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Jacob and his twelve sons (Spanish:Jacob y sus doce hijos) is a series of thirteen paintings by Spanish artistFrancisco de Zurbarán.
The series of life-size portraits was painted between 1641 and 1658.[1] Twelve of the thirteen paintings are inAuckland Castle, inBishop Auckland inCounty Durham, England, and one is inGrimsthorpe Castle,Lincolnshire.
The series travelled to the Americas for the first time in 2016, to be displayed at theMeadows Museum inDallas, Texas, from 17 September 2017 until 7 January 2018, and then in New York City at theFrick Collection from 31 January until 22 April 2018.[2]
The depiction ofJacob and his sons in epic portraits is unusual for the era. More commonly, artists, includingRibera andVelázquez, included these men in narrative painting of Biblical episodes.[3] According to art historianJeannine Baticle, a series of Jacob and his sons survives in the possession of the Orden Tercera de San Francisco inLima, Peru, which she describes as a "fairly close replica" of the Auckland Zurbarán series. An additional series, "a more distant and awkward imitation" by an imitator, is in the possession of the Academia de Bellas Artes inPuebla, Mexico.[3]
It is not known how the paintings reached England, although some speculate that they may have been captured by English pirates while being transported from the painter's studio inSeville to a buyer in a Spanish colony in the Americas.[3]
The series is first recorded in 1722 as part of the estate of one William Chapman.[3] It was later owned by London banker James Mendez, whose heirs sold twelve of the thirteen toRichard Trevor, Bishop of Durham in 1757.[4] Bishop Trevor, a political liberal and a backer of theJewish Naturalization Act 1753, acquired the paintings, and redesigned and reconstructed the Long Dining Room at Auckland Castle, as a public statement of his support for Jewish naturalization rights.[5] Although the Act was quickly repealed, the paintings remained in the Long Dining Room at Auckland Castle.[5]
The portrait of one of Jacob's sons,Benjamin, was sold separately to thePeregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven;[3] it hangs inGrimsthorpe Castle,Lincolnshire.[6] Bishop Trevor commissionedArthur Pond to produce a copy painting of "Benjamin". It hangs, with Jacob and the other eleven sons, in the Castle's Long Dining Room, which Bishop Trevor rebuilt for the purpose of displaying the pictures.[7][8]
In 2001 theChurch Commissioners voted to sell the paintings, a decision that was revoked in 2011 following a donation of £15 million by investment manager and philanthropistJonathan Ruffer; new arrangements placed the paintings, along with the castle, under the Auckland Castle Trust, making them available to the public after centuries during which they hung in a private home where they could be seen only by invited guests or by special arrangement with the Bishop's staff.[9][10][11][12]
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