He stands still, looking down at the sisters.
Bible in art · John
The Meeting of Christ with Martha and Mary after the Death of Lazarus
Rembrandt · c. 1662–65
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A late drawing in reed pen and brown ink with wash, made around 1662–65; scholars now count it among Rembrandt’s rare drawings from his last years. The broad, rough strokes of the reed pen are typical of that time.
Jesus stands calm and upright. Before him one sister kneels with her arms thrown forward and the other lies at his feet. Above the kneeling sister Rembrandt covered a standing figure with white paint.
From the text
- Martha going out to meet him (John 11:20)
- “When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet” (John 11:32)
- The Jews who had come with her also weeping (John 11:33)
The artist’s own
- Both sisters together at his feet — in John they come one after the other
- Turbaned onlookers at the right
Details
Jesus
Kneeling
A sister kneels with arms thrown out; her hands are drawn more than once.
At his feet
The second sister lies face down on the ground.
Covered over
White paint hides a standing figure that Rembrandt changed his mind about.
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). The Cleveland Museum of Art (Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1962.116) · Reed pen and brown ink and wash, heightened with white gouache (in the heads of the kneeling figures) · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).