The old man in a soft cap looks out at the viewer, not at the child.
Bible in art · Genesis
Abraham Caressing Isaac
Rembrandt · c. 1637
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Rembrandt etched this small plate about 1637. No verse describes the scene: the title is traditional, and the Rijksmuseum still calls the same print Jacob caressing Benjamin.
An old father sits with his young son leaning on his knee. The boy holds a fruit and smiles; the father, with one hand under the child’s chin, looks straight out at us. Above them a flowering plant is drawn in fine, free lines.
From the text
- Isaac born to Abraham in his old age (Genesis 21:2–5)
- The child growing up (Genesis 21:8)
The artist’s own
- A quiet moment between father and son that the text does not tell
- The boy dressed in a fur-trimmed coat, like a child of a rich Amsterdam family
Details
The father
The boy
He leans on his father’s knee, smiling, a round fruit in his hands.
A flowering plant
Lilies and leaves drawn in a few fine, free lines.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.7238) · Etching · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)