Joseph Telling his Dreams

Rembrandt · 1633
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rembrandt painted this small sketch in 1633, using only browns, greys and whites — a grisaille — on a sheet of paper. Five years later he etched the same scene.

Young Joseph stands in the light and tells his dream. His old father listens from his chair, a woman leans out of the curtained bed, and the brothers crowd together at the left, some leaning in, some looking away.

From the text

Joseph telling his dreams to his brothers (Genesis 37:5–9)

Telling his father too, who rebukes him (Genesis 37:10)

The brothers jealous, the father keeping it in mind (Genesis 37:11)

The artist’s own

A Dutch room with a curtained box bed

A woman listening from the bed; the text only mentions “your mother”

Turbans and caps of the kind Rembrandt used for biblical figures

A dog asleep on the floor

Details

Joseph

A curly-haired youth in a pale tunic, one hand open as he speaks.

Jacob

The old father sits in a heavy robe, feet on a low footstool.

From the bed

A woman in a white headdress leans out to listen.

The brothers

Crowded together in turbans and caps, one with a paper in his hands.

A sleeping dog

Curled up on the floor in the corner.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (SK-A-3477; purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt) · Oil paint on paper, mounted on cardboard · Image: "Public Domain" (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/); object metadata: CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) — Rijksmuseum Linked Art record.

The verses

Gen 37:5–11Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.” “Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and his statements. Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said.