Jacob and Esau
c. 1655
Medium
Charcoal, pen and brown ink, and brush and brown washes, heightened with opaque white watercolor, on pieced cream laid paper, laid down on blue laid paper, ruled in pen and brown ink, laid down on tan laid paper
Dimensions
Primary support: 25.4 × 29.7 cm (10 × 11 3/4 in.); Secondary/tertiary supports: 32.2 × 36.6 cm (12 11/16 × 14 7/16 in.)
Classification
charcoal
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
218914
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This energetic drawing represents the moment when Jacob compels his older twin brother, Esau, to exchange his birthright for a bowl of stew. The brothers are surrounded by their mother, two maidservants, and two dogs. Jacob Jordaens set this Old Testament narrative in a domestic setting and filled it to the point of bursting. Indeed, the composition outgrew the original boundaries of the drawing support, prompting Jordaens to extend it by adding strips of paper to all four sides in order to comp...