The Last Supper

Pieter de Grebber · n.d.

Medium

Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on blue laid paper

Original size

47 × 29.3 cm (18 9/16 × 11 9/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

De Grebber's study of The Last Supper carries a quiet gravity — figures rendered in sweeping black chalk, their forms lifted by white highlights against the cool blue of the paper, giving the scene an almost spectral luminosity. Pieter de Grebber worked in Haarlem during the Dutch Golden Age, a period dominated by genre scenes and portraiture, yet he remained devoted to large-scale religious subjects throughout his career. A practising Catholic in a predominantly Protestant republic, his faith shaped both his subject matter and his approach — his compositions draw on the Italian Renaissance tradition while carrying the emotional directness of his Flemish influences. This chalk study demonstrates his mastery of form and light before paint ever touched canvas. De Grebber was shortlisted to decorate the Oranjezaal in Huis ten Bosch, the Dutch royal palace — a commission eventually shared among leading painters of the day, confirming his standing among the era's finest. The hand-painted oil reproduction translates the delicate tonal interplay of this chalk drawing into the richer, more permanent medium of oil on canvas, preserving the drama of the original composition while bringing warmth and depth to a work that has long resided quietly in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection.