Adoration of the Shepherds (Le Nain)

One shepherd and an angel are glancing out to the viewer's left, and it has been suggested that they have seen the approach of the Biblical Magi, which may have been the subject of a matching painting.

There are pentimenti showing what appears to have been the original composition: on the wall above the lefthand angel dim traces of a head of the Virgin can be seen, slightly bowed to the left matching Joseph just to her right.

On the donkey the trace of a curved rein can be seen, starting where the white chest meets the foreleg; the whole animal may originally have been lower.

It remained in the Marlborough collection until the epic sales in the 1880s of the 8th Duke, when it was once again sold at Christie's on 7 August 1886 (lot 652, £52 10s), bought by a dealer.

It was later bought by Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk and is recorded as hanging in the "Prince's Bedroom" at Arundel Castle in 1902, still as a Giordano.