Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000323About the Artwork
This drawing is a prime example of the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn's innovative approach to biblical narrative, in which he often humanized traditional pictorial formulas through the inclusion of observed details from everyday life. It depicts the climactic moment of the Book of Tobit, an apocryphal book of the Old Testament, in which, instructed by the archangel Raphael, Tobias heals his father Tobit's blindness by rubbing his eyes with fish gall. With spontaneity, a deft hand, and deceptive simplicity in his mark-making, Rembrandt depicts an intimate family scene including the archangel, Tobias, Hannah, and Sarah around a seated Tobit. Hannah’s spectacles, a unique detail among images of the scene created by Rembrandt and his circle, further thematizes sight. Rembrandt’s most innovative addition to the story centers on Tobias, who concentrates intensely to use a scalpel, rather than fish gall, to perform a cataract operation on his father’s left eye. Cataract surgery was a new procedure pioneered in Amsterdam in 1635 by Dr. Job Janszoon van Meekren, and Rembrandt may have witnessed the doctor perform it.
Inscriptions
verso, upper center, in graphite: -13 [crossed out]; upper right, in black chalk: rembrant; upper right, in brown ink: D; upper center, in brown ink: [15-50?] / Tobias; upper left, in brown ink: 9 [sideways]; lower left, in brown ink: [illegible, cropped]; lower left, in brown ink: No 2910; lower left, in brown ink: Rembrandt; lower right, in brown ink: -d[l?]-13 [upside down]
Provenance
?-1844: Ignace-Joseph de Claussin, Paris and London, 1766-1844 (Lugt 485, not stamped); his sale, Batignolles, Paris, 2 December 1844, lot 53 ("Tobie recouvrant la vue") to Van Os. 1844-1851: George Jacob Johan van Os, Paris and Amsterdam, 1782-1861; his sale, Roussel et Defer, Paris, 20-22 January, 1851, lot 179 ("Tobie recouvrant la vue") ?-1900: Collection Defer-Dumesnil, Pierre Defer (1798-1870) and Henri Dumesnil (1823-1898), Paris (Lugt 739); his sale, Drouot, Paris, 10-12 May, 1900, lot 84) to Reinach 1900-?: Joseph Reinach, Paris, 1856-1921. by descent to Madame Pierre Goujon, daughter of Joseph Reinach, Paris with Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York 1969-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970). Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973). Seventeenth Century Dutch Drawings from American Collections. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (January 28-March 13, 1977); Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (April 1-May 15, 1977); Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (June 1-July 15, 1977). Italian Drawings with von Hirsh Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 15-December 4, 1978). Seventeenth Century Netherlandish Graphics. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-August 1, 1982). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Netherlandish Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 10-December 31, 1989). Rembrandt: The Master and His Workshop. Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany (organizer) (co-organizer) (September 12-November 10, 1991); Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (co-organizer) (December 4, 1991-March 1, 1992). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). Rembrandt's Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (February 14-May 9, 2004). Rembrandt in America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 19-May 28, 2012). Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669)
- Date
- c. 1640–45
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, touched with white gouache; framing lines in pen and brown ink
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 21.1 x 17.7 cm (8 5/16 x 6 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 1969.69
More by Rembrandt van Rijn in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00000323
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