Catalogue entry
GERRIT VAN HONTHORST, 1592‐1656
4503 St Sebastian
1991
,Extracted from:
Neil MacLaren; revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, The Dutch School 1600–1900 (London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1991).

Gerrit van Honthorst, St Sebastian (No. 4503) © The National Gallery, London
Signed, below left; GvHonthorst. fe (GvH in monogram).

Van Honthorst (No. 4503) © The National Gallery, London
Oil on canvas, 101 × 117 cm (39¾ × 46).
Cleaned in 1976.
[page 1.193]Discussion
Probably painted shortly after Honthorst’s return to Utrecht. Judson1 dates it c. 1623.
The subject of St Sebastian had often been treated in the North. Memlinc2 had shown him, for example, tied to a tree while archers shoot at him. In the print by Lucas van Leyden,3 Sebastian stands alone full length pierced by arrows, a format which had gained wide circulation in a print by Mantegna.4
Honthorst’s conception of a half‐length figure slumped into a seated position, pierced by arrows, is original. It was adapted and developed by other Utrecht Caravaggisti, notably Jan van Bijlert5 in 1624 and Hendrick ter Brugghen6 in 1625. Both showed St Sebastian’s wound being tended by St Irene.
VERSIONS OR COPIES: Unsigned replicas or copies are in Schloss Schleissheim near Munich,7 and in private possession at Aix‐en‐Provence8 (formerly), Antwerp9 (1936) and Zurich10 (1946). An old reduced copy on panel belonged to Miss G. Openshaw, London, in 1932–35.11 A copy was in an anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 21 May 1969 (lot 113).12
PROVENANCE: Possibly the ‘St Sebastian pierced with Arrows – in a Landscape’ by Honthorst, of about the same size, which was in an anonymous sale at Phillips’, London, 27–28 July 1832 (lot 138),13 30 gns. It is said to have been bought from a collection near Bristol c. 1928 by Mrs Mabel Berryman,14 in whose possession it certainly was by November 1928,15 and from whom it was purchased in 1930.
EXHIBITIONS: London 1976, No. 59; Utrecht, Centraal Museum, and Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich‐Museum, ‘Nieuw Licht op de Gouden Eeuw: Hendrick ter Brugghen en tijdgenoten’, 1986–7, No. 61.
REFERENCES:
General: Judson, op. cit. , cat. no. 68.
In text:
1. Judson, op. cit. , p. 88. (Back to text.)
2. Brussels, Musée Royale des Beaux‐Arts. (Back to text.)
3. Hollstein, vol. 10, p. 137. (Back to text.)
4. Bartsch, No. 10. (Back to text.)
5. Vienna, Galerie Harrach, 1926 cat. no. 68; G. J. Hoogewerff, ‘Jan van Bijlert, Schilder van Utrecht (1578–1671)’, OH , vol. 80, 1965, pp. 2–33, cat. no. 21. (Back to text.)
6. Allen Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, inv. no. 53.256; 1967 cat., pp. 148–50. (Back to text.)
7. Bayerische Staatsgemälde Sammlungen, Munich, inv. no. 621/2937 as Jan van Bijlert; on loan to Schleissheim. Schleissheim Gallery catalogue, 1914, No. 1236, as in the style of Caravaggio. Canvas, 108 × 140 cm., including later additions at the sides and top. (Back to text.)
8. According to G. Isarlo (Caravage et le caravagisme européen, 1941, p. 133) who apparently attributes this copy to Louis Finson (Finsonius). Said to be from the collection of Cardinal Grimaldi, Archbishop of Aix. Canvas, 100 × 130 cm. (Back to text.)
9. Letter of 1936 in the National Gallery archives. (Back to text.)
10. Reproduced in Pro Arte, 1944, p. 527. This picture was in the collection of Dr Fritz Haussmann, Berlin, in 1930 (letter in the National Gallery archives) and is perhaps the picture that was in the possession of Asscher and Welcker, London, 1932 (according to a note by H. Isherwood Kay in the Gallery archives). (Back to text.)
11. A photograph is in the National Gallery archives. (Back to text.)
12. Panel, 28 × 23½ in. (£80 to Koetser) (Back to text.)
13. According to the sale catalogue, it measured 90 × 114 cm. (Back to text.)
14. According to the National Gallery Director’s Report for 1930. (Back to text.)
15. When the picture was sent to London for sale (note in the National Gallery archives). (Back to text.)
Abbreviations
- OH
- Oud Holland, Amsterdam, 1883—1972, The Hague, 1973–
List of archive references cited
- London, National Gallery, Archive, curatorial dossier for NG4503: letter, 1930
- London, National Gallery, Archive, curatorial dossier for NG4503: letter, 1936
- London, National Gallery, Archive, curatorial dossier for NG4503: note
- London, National Gallery, Archive: H. Isherwood Kay, note
List of references cited
- Allen Memorial Art Museum 1967
- Catalogue of European and American Paintings and Sculpture in the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin 1967
- Bartsch 1978–90
- Bartsch, Adam von, The Illustrated Bartsch, eds Walter L. Strauss and John T. Spike, 48 vols, New York 1978–90
- Davies 1959
- Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The British School, revised edn, London 1959
- Davies and Gould 1970
- Davies, Martin, revised by Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post‐Impressionists, etc., London 1970
- Galerie Harrach 1926
- Galerie Harrach, Vienna 1926
- Hollstein 1949–2010
- Hollstein, Friedrich W.H., et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, ca.1450—1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam, Blaricum, Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel, Roosendaal and Rotterdam 1949–2010
- Hoogewerff 1965
- Hoogewerff, G.J., ‘Jan van Bijlert, Schilder van Utrecht (1578–1671)’, Oud Holland, 1965, 80, 2–33
- Isarlo 1941
- Isarlo, G., Caravage et le caravagisme européen, 1941
- Judson 1959
- Judson, J.R., Gerrit van Honthorst, 1959
- Pro Arte 1944
- Pro Arte, 1944
- Schleissheim Gallery 1914
- Schleissheim Gallery, Katalog der Königlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Schleissheim, 1914
List of exhibitions cited
- London 1976
- London, National Gallery, Art in Seventeenth–Century Holland, 1976
- Ohio 1967
- (exh. cat.: Allen Memorial Art Museum, 1967)
- Utrecht and Braunschweig 1986–7
- Utrecht, Centraal Museum; Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich‐Museum, Nieuw Licht op de Gouden Eeuw: Hendrick ter Brugghen en tijdgenoten, 1986–7
Explanatory Notes on the Catalogue
SEQUENCE The paintings are arranged alphabetically according to the name of the artist or school.
ATTRIBUTION A picture catalogued under the name of the artist is considered to be by him. ‘Attributed to’ qualifies the attribution. ‘Ascribed to’ indicates a greater degree of doubt. ‘Workshop of’ or ‘Follower of’ are self‐explanatory. ‘Style of’ indicates that the painting is an imitation or copy painted after the artist’s lifetime. A list of attributions which have been changed from the first edition of this catalogue (published in 1960) is given on pages 510–13.
INVENTORY NUMBER The National Gallery inventory number is to be found to the left of the picture title.
MEASUREMENTS These are given in centimetres, followed by inches in brackets. Height precedes width.
RIGHT and LEFT These indicate the viewer’s right and left, unless the context clearly implies the contrary.
BIOGRAPHIES MacLaren’s biographical notes on painters have been expanded and brought up to date when there is no accessible and reliable modern literature. Where such literature exists, these notes have been kept to a minimum.
REFERENCES The bibliographical references, though selective, include publications which appeared before mid‐1989. References to books and articles which appeared subsequently and which the author considered to be of importance are referred to within square brackets but could not be taken into account in the catalogue entries themselves.
LISTS AND INDEXES At the back of this volume are lists of paintings acquired since the last edition of this catalogue and changed attributions. There are also indexes to religious subjects, profane subjects, topography, previous owners, years of acquisition and inventory number.
ILLUSTRATIONS The plates of the paintings included in the catalogue are in the second volume, together with all the signatures which could be reproduced. The comparative plates are included in Volume 1.
[page 1.xiv]VAN ‘van’ has been used in lower case throughout in accordance with The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. The ‘van’ has been omitted for certain artists as is customary, e.g. ‘Jacob van Ruisdael’, but ‘Ruisdael’.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES ‘ op. cit. ’ may refer back to books and articles referred to under the artist’s biography (rather than in the particular catalogue entry).
CHRISTIE’S AND SOTHEBY’S Unless another location is mentioned, the sales referred to took place in London.
CLEANING The cleaning of paintings which took place before 1945 is not referred to, unless the circumstances were exceptional.
CONDITION All the paintings have been examined during the preparation of this catalogue. In many cases the condition is described, sometimes in considerable detail. If the condition is not described, the painting can be presumed to be in good condition.
PROVENANCE AND EXHIBITIONS There are separate headings for provenance and exhibitions in individual catalogue
entries. In certain cases, when nineteenth‐century paintings were included in dealers’
exhibitions for example, these two sections have been conflated
,
.
VAN GOGH The National Gallery’s four paintings by Van Gogh (Inv. nos. 3861, 3862, 3863 and 4169) are not catalogued in this volume but in The French School by Cecil Gould.
CORNELIUS JOHNSON The one painting (Inv. no. 6280) in the National Gallery by Johnson, who was born in London of Dutch parents but moved to the Netherlands after the outbreak of the Civil War, is not included in this catalogue but in The British School by Martin Davies.
Explanatory note
This volume contains the illustrations for the catalogue of the Dutch School published in Volume 1.
The pictures and their attributions are discussed in detail in the catalogue; in this volume only the title, the artist (or attribution) and the inventory number are given.
At the end of the volume are plates of all the signatures that could be reproduced. In the interest of clarity some of these have been enlarged.
About this version
Version 2, generated from files NM_CB_1991__16.xml dated 17/02/2025 and database__16.xml dated 16/02/2025 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 03/01/2025. Entries for NG212, NG221, NG830, NG871, NG990, NG1674, NG1675, NG2531, NG4503, NG6350, NG6442, NG6444 and NG64835 proofread following mark-up and corrected.
Cite this entry
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- https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DEL-000B-0000-0000
- Permalink (latest version)
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- Chicago style
- MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown. “4503 St Sebastian”. 1991, online version 2, February 17, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DEL-000B-0000-0000.
- Harvard style
- MacLaren, Neil and Brown, Christopher (1991) 4503 St Sebastian. Online version 2, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DEL-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 29 March 2025).
- MHRA style
- MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown, 4503 St Sebastian (National Gallery, 1991; online version 2, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DEL-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 29 March 2025]