(Leiden 1607–1674 Amsterdam)
The Apostle Saint Thomas,
oil on panel, 60.8 x 45.3 cm,

Provenance:
Joris van Oorschot, Amsterdam, 1674?;
O’Meara Collection, Belgium;
sale, Galerie Renaissance, Brussels, 16 December 1941, lot 126 (as Pieter de Grebber);
Warnants Collection, Belgium (as Pieter de Grebber);
sale, Bernaerts, Antwerp, 23 May 2005, lot 67;
Private collection, Antwerp;
sale, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 13 November 2007, lot 21;
Whitfield Gallery, London;
Private European collection

Literature:
H. Schneider, Jan Lievens, Sein Leben und seine Werke, Haarlem 1932, p. 106, no. 59;
H. Gerson, Miscellanea IQ van Regteren Altena, Amsterdam 1969, p. 139;
H. Schneider, Jan Lievens, Sein Leben und seine Werke, with supplement, re-edited by R. Ekkart, Amsterdam 1973, no. 59;
W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. III, Landau 1983, p. 1798, no. 1246;
B. Schnackenburg, Jan Lievens und Pieter de Grebber, in: Wallraf-Richartz-Jb., vol. 68, Cologne 2007, pp. 186–88;
B. Schnackenburg, Jan Lievens, Freund und Rivale des jungen Rembrandt, Petersberg 2016, pp. 161-162

Werner Sumowski dates the present painting to the late 1630s. He compares it to the head of Isaac in the painting Abraham and Isaac Thanking God with Their Prayers in the Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig (see fig. 1), which was executed around the same time.

The painting is registered in the database of the RKD, The Hague, under no. 212010. In September 2011, Jan Kosten made a note on the datasheet documenting the painting, saying that it was not clear whether this was a so-called “portrait historié” or a preliminary study for an apostle. In 2007, Bernhard Schnackenburg expressed the opinion that the panel had been part of a diptych (together with a depiction of the Resurrected Christ as a pendant).