The Denial of Saint Peter

Artist Gerard Seghers Flemish, 1591–1651

Datecirca 1620–1625

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions68 × 89 1/2 in. (172.7 × 227.3 cm)
Frame: 77 7/8 × 105 1/2 × 7 in. (197.8 × 268 × 17.8 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.112

DescriptionA large, horizontal canvas with multiple figures gathered around a table. Two candles are blocked by figures, creating dramatic contrast between light and shadow.

On View

On view

ProvenanceCreated Flanders [present day Belgium], ca. 1620–1625. Andreas Colyns de Nole (1598–1638), Antwerp, before 1638. Deyne Collection, Ghent, Flanders [present day Belgium], by 1753. Phillipe Louis Parizeau (1740–1801), Paris; [his sale, Alexandre-Joseph Paillet, Paris, March 26, 1789, no. 104, as Seghers]; Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun (1748–1813), Paris; [his sale, Paris, April 20, 1791, no. 87, as Seghers, bought in] [1]. Nicolas Lerouge, Paris, before 1799; [his sale, Lebrun and Boileau, Paris, January 11, 1799, no. 5, as Seghers]; Pierre-Victor Fournier, Paris. Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763–1839), Paris and Rome, by ca. 1810 [2]; [his sale, Palazzo Ricci, Rome, March 17, 1845, no. 217, as Seghers] [3]. [Alessandro Aducci, Rome, by 1856] [4]. [French & Co., New York, by 1934]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] Annotated version of the catalogue in the INHA (Institut national d’histoire de l’art) notes that the work did not sell (non vendu).
[2] 1839 inventory cat. no. 1027, and 1841 inventory cat. no. 310, both times as by Honthorst.
[3] The Fesch collection was sold in multiple auctions following the Cardinal’s death in 1839. This work appears in the second sale, in March 1845.
[4] Based on a letter in the museum file, dated October 5, 1976, written by Benedict Nicolson, who references Aducci's attempt to sell the painting to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin in 1856.

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