Isaac and Rebecca or The Jewish Bride by Rembrandt van Rijn was created in 1665 – 1669. The painting is in Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. The size of the work is 121,5 x 166,5 cm and is made of oil on canvas.
To prevent being killed and having his wife captured by King Abimelech, Isaac concealed his love for Rebecca by pretending they were brother and sister. However, their intimacy betrayed them when they thought they were not being spied on. Rembrandt depicts them in a tender moment. Furthermore, he works with exceptional freedom, applies the paint thickly, and scratches into it with the butt end of his paintbrush. Read more in Rijksmuseum.
About the Artist
Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman Rembrandt was born on 15 July 1606 in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic, now the Netherlands. As a boy, he attended a Latin school. At the age of 13, he was enrolled at the University of Leiden, although according to a contemporary he had a greater inclination towards painting. In 1624 or 1625, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden, which he shared with friend and colleague Jan Lievens. In 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students, which included Gerrit Dou in 1628 and Isaac de Jouderville.
At the end of 1631, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, a city rapidly expanding as the business and trade capital. He began to practice as a professional portraitist for the first time, with great success. He initially stayed with an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, and in 1634, married Hendrick’s cousin, Saskia van Uylenburgh. Throughout his career, Rembrandt took as his primary subjects the themes of portraiture, landscape and narrative painting. For the last, he was especially praised by his contemporaries, who extolled him as a masterly interpreter of biblical stories for his skill in representing emotions and attention to detail… Read more
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