Lot 33: f - Gerrit Claesz. Bleker Haarlem circa 1593 - 1656 , The Meeting of Jacob and Esau oil on panel

signed and dated lower left: Bleker f 1635 oil on panel

measurements note 51.1 by 78.7 cm.

Sale, London, Sotheby's, 28 April 1948, lot 100, sold to Schapiro;
Ephraim I. Schapiro, London, 1948, and certainly by 1952;
By whose Executors sold, London, Christie's, 29 June 1979, lot 3;
Possibly with Rafael Valls, London;
With Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York, inv. no. 16389-C (both the above according to labels on the reverse).

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
Bleker was trained by Pynas, and it is thus not surprising that his work shows a preference for the Old Testament subjects favoured by his master and the other Pre-Rembrandtists. Dr. Ephraim Schapiro was an ardent collector of Dutch paintings of this sort. He owned another Bleker, painted in 1637, depicting The Departure of Abraham & Sarah from Lot and his Wife (sold London, Bonhams, 10 December 2002, lot 8).