A Woman in Bed
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 to 1669) · About 1647
A young woman leans out from a curtained bed, pushing the heavy red drape aside with one hand and resting the other on the wooden frame. She wears a nightcap and a loose chemise, a gold chain at her neck, and she looks intently at something beyond the edge of the picture. The light comes from the same direction, catching her face, her arm and the bedclothes, while everything else drops into darkness. It is a private, almost intrusive moment, and one of Rembrandt's most tender paintings.
The subject is probably Sarah from the Book of Tobit, watching on her wedding night as her husband Tobias burns the heart of a fish to drive away the demon who had killed her seven previous bridegrooms. That would explain her anxious concentration. Look at how the paint changes: the face and hand are modelled softly, the gold chain is a few flicks of thick impasto, and the curtain is dragged on with a broad, loaded brush. The signature and date on the bed are hard to read, and the picture has been dated anywhere between 1645 and 1649.
The woman may be Geertje Dircx, the widow who cared for Rembrandt's son Titus after Saskia's death and became his companion, or Hendrickje Stoffels, who joined the household soon after. The painting came to Edinburgh in 1892 as a gift from the brewer William McEwan, one of the great benefactors of the gallery. Among the Dutch pictures here it is the one people return to, because the woman's expression is so alive and so hard to pin down.
Did You Know? Rembrandt's relationship with Geertje Dircx ended badly: she sued him for breach of promise and he had her committed to a house of correction.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.