Erminia and the Shepherds (after Torquato Tasso)

This second version of Erminia and the Shepherds, also from 1776 and also held by the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, reflects the common academic practice of producing variant treatments of a successful composition for different patrons or exhibition purposes. Both works draw on the same episode from Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, depicting the displaced Saracen princess finding shelter among simple shepherds after her flight from the Crusader camp. The existence of two versions in the same museum collection suggests that the subject held particular significance for Suvée's Ghent reception and that both canvases were acquired together or separately by collectors whose works subsequently entered the MSK. The slight differences in composition, figure arrangement, or setting between the two versions would have been intended to justify the existence of both, each offering a distinct pictorial reading of the same narrative moment.

The second version likely shows compositional variations in the arrangement of figures and the treatment of the landscape background. Suvée uses similar technical means — warm outdoor light, pastoral setting, contrast between the armored figure and her rustic surroundings — but the internal organization of the scene differs from its companion work.