sending of the greater part of the Buckingham collection to Amsterdam for safekeeping in 1648 and the circumstances of its acquisition by Leopold Wilhelm on behalf of the emperor, see Klara Garas, “Die Sammlung Buckingham und die kaiserliche Galerie,” _Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte_ 40 (1987): 114-115; and Philip McEvansoneya, “The Sequestration and Dispersal of the Buckingham Collection,” _Journal of the History of Collections_ 8 (1996): 133-154.
[5] The picture is recorded in the Prague inventories of 1685 and 1718, no. 478, and 1737, no. 486: see Karl Köpl, “Urkunden, Akten, Regesten, und Inventare aus dem K. K. Statthalterei-Archiv in Prag,” _Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses_ 10 (1889), cxxxviii and clxi. It is still recorded in Prague by Woltmann 1877, but in Vienna by Engerth 1884: Alfred Woltmann, “Die Gemäldesammlung in der kaiserlichen Burg zu Prag,” _Mittheilungen der K. K. Central-Commission_, N. F., Vienna (1877): 44-45; Eduard R. von Engerth, _Kunsthistorische Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, Gemälde, vol. 1: Italienische, Spanische und Französische Schulen_, Vienna, 1884: 401. See also Jaromír Neumann, _The Picture Gallery of Prague Castle_, Prague, 1967: 290; Klara Garas, “Die Sammlung Buckingham und die kaiserliche Galerie,” _Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte_ 40 (1987): 118.
[6] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series II, Sales Book 16, Paintings, 1945 January-1953 June, page 383, no. CA3945 (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1761).
Accession Number
1952.5.82
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 145.5 x 282.7 cm (57 5/16 x 111 5/16 in.) | framed: 175.3 x 313.1 x 10.2 cm (69 x 123 1/4 x 4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Tags
Painting Renaissance (1400–1599) Oil Painting Canvas Italian
Background & Context
Background Story
Rebecca at the Well from c. 1582-88 is attributed to Veronese and Workshop, indicating that the painting was produced in Veronese's workshop with the assistance of workshop members under the master's direction. The subject of Rebecca at the Well—the biblical episode in which Abraham's servant finds Rebecca at the well—allows Veronese to exercise his talent for combining sacred narrative with the splendid pageantry that defines his work. The c. 1582-88 date places this in Veronese's late period, when the workshop was producing large-scale narrative paintings in the master's manner for the Venetian market and for export.
Cultural Impact
Rebecca at the Well is important in the history of Venetian painting because it demonstrates the workshop production that was essential to the large-scale narrative paintings of the Venetian Renaissance. The 'and Workshop' attribution shows that even Veronese's large-scale paintings required workshop assistance, and the painting demonstrates the quality that a well-organized workshop could achieve under the master's direction.
Why It Matters
Rebecca at the Well is Veronese and Workshop producing narrative pageantry: the biblical episode rendered in the master's manner with workshop assistance, demonstrating the quality that a well-organized Venetian workshop could achieve. The c. 1582-88 late painting shows workshop production essential to Veretian Renaissance painting.
