Rembrandt van Rijn (Leyden, 1606 - 1669, Amsterdam)
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633
Oil on canvas , 160 x 128 cm (63 x 50 3/8 in.)
This vertical oil painting titled Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, by Rembrandt Van Rijn, depicts a dramatic seascape in which Christ and his followers are embroiled in a struggle to gain control of their boat during an intense storm. To our left, waves push up against the side of the boat at a forty-five-degree angle, splashing water into the vessel, which has been forced up. There, several of Christ’s disciples work to pull on the mast and lines where the main sail has ripped, bellowing out into the right portion of the canvas. A man at the tip of the raised end of the boat, squats and looks up as he pulls the rope on the leftmost sail. Below is a group of three men who surround the mast in various stages of struggle, as they fight to hold onto the boat and stabilize themselves. In contrast, the eight men to our right, at the bottom end of the boat, surround Christ. The group is somewhat shrouded in darkness. Many are talking and pointing, and one leans over the side, seasick. A figure in blue places his hand over his head, as he gazes out at the viewer. The figure of Christ sits among the group, reclining in a blue robe, as he tries to calm his disciples. At the bottom right of the canvas, rays of light shine onto the smooth, oddly calm waves below, contrasting the rough seas to our left. The contrast of dark and light throughout the painting is noteworthy, with two-thirds of the painting in darkness. Dark clouds move across the top right of the canvas, while a blue sky and puffy white clouds break through the storm to our left. The source of light highlights the white tops of the waves, the beige sails, and the figures on the left side of the boat, enveloping them in a blinding white light.
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Object details
Accession number
P21s24
Primary Creator
Rembrandt van Rijn (Leyden, 1606 - 1669, Amsterdam)
Full title
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Creation Date
1633
Description
Stolen in 1990.
Provenance
Possibly in the collection of Tymen Jacobsz Hinloopen (1572-1637), Amsterdam by 1644. (as a painting of St. Peter's ship)
Collection of Jacques Specx (1588/89-1652), a Governor General of the East Indies, Amsterdam by 1653.
Collection of Jacob Jacobsz Hinloopen (1644-1705), a burgomaster and sheriff, Amsterdam by 1705.Collection of Johannes Coop (d. 1746), a calico-printer, Amsterdam.Collection of Gerrit Braamcamp (1699-1771), Amsterdam before 1750.
Purchase by J. Wubbels at the Braamcamp sale, Amsterdam on 31 July 1771 for 4360 guilders, lot 172.
Collection of John Hope (1737-1784), Amsterdam.By descent to Philippina Barbera van der Hoeven (d. 1790), widow of John Hope, Amsterdam in 1784.
By descent to Thomas Hope (1769-1831), Adrian Elias Hope (1772-1834), and Henry Philip Hope (1774-1839) sons of John Hope and Philippina Barbera van der Hoeven, Amsterdam in 1790.
Collection of Adrian Elias Hope (1772-1834) and Henry Philip Hope (1774-1839) under the guardianship of their cousin, Henry Hope (about 1739-1811) in 1794. Moved to London.
Collection of Henry Philip Hope possibly by 1802 and exhibited at the home of his eldest brother, Thomas Hope (1769-1831), London in 1819.
By descent to Henry Thomas Hope (1808-1862), son of Thomas Hope, Surrey in 1839.
By descent to Adèle Bichat Hope (d.1887), widow of Henry Thomas Hope, in 1862.By descent to Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope (d.1941), grandson of Adèle Bichat Hope and the 8th Duke of Newcastle, London in 1884.
Purchased by the art dealers Asher Wertheimer and Colnaghi & Co. from Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope in 1898.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Colnaghi & Co. in September 1898 for £6,000, through Bernard Berenson (1865-1959), American art historian.
Stolen in 1990.
Marks
Signed, on rudder: Rembrant. f/1633Printed and handwritten label (adherred to the back of the frame): N.B.--This label to be affized to the back of the frame (not the canvas) of the Picture. / Royal Academy Exhibition of the Works of the Old Maaters, 1881. / Name of Artist...Rembrandt / Title of Work.... Christ with his Disciples in the storm on the Sea of Galilee / Name and Address of Proprietor... Mrs. Hope / Belgrave SquarePartial printed label (adherred to the back of the frame): H. M. PA... / Carver, Gild... / and / ...ing glass man.../ 23, Coventry Street / London. / Dealer in Plate-Glass
Dimensions
160 x 128 cm (63 x 50 3/8 in.)
Display Media
Oil on canvas
Web Commentary
Rembrandt’s most striking narrative painting in America, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, is also his only painted seascape. Dated 1633, it was made shortly after Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam from his native Leiden, when he was establishing himself as the city’s leading painter of portraits and historical subjects. The detailed rendering of the scene, the figures’ varied expressions, the relatively polished brushwork, and the bright coloring are characteristic of Rembrandt’s early style. Eighteenth-century critics like Arnold Houbraken often preferred this early period to Rembrandt’s later, broader, and less descriptive manner.
The biblical scene pitches nature against human frailty – both physical and spiritual. The panic-stricken disciples struggle against a sudden storm, and fight to regain control of their fishing boat as a huge wave crashes over its bow, ripping the sail and drawing the craft perilously close to the rocks in the left foreground. One of the disciples succumbs to the sea’s violence by vomiting over the side. Amidst this chaos, only Christ, at the right, remains calm, like the eye of the storm. Awakened by the disciples’ desperate pleas for help, he rebukes them: “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” and then rises to calm the fury of wind and waves. Nature’s upheaval is both cause and metaphor for the terror that grips the disciples, magnifying the emotional turbulence and thus the image’s dramatic impact.
The painting showcases the young Rembrandt’s ability not only to represent a sacred history, but also to seize our attention and immerse us in an unfolding pictorial drama. For greatest immediacy, he depicted the event as if it were a contemporary scene of a fishing boat menaced by a storm. The spectacle of darkness and light formed by the churning seas and blackening sky immediately attracts our attention. We then become caught up in the disciples’ terrified responses, each meticulously characterized to encourage and sustain prolonged, empathetic looking. Only one figure looks directly out at us as he steadies himself by grasping a rope and holds onto his cap. His face seems familiar from Rembrandt’s self-portraits, and as his gaze fixes on ours we recognize that we have become imaginative participants in the painter’s vivid dramatization of a disaster Christ is about to avert.
Source: Michael Zell, "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 145.
Permanent Gallery Location
Dutch Room
Bibliography
Arnold Houbraken. De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlandtsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen, I (Amsterdam, 1718), p. 260. (as "St. Peter's boat")Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 14.Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 169.Philip Hendy. Catalogue of the Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 295-96, ill.Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 184.James W. Howard, Jr. "Rembrandt van Rijn: The Storm on the Sea of Galilee." Fenway Court (1970), pp. 33-38, nos. 1, 4.Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 201, 203-04 ill., pl. XXX.Rollin van N. Hadley. Museums Discovered: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. (Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 1981), pp. 84-85, ill.J. W. Niemeijer. "The Art Collection of John Hope." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 32 (1981), pp. 195 no. 194 and fig. 18, 232.John Walsh. "Rembrandt's Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee Re-examined." Fenway Court (1986), pp. 6-19, nos. 1-2, 9.Josua Bruyn, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, II (The Hague, 1986), pp. 302-310 (A68), figs. 1-6Ernst van de Wetering. "The Canvas Support." In Josua Bruyn et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, II (The Hague, 1986), pp. 26, 38-39, 41.Josua Bruyn. "A Selection of Signatures, 1632-1634." In Josua Bruyn et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, II (The Hague, 1986), pp. 102-03 fig. 8.Josua Bruyn and Ernst van de Wetering. "Stylistic Features of the 1630s: The History Paintings." In Josua Bruyn et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, III (The Hague, 1986), p. 6 fig. 4.Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner 1887-1924 (Boston, 1987), pp. 147, 149-50, 152-53, 155-56, 159, 328.Hilliard Goldfarb. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Companion Guide and History (Boston, 1995), pp. 92, 97-99 ill., 103.Harry Mount (ed.). Sir Joshua Reynolds. A Journey to Flanders and Holland (Cambridge, 1996; originally published in the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1797), pp. 101, 171 n. 502.Alan Chong. "The Myth of Young Genius: Understanding Rembrandt's Early Career." In Hilliard Goldfarb and Alan Chong (ed.), Rembrandt Creates Rembrandt: Art and Ambition in Leiden, 1629–1631. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2001), pp. 75 fig. 70, 80.Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), pp. 144-45, ill.Cynthia Saltzman. Old Masters, New World: America’s Raid on Europe’s Great Pictures (New York: Penguin Books, 2008), pp. 84, 161.Ernst Wetering et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 6: Rembrandt's Paintings Revisited - A Complete Survey (The Hague, 2014), pp. 174, 530, no. 165.Onno Blom. De jonge Rembrandt: een Biografie (Amsterdam: De Mezige Bij, 2019), p. 160, ill. p. 161.Anja K. Sevcik (eds.) Inside Rembrandt 1606-1669. Exh. cat. (Petersberg, 2019) pp. 212, fig. 63.1Rights and reproductions
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Dutch Room
Commentary
Rembrandt’s most striking narrative painting in America, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, is also his only painted seascape. Dated 1633, it was made shortly after Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam from his native Leiden, when he was establishing himself as the city’s leading painter of portraits and historical subjects. The detailed rendering of the scene, the figures’ varied expressions, the relatively polished brushwork, and the bright coloring are characteristic of Rembrandt’s early style. Eighteenth-century critics like Arnold Houbraken often preferred this early period to Rembrandt’s later, broader, and less descriptive manner.
The biblical scene pitches nature against human frailty – both physical and spiritual. The panic-stricken disciples struggle against a sudden storm, and fight to regain control of their fishing boat as a huge wave crashes over its bow, ripping the sail and drawing the craft perilously close to the rocks in the left foreground. One of the disciples succumbs to the sea’s violence by vomiting over the side. Amidst this chaos, only Christ, at the right, remains calm, like the eye of the storm. Awakened by the disciples’ desperate pleas for help, he rebukes them: “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” and then rises to calm the fury of wind and waves. Nature’s upheaval is both cause and metaphor for the terror that grips the disciples, magnifying the emotional turbulence and thus the image’s dramatic impact.
The painting showcases the young Rembrandt’s ability not only to represent a sacred history, but also to seize our attention and immerse us in an unfolding pictorial drama. For greatest immediacy, he depicted the event as if it were a contemporary scene of a fishing boat menaced by a storm. The spectacle of darkness and light formed by the churning seas and blackening sky immediately attracts our attention. We then become caught up in the disciples’ terrified responses, each meticulously characterized to encourage and sustain prolonged, empathetic looking. Only one figure looks directly out at us as he steadies himself by grasping a rope and holds onto his cap. His face seems familiar from Rembrandt’s self-portraits, and as his gaze fixes on ours we recognize that we have become imaginative participants in the painter’s vivid dramatization of a disaster Christ is about to avert.
Source: Michael Zell, "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 145.
The biblical scene pitches nature against human frailty – both physical and spiritual. The panic-stricken disciples struggle against a sudden storm, and fight to regain control of their fishing boat as a huge wave crashes over its bow, ripping the sail and drawing the craft perilously close to the rocks in the left foreground. One of the disciples succumbs to the sea’s violence by vomiting over the side. Amidst this chaos, only Christ, at the right, remains calm, like the eye of the storm. Awakened by the disciples’ desperate pleas for help, he rebukes them: “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” and then rises to calm the fury of wind and waves. Nature’s upheaval is both cause and metaphor for the terror that grips the disciples, magnifying the emotional turbulence and thus the image’s dramatic impact.
The painting showcases the young Rembrandt’s ability not only to represent a sacred history, but also to seize our attention and immerse us in an unfolding pictorial drama. For greatest immediacy, he depicted the event as if it were a contemporary scene of a fishing boat menaced by a storm. The spectacle of darkness and light formed by the churning seas and blackening sky immediately attracts our attention. We then become caught up in the disciples’ terrified responses, each meticulously characterized to encourage and sustain prolonged, empathetic looking. Only one figure looks directly out at us as he steadies himself by grasping a rope and holds onto his cap. His face seems familiar from Rembrandt’s self-portraits, and as his gaze fixes on ours we recognize that we have become imaginative participants in the painter’s vivid dramatization of a disaster Christ is about to avert.
Source: Michael Zell, "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 145.