The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel

Claes Moeyaert · c. 1638
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Claes Moeyaert was a history painter in Amsterdam, one of the circle of artists around Pieter Lastman, Rembrandt’s teacher. He painted this small panel, 60 cm wide, about 1638.

At a well in front of a ruined arch, two shepherds work the heavy stone with a long pole while Jacob, in a red coat, turns to speak to Rachel across the well. Goats, sheep and a dog crowd in from the right under a wide, cloudy sky.

From the text

A large stone over the mouth of the well, rolled away when the flocks were gathered (Genesis 29:2–3)

Rachel coming with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess (Genesis 29:9)

Jacob rolling the stone away and watering the flock (Genesis 29:10)

The artist’s own

A ruined brick arch, like the Roman ruins Dutch painters drew in Italy

Jacob in a red coat with a flask at his belt

The stone lifted with a wooden lever

A dog and a white goat lying in the foreground

Details

Jacob

A young man in a long red coat, a flask at his belt, leans on the well.

Rachel

Across the well a young woman listens to him.

The stone

A shepherd heaves at a long pole to shift the heavy stone.

The flock

Goats and sheep, a dog, and a white goat resting in front.

A ruin

An old brick arch, half fallen, with a tree growing over it.

Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert, Dutch, c. 1591–1655. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (SK-A-1485; acquired from the Vereniging Rembrandt, 1889; on loan to the Museum Het Rembrandthuis since 2004) · Oil on panel · 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 29:2–3He looked and saw a well in the field, and near it lay three flocks of sheep, because the sheep were watered from this well. And a large stone covered the mouth of the well. When all the flocks had been gathered there, the shepherds would roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.

Gen 29:9–11While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, with Laban’s sheep, he went up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.