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A very fine, brilliant, early impression of White-Boon’s rare 2nd State (of three states), with inky plate edges and small margins all around. In the 1st state, the space between Joseph’s left arm and the face of the seated girl in the right foreground is shaded. In this 2nd state, that same space has been burnished and is white. In the following 3rd state, shading has been added in numerous places: e.g., on the heads in the background, on the curtain and door behind the turbaned man on the right and on Jacob’s legs.
The Biblical references here are from Genesis:
“And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren; and they hated him yet the more.” (Genesis 37:5) “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren,…his father took him to task: ‘What is this dream of yours?’ he said. ‘Must we come and bow low to the ground before you, I and your mother and your brothers?’ ” (Genesis 37:9-11)
A former owner of this work was Parisian collector Jules Gerbeau (died 1906). According to Frits Lugt (Marques de Collection, p 205), Gerbeau was a collector who brought together “with a delicate artistic sentiment” a beautiful print collection with each work (in the opinion of Lugt) in impeccable condition.
