The Liberation of Peter

Until 1931 this canvas was in Copenhagen under another painter's name. It belonged to Count Adam Gottlob Moltke, a Danish courtier, and his heirs, who kept it at their house on Amalienborg Square as a work by the Italian painter Guido Reni. It was later recognised as Hendrick ter Brugghen's, and in 1963 the Mauritshuis bought it with help from the Rembrandt Association. The story comes from the Acts of the Apostles. King Herod has thrown Peter into prison in chains, and an angel appears at night to wake him and lead him out. Ter Brugghen pushes the two faces almost together. The angel lays a hand on the old man's chest and points upward, and Peter clasps his chained hands, looking alarmed. The signature and the date 1624 are painted up beside the angel's shoulder.