Joseph in Prison Interpreting the Dreams of the Butler and the Baker

Rembrandt · c. 1650–1655
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rembrandt made this pen drawing in Amsterdam in the early 1650s, with a few touches of white to correct lines.

Joseph, young and beardless, sits facing the two prisoners and asks them about their dreams. One sits slumped with his head on his hand; the other leans over a ledge behind him. A basket on the floor may stand for the baker’s dream.

From the text

Two prisoners troubled after a dream on the same night (Genesis 40:5–6)

Joseph: “Tell me your dreams” (Genesis 40:8)

The baker’s dream of baskets (Genesis 40:16)

The artist’s own

A bare room with a ledge for the prison

One basket on the floor, where the baker dreamed of three on his head

Details

Joseph

The young man raises his hand as he asks the prisoners to tell their dreams.

Downcast

A prisoner sits slumped, his head on his hand.

The other prisoner

A bearded man in a cap leans over the ledge and listens.

A basket

A woven basket lies on the floor.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt; RP-T-1901-A-4529) · Pen and brown ink, with opaque white; framing line in brown ink · 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 40:5–8both of these men—the Egyptian king’s cupbearer and baker, who were being held in the prison—had a dream on the same night, and each dream had its own meaning. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were distraught. So he asked the officials of Pharaoh who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why are your faces so downcast today?” “We both had dreams,” they replied, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”