Joseph and Potiphar's Wife: Genesis 39:11-12

The sheet and another similar opaque watercolor, representing "Joseph Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream" (Genesis 41:25-32), which was also recently on the market with Haboldt & Co., form part of a series of 20 small, but highly finished drawings that van Mieris made over a period of five years between 1691 and 1696. This pair, dated 1693 and 1694 respectively, is from the middle of the period. The entire group has been traced to the catalogue of the 1790 sale of the Amsterdam citizen Jonas Witsen, where all 20 drawings are described in detail, scattered in eight different albums. The whereabouts of half the drawings can be accounted for, with examples in other public collections, such as the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Prentenkabinet der Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden, the British Museum, London, and the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam.