She sits up in the bed and stretches out her hand as she speaks.
Bible in art · Genesis
Potiphar's Wife Accusing Joseph Before her Husband
Rembrandt · 1620–69
The Met, New York
A pen drawing in faint brown ink and wash, made in Amsterdam. Rembrandt came back to this story several times; in 1655 he also painted it.
Potiphar’s wife sits up in bed and tells her story, her hand stretched towards a dark heap on the bed — the cloak she kept. Her husband stands before her, hand on his chest, and listens. Much of the room is only hinted at.
From the text
- The cloak kept beside her until her husband came home (Genesis 39:16)
- Her story told to Potiphar (Genesis 39:17–18)
The artist’s own
- The accusation made from a curtained bed, in a Dutch bedroom
- Potiphar in a turban, as Rembrandt dressed Eastern figures
Details
Her story
The cloak
A dark patch of wash on the bed beside her hand — the cloak she kept.
Potiphar
In a turban and long coat, one hand on his chest, he listens.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Gift of Dr. F. H. Hirschland, 1953; acc. 53.203) · Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash; framing lines in pen and brown ink · Public Domain — The Met Open Access (CC0). The Met Collection API record: "isPublicDomain": true; The Met marks such works on its website "with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) icon".