(Antwerp 1584–1669 Gent)
Saint John the Evangelist,
signed upper left: ... E Crayer,
oil on canvas, 114 x 90 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of the artist Romain Eugène van Maldeghem (1813–1867), Brussels;
his sale, Brussels, 26 March 1874;
Private collection, Belgium

The present composition is accompanied by Hans Vlieghe’s certificate of authenticity (in copy), dated 10 August 2022.

He writes: ‘This painting represents Saint John the Evangelist receiving the vision of the Apocalypse he is believed to have had on the island of Patmos. He is shown to the waist, while sitting against a rock. In his right hand he holds a quill, in order to write down the details of his apocalyptic visions on the still white pages of the biblical book of Revelation he is holding with his left hand. The here described painting is an exact albeit slightly smaller replica of a painting by Gaspard de Crayer of the same subject, now belonging to the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent. The overall painterly quality of the two paintings is exactly similar, which means that also the here discussed painting can be attributed to De Crayer. St. John’s face has an ecstatical expression and is modelled after that of the same saint appearing on the right wing of Rubens’s Michielsen triptych (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten). However, the emotionality in the saint’s face is more emphasized in De Crayer’s representation and this is due to the fact that De Crayer’s style from circa 1650 onward was gradually also coming under the influence of Van Dyck’s late works…’.