Christ at the Sea of Galilee
c. 1570s
Painter
Painter, Dutch, 1515 - probably after 1591
The resurrected Christ is depicted backlit by the rising sun on the shore of Lake Galilee as he appears to seven of his believers in a boat. As told in John 21:1–13, they had been fishing all night without success. Christ told them to cast their nets to the right side of the boat, where the catch would be plentiful. When Peter saw Christ, he jumped into the water to swim to shore. Here, as daylight begins to brighten the waves and sky, Peter extends his leg from the boat, about to jump.
Although the attribution cannot be confirmed with certainty, this work was probably created by the Amsterdam-born painter Lambert Sustris. As a young man, he moved to Venice and is believed to have worked in the studios of both Tintoretto and Titian, painting landscapes. Christ at the Sea of Galilee was likely produced during Sustris’s later career in Venice, which has remained largely unexplored. The attribution of the Gallery’s picture is based upon strong similarities in works by Sustris to the figure of Christ, the small figures of the apostles, and the landscape. Two unfinished paintings revealed to lie beneath its surface also appear consistent with the artist’s work.
This painting has previously been attributed to Tintoretto based on stylistic elements such as the dramatic treatment of light and the dry white brushwork that highlights the rolling waves. However, the painting’s lack of impasto—thick buildup of paint on the surface—and differences in figural types and coloring cast uncertainty on the attribution to Tintoretto and point to Sustris as its author.
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 117.1 x 169.2 cm (46 1/8 x 66 5/8 in.)
framed: 155.3 x 207 cm (61 1/8 x 81 1/2 in.) -
Accession
1952.5.27
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Count Joseph Gallotti.[1] (Durlacher Brothers, New York).[2] Arthur Sachs [1880-1975], New York, by 1925;[3] sold March 1943 through (Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York) and (Moses & Singer, New York) to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] This name appears on an undated prospectus for the painting in NGA curatorial files. The painting was not in the Gallotti sale at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, on 28 June 1905.
[2] There is no record of this painting in the extant Durlacher stockbooks at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.
[3] Tancred Borenius, "A Seascape by Tintoretto," Apollo 2 (July-December 1925): 249.
[4] The painting is recorded as being with the dealer Jacques Seligman in New York by Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI–XVIII Century, London, 1973: 53, and in Germain Seligman, Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting, New York, 1961: pl. 87. However, according to Seligmann records, the firm did not own the picture but acted for Sachs in its sale (Seligmann Papers, Archives of American Art, Washington: Series 2.1, Collectors Files, Box 204, folder 1, copy in NGA curatorial files). The bill of sale to the Kress Foundation for two paintings, dated 25 March 1943 and including Tintoretto's "Christ on Lake of Galilee," is on Moses & Singer letterhead and indicates that the sale is from "Mr. Arthur Sachs c/o Moses & Singer" (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/508.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1927
Loan to display with permanent collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1927.
1932
Loan to display with permanent collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1932-1933.
1933
A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 135, repro., as Christ on the Lake of Galilee.
1934
Landscape Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1934, no. 5, as Christ Walking on the Water.
1935
Loan to display with permanent collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1935-1938.
1938
Exhibition of Venetian Painting From the Fifteenth Century through the Eighteenth Century, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, June-July 1938, no. 66, repro., as Christ on the Sea at Galilee.
Venetian Paintings of the 15th & 16th Centuries, M. Knoedler and Company, New York, April 1938, no. 16, repro., as Christ on the Sea of Galilee.
Religious Art, an exhibition of fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth-century paintings; sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, metalwork, rosaries, textiles, stained glass and prints, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1938-1939, no. 35, repro.
1939
Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculptures from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, May-October 1939, no. 377, repro.
A Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Jacopo Robusti, il Tintoretto, 1519-1594, Durlacher Brothers, New York, February-March 1939, no. 5, as Christ on the Sea of Galilee.
1942
Loan to display with permanent collection, Society of Liberal Arts, Joslyn Memorial (now Joslyn Art Museum), Omaha, 1942-1943.
1946
Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 825.
1979
The Golden Century of Venetian Painting, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1979-1980, no. 36, repro.
1988
Loan to display with permanent collection, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen, 1988-1989.
Bibliography
1901
Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell’arte italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 9, part 4(1929):332, repro.
1925
Borenius, Tancred. “A Seascape by Tintoretto.” Apollo 2 (July–December 1925): 249.
1931
Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931: no. 411.
1932
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford, 1932: 562, 678, as Tintoretto.
1933
Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. Translated by Countess Vanden Heuvel and Charles Marriott. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 3:no. 555, as Tintoretto.
1939
Borenius, Tancred. "An Exhibition of Venetian Painting." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 74 (1939): 138, as Tintoretto.
1942
Bercken, Erich von der. Die Gemälde des Jacopo Tintoretto. Munich, 1942: 88, 118, fig. 216, as Tintoretto.
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 74, color repro., as Christ Walking on the Sea.
Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 55, repro., as Christ Walking on the Sea.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 130, repro.
1948
Tietze, Hans. Tintoretto: The Paintings and Drawings. New York, 1948: 381, as El Greco.
1950
Chatzidakis, Manolis. “O Domenikos Theotokopoulos kai e kretiké zographiké.” Kretika Chronika 4 (1950): 371–440, as El Greco.
1951
Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 98-99, repro.
1954
Tietze, Hans. Treasures of the Great National Galleries. New York, 1954: 15, 125, pl. 205 (“ascribed to Tintoretto, but may also be considered as a possible El Greco”).
1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 30, color repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 37.
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:183, pl. 71, as Tintoretto.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 203, repro.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 25.
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Later Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Six in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 32, color repro.
1961
Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting. New York, 1961: repro. pl. 87.
1962
Wethey, Harold E. El Greco and His School. 2 vols. Princeton, 1962: 1:90, n. 113.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 158, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 128.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:194, color repro.
Schiller, Gertrud. Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst. 6 vols. Gütersloh, 1966-1990: 3:117.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 115, repro.
Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 12, 50-51, color repro.
1970
De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L’opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970: 133, no. 290, pl. 63, as Tintoretto.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 52-53, fig. 92, as Tintoretto.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 340, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:465-467; 2:pl. 332, 332A.
Sutton, Denys. “Venetian Painting of the Golden Age.” Apollo 110 (1979): 386, as Tintoretto.
1982
Pallucchini, Rodolfo, and Paola Rossi. Tintoretto: le opere sacre e profane. 2 vols. Venice, 1982: 1:178-179, no. 224; 2:fig. 292, as by Tintoretto.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 228, no. 287, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 392, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 104, repro.
1996
Echols, Robert. "Tintoretto, Christ at the Sea of Galilee, and the Unknown Later Career of Lambert Sustris," Venezia Cinquecento VI, no. 12 (1996): 93-149.
Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria. “Rilevanze gestuali nell'opera del pittore: problemi di metodo e legittimità interpretative.” In Jacopo Tintoretto nel quarto centenario della morte: atti del convegno internationale di studi. Edited by Paola Rossi and Lionello Puppi. Padua, 1996: 149, fig. 331, as Tintoretto.
2001
Herrmann Fiore, Kristina. Paolo Veronese: la predica di Sant'Antonio ai Pesci; spunti di riflessione per una rilettura del dipinto restaurato. Rome, 2001: 36, fig. 35, as attributed to Tintoretto or Friedrich Sustris.
2009
Echols, Robert, and Frederick Ilchman. “Toward a New Tintoretto Catalogue, with a Checklist of Revised Attributions and a New Chronology.” In Jacopo Tintoretto: Actas del congreso internacional/Proceedings of the International Symposium, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, February 26-27, 2007. Madrid, 2009: 149, no. C90, as Lambert Sustris.
2010
Cassegrain, Guillaume. Tintoret. Paris, 2010: 45, fig. 21, as Tintoretto or Lambert Sustris.
Wikidata ID
Q9191534