David Gives Uriah a Letter for Joab
Pieter Lastman(Amsterdam 1583 – 1633 Amsterdam)1619
oil on panel
42.8 x 63.3 cm
signed and dated in light paint along lower rightcorner: “PLaſtman fecit 1619” (“PL” in ligature)
PL-100How to cite
Pollack, Rachel. “David Gives Uriah a Letter for Joab” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/(archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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One sin always begets another. Even the great King David learned this lesson to his

Comparative Figures

detriment. One day he beheld the beautiful Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite,bathing near the royal palace walls. A servant summoned her to his bedchamber, andsoon thereafter David learned that she was with child. In a desperate attempt to coverup his adultery, David sent for Uriah and ordered him to go home to his wife. The
noble soldier Uriah refused to abandon his men, who were on campaign against theAmmonites. No amount of food or drink could persuade Uriah to return to his wife.
So the deceitful King David turned to murder—not with his sword but with his pen.

Fig 1. Infrared reflectogram of Pieter
Lastman, David and Uriah, PL-100

Pieter Lastman depicts the fateful moment when King David hands Uriah a letter
addressed to his commanding officer, Joab, which contains the following orders:“Place Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest; then fall back so that hemay be killed” (2 Samuel 11:15). Lastman captures this pivotal and dramatic moment
through expressive gestures and lush undulating folds of drapery, the clarity of his
design already evident in the painting’s bold underdrawing (fig 1). David, dressed inregal purple and draped in a red, ermine-trimmed cloak, sits high upon his throne.
Twisting his body awkwardly, David grasps his scepter in one hand while holding theletter with its red wax seal in the other. Troubled by guilt and unable to make direct
eye contact with Uriah, David gazes off to the side. Uriah looks directly up at theking and maintains the perfect, upright stature of an honorable man. His fidelity to
the king is emphasized by the dog seated between the two men. In the distance,
Uriah’s fellow soldiers gather to await the king’s latest command. Only the scribe at
the right knows the treacherous content of the letter, and he is in no position to betray
David’s trust.
Lastman derived this composition from the design he made in 1611 for a monumental
stained glass window for the Zuiderkerk in Amsterdam, King Cyrus Returning the
Vessels from the Temple of the Lord to the Jews (fig 2). In this scene a different king,Fig 2. Pieter Lastman, King Cyrus
Returning the Vessels from the Templeof the Lord to the Jews, 1611, pen andbrown ink on paper,
Kupferstichkabinet, Berlin

also holding his scepter, similarly delivers a decree to a kneeling man within aclassical architectural setting overlooking a large domed cathedral.[1] A painted copyof the stained glass window executed by Thomas de Keyser in 1660 shows that Cyrus
wore an elegant ermine-trimmed red robe similar to that draped around David’s
shoulders.[2] The many compositional similarities between these works indicate that
Lastman explicitly sought to contrast the actions of the two kings, Cyrus’s
benevolence and David’s treachery. Indeed, it is noteworthy that in 1611, the year inwhich Lastman designed the stained glass window with the story of Cyrus, he also
painted his earliest depiction of King David and Uriah (fig 3).
The subject of David and Uriah was rarely illustrated in art; earlier prints anddrawings primarily depict the meeting of the two men, not the final transaction of theFig 3. Pieter Lastman, King David
Handing the Letter to Uriah, 1611, oil
on panel, 51.1 x 61.3 cm, Detroit
Institute of Arts, Founders Societypurchase and Dexter M. Ferry Jr.
fund, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John N.
Lord, 60.63, Bridgeman Images© 2024 The Leiden Collection

David Gives Uriah a Letter for Joab
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letter. Lastman, however, rendered this fateful moment in such a way as to remind theviewer that it marks David’s fall from God’s grace. Lastman based his narrative on
Josephus’s The Antiquity of the Jews, a popular biblical and historical record of theJewish people written in the first century AD.[3] Josephus states that David wrote theletter and “stamped it with his own seal.”[4] This detail, which is not noted in the
Bible, is clearly emphasized in Lastman’s painting. The implications of the seal would
have been understood by the Dutch. For example, in 1614 Roemer Visscher, in
his emblem book Sinnepoppen, warned his readers to distrust any official letter thatFig 4. Pieter Lastman, The Bathing ofBathsheba, 1619, oil on panel, 42 x 63,
The State Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg, 5590

did not have a seal of authenticity.[5] King David’s letter has the proper seal, but its
content was unworthy of such honorable verification.
In 1619, the very year that Lastman painted this panel, he also painted The Bathingof Bathsheba (fig 4). He may have intended the two paintings to be pendants, sinceboth works are derived from the same biblical episode and are virtually identical insize.[6] The year 1619 marked a tragic event in Dutch history that may explain theartist’s decision to paint this biblical subject. On 13 May, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt,
once the great and heroic compatriot of William the Silent, was executed for hightreason. His death shocked many in the Netherlands, since Van Oldenbarnevelt had
served as the Land’s Advocate of Holland, was instrumental in founding the United
East India Company, and played a critical role in bringing about the Twelve Years’
Truce. In 1618, however, Van Oldenbarnevelt fell out of political favor when he sided
with the Remonstrants, a moderate branch of the Calvinist Church that supported therights of each provincial government to determine its own religious doctrine. The

Fig 5. Han van Meegeren (forgery as awork by Johannes Vermeer), Christ
and the Woman Taken in Adultery, ca.
1942, oil on canvas and mixed
media, 100 x 90 cm, Collection
Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle andHeino/Wijhe, the Netherlands, Loanfrom Cultural Heritage Agency of theNetherlands

stadholder Prince Maurits sided with the Anti-Remonstrants, a stricter fundamentalist
branch of Calvinism that favored government protection and support of one official
Reformed Church. Prince Maurits ordered Van Oldenbarnevelt’s arrest andbeheading, and subsequently consolidated all political and military might in the Dutch
Republic. One can imagine how the biblical story of David and Uriah resounded incertain sectors of the Netherlands, demonstrating that even the greatest and most loyalof public servants could swiftly become a pawn in the cruel game of politics.
This exquisitely preserved painting is one of Lastman’s finest works, not only in thecharacterization of the figures but also in the way the structural clarity of thecomposition reinforces the dramatic thrust and power of this narrative moment. One
appreciates immediately in this work why two aspiring history painters from Leiden,
namely Jan Lievens (1607–74) and Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69), came to
Amsterdam to study under this renowned master. Each of these artists remained
indebted to Lastman’s influence long after their periods of study (Lievens fromaround 1617–21 and Rembrandt for six months in 1625), with Rembrandt actually
making a number of copies of Lastman’s compositions in 1633, the year of thatmaster’s death.
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Beyond its outstanding artistic qualities, David Gives Uriah a Letter for Joab has hada fascinating place in the complex history of the Nazi and postwar eras that adds tothe work’s cultural significance. Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Jewish dealer of
Old Master paintings in Amsterdam, acquired this painting around 1919. In May 1940
Goudstikker fled Amsterdam just days prior to the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands,
but he died tragically on the ship that was taking him and his family to safety in
London. Goudstikker’s gallery and his collection of paintings were confiscated by the
Nazis. The gallery, now run by Alois Miedl, soon sold Lastman’s painting and anumber of other works to Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command, Reichsmarschall
Hermann Göring. In 1944 Göring traded Lastman’s painting, among others, back to
Miedl for Han van Meegeren’s Vermeer forgery, Christ and the Woman Taken in
Adultery (fig 5). Lastman’s painting was then acquired by Hermann Voss for Hitler’s
proposed Führermuseum in Linz.
After the war, the Allies recovered Lastman’s painting and turned it over to the Dutch
authorities in 1946. A special Dutch Recuperation Commission decided against
returning the painting to the family despite years of protest by Goudstikker’s widow,
Desirée. The painting was lent to the Groningen Museum in Groningen from 1975
to 1987 and to the Mauritshuis in The Hague from 1987 to 2006. The complex storyof the Goudstikker case was reexamined by a special restitution committee in 2005,
which recommended that the Dutch government reverse its earlier decision. The
painting was returned to the Goudstikker heirs, and eventually purchased by present
owner in 2007.[7]- Rachel Pollack, 2017

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Endnotes
1. This cathedral is based on Saint Peter’s in Rome.
2. This painting, which is on canvas and measures 118 x 92 cm, is in the Fondation Custodia (Coll. Frits
Lugt), Paris. De Keyser probably painted this work after the window was removed from the church in
1658.
3. Peter Schatborn and Astrid Tümpel, Pieter Lastman: The Man Who Taught Rembrandt (Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (Amsterdam, 1991), 108–9.
4. William Whiston, ed., The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish Historian, 2 vols. (London,
1755), 1: 464 (book 7, chapter 7 of The Antiquities of the Jews).
5. Roemer Visscher, Sinnepoppen (Amsterdam, 1614), 46, no. XLVI.
6. The Bathing of Bathsheba measures 41.5 x 61.5 cm, while David and Uriah measures 41.6 x 62.5 cm.
Unfortunately, the early provenances of these panels are unknown, so it cannot be determined whether
they were originally in the same collection. The painting of Bathsheba is first recorded ca. 1667 in thecollection of the famous Leiden medical professor Franciscus de la Boe Silvius (1614/19–72) (see Eric
Jan Sluijter, “Two Case Studies of Painting in Wealthy Interiors,” in Mariët Westermann, Art andHome: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt [Zwolle, 2003], 113), while David and Uriah is firstmentioned in 1779 in the sale of the collection of Jacques Clemens, the canon of St. Bavo’s Cathedral in
Ghent.
7. For another painting in the Leiden Collection with a Goudstikker provenance, see Jan Steen, Sacrifice ofIphigenia (JS-112).

ProvenancePossibly Elbert Symonsz Pool (d. 1620), Amsterdam (his sale, Amsterdam, 4 December 1620, no. 9 [toJeltge Claes for 26.5 guilders]).
Possibly Jeltge Claes (b. 1573), Amsterdam; by descent to her brother Pieter Claesz Codde.
Possibly Pieter Claesz Codde (1577–1622), Amsterdam (his sale, Amsterdam, 30 October 1624, no. 23[to Cornelis Symonsz Pool for 23 florins]).
Possibly Cornelis Symonsz Pool (b. 1581), Amsterdam.
Jacques Clemens (1713–79), Canon of the Cathedral of Saint Bavo, Ghent (his sale, Ghent, 21 June
1779, no. 151).
Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt (1842–1915), Munich, before 1911 (his sale, Galerie Hugo Helbing, Munich, 20
April 1917, no. 72).
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Jacques Goudstikker (1897–1940), Amsterdam, before November 1919 (purchased from Lippmann);
confiscated by Nazi forces in in a forced sale [to Alois Miedl (1903–90), Amsterdam, 13 July 1940; toReichsmarschall Hermann Göring for 331 Reichsmarks, 13 July 1940].[1]Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring (1893–1946), Carinhall, Berlin; traded to Alois Miedl in exchange for
Han van Meegeren’s Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, 9 February 1944.[2][Alois Miedl (1903–40); to Hans Herbst, 1944.][Hans Herbst, Director of Dorotheum Auction House, Vienna in 1944; to Hermann Voss, on behalf of
Adolf Hitler, for 15,000 Reichsmarks.]
Hermann Voss (1884–1969), Director of the Führermuseum, Linz, inv. no. 3928; collected by the
Allies, 1945; restituted to the Foundation for Dutch Art Property, 1946.[3]Foundation for Dutch Art Property (Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit), The Hague, 1946–52, inv. no.
NK 2834; Collection of the Department for Dispersed National Artworks (Collectie Dienst voor’s Rijks
Verspreide Kunstvoorwerpen), Amsterdam, 1952–75, inv. no. NK 2834; Department of Dispersed
National Collections (Dienst Verspreide Rijkscollecties), Amsterdam, 1975–85, inv. no. NK 2834;
Department of the National Fine Arts Collection (Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst), Amsterdam, 1985–97,
inv. no. NK 2834; The Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (Instituut Collectie Nederland),Amsterdam, 1997–2006, inv. no. 2834; restituted to Marei von Saher, 6 February 2006.
Marei von Saher, heir of Jacques Goudstikker, Greenwich, Conn. [to Otto Naumann, Ltd., 2007].[4][Otto Naumann Ltd., New York.]
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Provenance Notes

1. The reference to the name “Lippman” appears only in Jacques Goudstikker’s personal ledger.
See Ledger of the Goudstikker Fine Art Collection (Grootboek van de Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker), 119,inv. no. 646/1199, also listed as inv. no. 1341, Municipal Archives of Amsterdam.
Jan Steen’s Sacrifice of Iphigenia, now in The Leiden Collection, was also formerly in the collection ofJacques Goudstikker.
2. Hermann Göring sold a group of at least 150 paintings (over a third of these from Jacques
Goudstikker)—including The Leiden Collection’s Pieter Lastman—back to Alois Miedl in exchange forwhat was thought to be a lost masterpiece by Johannes Vermeer.
3. The painting is recorded at the Munich Central Collecting Point, 25 July 1945–29 March 1946, no.
5236.
4. Jan Steen’s Sacrifice of Iphigenia, now in The Leiden Collection, was also restituted to Marei von Saher.

Exhibition History© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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The Hague, “Exposée dans les localités du schilderdkundig genootschap ‘Pulchri Studio,’” November
1919, no. 63 [lent by Jacques Goudstikker].
Saint Louis, City Art Museum, “Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Pictures from the 15th–17th Century
from the Goudstikker Collection of Amsterdam,” Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 13 January–15
February 1923, no. 35; New York, Anderson Gallery, 10 March–7 April 1923, no. 66 [lent by Jacques
Goudstikker].
The Hague, “Collection Goudstikker d’Amsterdam: 10e Exposition dans les Locaux de Pulchri Studio,
La Haye,” 13 March–4 April 1926, no. 87 [lent by Jacques Goudstikker].
Amsterdam, Maatschappij Arti et Amicitiae, “Tentoonstelling van Schilderijen en teekeningen van
Nederlandse Italianideerende schilders uit de 16e en 17e eeuw (Van Heemskerck tot Haekaert),” 14July–16 September 1934, no. 41 [lent by Jacques Goudstikker].
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, “Tentoonstelling Bijbelsche Kunst,” 8 July–8 October 1939, no. 53a [lent by
Jacques Goudstikker].
Groningen, Groninger Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 1953–66 [lent by the Collectionof the Department for Dispersed National Artworks].
Bolsward, City Hall, “Wurd en byld: Woord en beeld: Gysbert Japicx 1603–1666, en de kunst van zijn
tijd,” 27 June–4 September 1966, no. 41, no. 6 [lent by the Collection of the Department for Dispersed
National Artworks].
Groningen, Groninger Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 1966–80 [lent by the Collectionof the Department for Dispersed National Artworks, 1953–75; Department of Dispersed National
Collections, 1975–80]
Groningen, Groninger Museum, “Het Verraad: David geeft de brief aan Uria, een schilderijen van Pieter
Lastman uit 1619,” 6 June–6 July 1980 [lent by the Department of Dispersed National Collections].
Groningen, Groninger Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 1980–81 [lent by the
Department of Dispersed National Collections].
Washington, National Gallery of Art, “Gods, Saints, and Heroes: Dutch Painting in the Age of
Rembrandt,” 2 November 1980–4 January 1981; Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Art, 16 February–19
April 1981; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 16 May–19 July 1981, no. 22 [lent by the Department ofDispersed National Collections].
Groningen, Groninger Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, 1980–87 [lent by the
Department of Dispersed National Collections, 1980–85; Department of the National Fine Arts
Collection, 1985–87].
The Hague, The Mauritshuis, on loan with the permanent collection, 1987–97, no. 1074 [lent by the
Department of the National Fine Arts Collection].
Amsterdam, The Rembrandt House Museum, “Pieter Lastman, leermeester van Rembrandt,” 7
December 1991–17 February 1992, no. 12 [lent by the lent by the Department of the National Fine Arts
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Collection (Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst)].
Jerusalem, Israel Museum, “Painting the Bible in Rembrandt’s Holland,” 7 May–25 August 1993 [lentby the Department of the National Fine Arts Collection].
Münster, Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History, “Im Lichte Rembrandts. Das Alte
Testament in Goldenen Zeitalter der niederländischen Kunst,” 11 September–20 November 1994;
Amsterdam, Jewish Historical Museum; Jerusalem, Israel Museum, no. 45 [lent by the lent by the
Department of the National Fine Arts Collection].
Greenwich, Conn., Bruce Museum, “Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker,”
10 May–7 September 2008; New York, The Jewish Museum, 12 March–2 August 2009; San Antonio,
McNay Museum of Art, 5 October 2009–10 January 2010, no. 12 [lent by the present owner].
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, January 2010–June 2011, on loan with the permanentcollection [lent by the present owner].
Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in theAge of Vermeer,” 25 June–16 October 2011; Miyagi, The Miyagi Museum of Art, 27 October–12
December 2011; Tokyo, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, 23 December 2011–14 March 2012, no. 26[lent by the present owner].
New York, Metropolitan Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, September 2012–May 2016
[lent by the present owner].
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, “Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt,” 4October 2016–2 January 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,” 22
February–22 May 2017, no. 5 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces of The Leiden
Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017, no. 5 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018, no. 5 [lent by thepresent owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018, no. 18 [lent by the present owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of
The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019, no. 18 [lent by the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019, no. 8 [lent by the present
owner].
Amsterdam, Hermitage Amsterdam, “Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: History Paintings from The
Leiden Collection,” 4 February–27 August 2023, no. 3 [lent by the present owner].

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Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of horizontal, wavy-grained, rectangular oak, has bevels on all four sides.[1] The
unthinned and uncradled panel has shallow vertical handtool marks and two small wood inserts along thelower edge.[2] Ten paper labels, three round import stamps, and various numerical inscriptions are located on
the reverse of the panel, but there are no machine toolmarks, wax seals, stencils or obvious panel maker’s
marks.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied with sweeping horizontal and diagonal strokes,
followed by thinly and smoothly applied paint throughout most of the composition and drapery folds; areasof detail are built up in low impasto.
Infrared images captured at 780–1700 nanometers reveal an extensive underdrawing below the painted
composition. A freehand graphite sketch rather than an ink wash was used to lay out the composition. KingDavid’s elaborate drapery folds included a horizontal sash and large bow with two loops. Uriah was also
completely sketched, including his drapery folds, helmet with plume, and arms. In the underdrawing, thecrisp folds of the corners of the tablecloth to David’s right hung lower and the upper edge of the fabric,
which hangs between the columns directly behind David, was executed with a low hung swag in the center,although it was then painted straight, parallel to the upper panel edge. An additional figure drawn at the far
right has been obscured by the painted green drapery. The domed building and landscape in the distance seenat the left were added during the paint stage, but are not visible in the X-radiograph and were notunderdrawn.
The painting is signed and dated in light paint along the lower right corner. PL is written in ligature and the sis written as a long descending s.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in a good state ofpreservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination only.
2. Three splits emanating from the center of the left edge were already noted in a 2009 condition report.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection