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The Infant Christ as the Good Shepherd

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo17th century

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery
London, United Kingdom

Bought by the Gallery’s founders as a work by Murillo, this painting was once thought to be an oil sketch or a smaller autograph version of the original painting, which was famous in France throughout the eighteenth century. However, pigment analysis has proven that the colour Prussian Blue was used in the sky area, a pigment not invented until 1706. The present painting is therefore an eighteenth-century copy, possibly by a French artist such as Jean-Alexis Grimou (1678-1733), whose full-size copy after the original was in England in the eighteenth century and copied by Gainsborough.

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  • Title: The Infant Christ as the Good Shepherd
  • Creator Lifespan: 1617 - 1682
  • Date: 17th century
  • Physical Dimensions: w330 x h448 cm
  • Type: Painting
  • Medium: Oil
  • Work Nationality: Spanish
  • Support: Canvas
  • Provenance: London, Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1811; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811.
  • Further Information: " The work depicts Christ as a child, shepherding his flock of sheep. The source of the subject is a passage in the Gospel of Saint John: ""I am the good shepherd who gives his life for his sheep."" It serves as a metaphor for his future role as shepherd of the faithful, for whom he would give his life. "
  • After: Murillo, Bartolomé Estéban
  • Acquisition Method: Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis (Bequest, 1811)
Dulwich Picture Gallery

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