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| Artist | Crosby, W. (English artist, active 19th century) |
| Title | Holy Family with the Infant St John |
| Date earliest | possibly about 1850 |
| Date latest | possibly about 1900 |
| Material | oil on canvas (laid on panel) |
| Measurements | 40.3 x 33 cm |
| Description | This small, heavily damaged work is painted with competent and characteristic brushwork. The draughtsmanship is perhaps slightly less accomplished, notably in the body of Mary. It is painted in a seventeenth-century Italianate manner, the drapery and elongated body of Christ being perhaps influenced by the earlier tradition of Mannersim. However, in the 1906 Sunderland Art Gallery catalogue, the work is listed as by W. Crosby, an accompished local artist, and as after Rubens. |
| Subject | religion (Holy family with infant St John); figure |
| Collection | Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens |
| Current accession number | TWCMS:B4591 |
| Acquisition details | Unknown. |
| Principal publications | Sunderland Art Gallery Catalogues, 1906, as W. Crosby. |
| Notes |
W.Crosby was a well known, and well respected local artist. He is mentioned in a letter from the agent of J.A.D Shipley, to Shipley himself, dated 2nd February, 1885. Shipley evidently owned several paintings by Crosby. Due to the present condition of the painting it has not been possible to ascertain which Rubens' work the Sunderland painting may have derived from. |
| Rights status | Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Tyne and Wear Museums. |
| Author | Elizabeth van der Beugel |
