Johannes Moreelse was born in Utrecht, and likely received all of his artistic training from his father, portrait and history painter, Paulus Moreelse. The elder Moreelse was instrumental in the formation of the Guild of Saint Luke in Utrecht, becoming its first dean in 1611. Paulus had at least ten children with his wife Antonia Wyntershoven, two sons including Johannes, and a daughter would become artists under his tutelage.

While the details of his father’s life and career are well known, little has been recorded about Johannes, whose name is not found among the records of the Guild of Saint Luke. It is clear that he travelled to Italy in the mid-1620s, alongside the artists Hendrick Bloemaert and Thomas Knijff. While in Rome he was knighted to the Papal Order of Saint Peter, a highly unusual occurrence for a reformed Dutch citizen.

The present work, likely completed after his return from Italy, is deeply influenced by the revolutionary Italian painter Caravaggio, as well as a group of his followers based in the North, called the ‘Utrecht Caravaggisti’. The theme of a single figure of a shepherd was introduced to the Northern Netherlands from Italy. Caravaggio himself explored the limits of Saint John the Baptist imagery, opting to portray him as youthful, sporting an impish smile and removing almost all of the Saint’s traditional attributes (fig. 1). The Utrecht Caravaggisti removed the remaining religious overtones, favoring the half-length partially dressed figure. Artists like Hendrik ter Brugghen, Dirck van Baburen and Gerard van Honthorst returned from Rome to the North and popularized figures of this type.

The present work, which adds to the small group of extant paintings attributed to Johannes, reveals his workshop practice. Likely working alongside his father, the younger Moreelse often painted variations of the elder’s compositions, as exemplified by the present painting (fig. 2). Johannes takes from his father the general composition, but removes most of the man's clothes and changes his head position. He employs a darker color palette with dramatic lighting and delicate sfumato, combining this distinctly Northern subject with the techniques learned on his Italian sojourn.