Rembrandt shows the biblical figure Bathsheba completely nude, lost in a moment of contemplation and unaware that she is being observed by King David in the distant tower in the background. Many contemporary critics objected to Rembrandt’s realistic representation of the female body, declaring that the marks of garters could be seen on the legs of his figures from history or myth—see Bathsheba’s left calf here. Much of the picture is badly abraded from past cleaning, including the attendant arranging Bathsheba’s hair, who may have been intended to represent a woman of African descent.
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Fig. 1. Etching by J. M. Moreau the Younger (MMA 62.695.125; reversed)
Artwork Details
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Title:The Toilet of Bathsheba
Artist:Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam)
Date:1643
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:22 1/2 x 30 in. (57.2 x 76.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
Object Number:14.40.651
This panel is one of several finely painted cabinet pictures made by Rembrandt during the 1640s. The subject of Bathsheba is from the Bible (2 Samuel 11-12) and was common in northern European art from the early sixteenth century onward. Its popularity derived, in part, from the inclusion of a nude female. The theme also carried strong moral associations: King David (barely discernable in the distant palace) spies on and falls in love with the beautiful Bathsheba and arranges for her husband to be killed in battle. He is reprimanded by the prophet Nathan; the child he and Bathsheba had conceived dies, and David repents. Rembrandt painted another work of this subject, about 1632; it is now lost, though known through a copy in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Rennes. His great canvas in the Louvre of 1654 introduces a mood of portending tragedy quite distinct from this earlier treatment.
The background of the picture is abraded and the head and torso of the servant are badly worn. However, the foreground and the figures of the old woman and Bathesheba are well preserved, and cleaning of the picture in 1995 revealed an autograph work. Some scholars, beginning with Gerson in 1968, had considered it a product of the workshop with, perhaps, some retouching by Rembrandt. An etching by Jean Michel Moreau the Younger, dated 1763 (The Met, 62.695.125; see fig. 1 above), clarifies the original effect of space and illustrates how much detail has been lost. A later print by Le Grand (Basan 1781) largely agrees with the Moreau etching. However, an etching by John Burnet (Smith 1836), dated 1815, shows the background in approximately its present state, indicating that the painting had been drastically overcleaned in the intervening years.
[2010; adapted from Liedtke 2007]
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): Rembrandt f / 1643
Willem Six, Amsterdam (until 1734; his sale, Schoemaker . . . ten Brink, Amsterdam, May 12, 1734, no. 56, for fl. 265 to Hoogenbergh); Heer van Zwieten (until 1741; his sale, The Hague, April 12, 1741, no. 130, for fl. 350 to De Hond); comte de Brühl, Dresden (in 1763); Poullain, Paris (until d. 1780; his estate sale, Le Brun, Paris, March 15–21, 1780, no. 37, for 2,400 livres to Le Brun); [Le Brun, Paris, 1780–at least 1791; his sale, Paris, April 20, 1791, no. 53, for 1,000 livres, bought in]; Alexandre Delahante, London (until 1814; his sale, Phillips, London, June 3, 1814, no. 25, for £105 to Geddes); Sir Thomas Lawrence, London (until d. 1830; his estate sale, Christie's, London, May 15, 1830, no. 120, for £157.10 to Smith); [John Smith, London, 1830; sold to Vernon]; G. J. Vernon (until 1830–31; his anonymous sale, Christie's, London, April 16, 1831, no. 48, for £160.13 to Emmerson); Thomas Emmerson, London (1831–32; his sale, Phillips, London, June 16, 1832, no. 135, for £252 to [or bought in by] Wilson); ?[Phillips, London, from 1832]; Colonel de Biré, Brussels (until 1841; his anonymous sale, organized by Héris, Hôtel rue des Jeuneurs, 16, Paris, March 25, 1841, no. 6, for Fr 7,880); Baron Steengracht van Oosterland, The Hague (by 1859–d. 1875); his grandson, Baron H. A. Steengracht van Duivenvoorde, The Hague (1875–d. 1912; his estate sale, George Petit, Paris, June 9, 1913, no. 61, for Fr 1,000,000 [plus Fr 100,000 fee] to Duveen); [Duveen, Paris, 1913; sold for $213,621.50 to Altman]; Benjamin Altman, New York (d. 1913)
Amsterdam. Stedelijk Museum. "Rembrandt Schilderijen," September 8–October 31, 1898, no. 56 (lent by Jhr. Steengracht van Duivenvoorde, The Hague).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Art of Rembrandt," January 21–March 29, 1942, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rembrandt," 1952, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Painter's Light," October 5–November 10, 1971, no. 19.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 10, 1995–January 7, 1996, no. 10.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met," October 16, 2018–October 4, 2020, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Making The Met, 1870–2020," August 29, 2020–January 3, 2021, unnumbered cat. (fig. 66).
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT, BY TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.
"Kunst- en letternieuws." Het vaderland 45, no. 275, p. 3.
Gerard Hoet. Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen, zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere Plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt. Vol. 1, The Hague, 1752, p. 413, no. 56, as sold for fl. 265 in the Willem Six sale of 1734.
Gerard Hoet. Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen, zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere Plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt. Vol. 2, The Hague, 1752, p. 21, no. 130, as sold for fl. 350 in the Zwieten sale of 1731 [sic for 1741].
François Basan. Collection de cent-vingt estampes . . . qui composoient le cabinet de M. Poullain. Paris, 1781, p. 15, no. 84, ill. (engraving), publishes an engraving after it by Le Grand; as also engraved by Moreau.
John Smith. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters. Vol. 7, London, 1836, p. 13, no. 33, as etched by Burnet; lists it as in an anonymous sale in Amsterdam in 1740, sold for fl. 350 [probably the Heer Hendrick Trip sale, but see Notes].
Charles Blanc. Le trésor de la curiosité. Vol. 2, Paris, 1858, p. 441, as engraved by Schmidt [Smith]; erroneously states that it was in the collection of William IV, King of England [sic for Willem Six].
W. Burger [Théophile Thoré]. "Sur Brouwer." L'artiste, n.s., 6 (January 23, 1859), p. 59.
Ronald Sutherland Gower. Art Galleries: Belgium and Holland. 1875, p . 57 [see Ref. Steengracht 1913], mentions having seen it [while it was in either the Biré or Steengracht collection].
C. Vosmaer. Rembrandt, sa vie et ses ouevres. 2nd ed. The Hague, 1877, pp. 250–52, 255, 532–33, 586, states that it was in the collection of the comte de Brühl; mentions an engraving of Bathsheba by Buytewech, suggesting that Rembrandt may have seen it; notes that a pen drawing of Bathsheba with a servant was in the Suermondt collection.
"Art in the Netherlands: The Gallery of M. Le Baron Steengracht D'Oosterland." Magazine of Art 3 (1880), pp. 153–54.
Wilhelm [von] Bode. Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei. Braunschweig, 1883, pp. 451–52, 559, no. 16.
Eugène Dutuit. Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt. Paris, 1885, pp. 2, 8, 16, 54, 68, no. 28.
Alfred von Wurzbach. Rembrandt-galerie. Stuttgart, 1886, text vol., no. 351.
Alfred Woltmann and Karl Woermann. Geschichte der Malerei. Vol. 3, part 2, Leipzig, 1888, p. 699.
J. F. van Someren. Oude Kunst in Nederland. Amsterdam, [1888–91], p. ? [see Ref. Steengracht 1913], publishes an engraving by Steelink.
"Review of Someren 1888–91." Het vaderland (November 28, 1889), p. 2.
Emile Michel. Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, and His Time. English ed. New York, 1894, vol. 2, p. 245.
C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. "Een merkwaardige verzameling teekeningen." Oud-Holland 13 (1895), p. 240, states that Lastman's Bathsheba (Hermitage, St. Petersburg), recorded in a drawing by Bramer (Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam), seems to be the prototype for this painting.
Georges Lafenestre and Eugène Richtenberger. La Peinture en Europe: La Hollande. Paris, [1898], p. 159, ill. opp. p. 158.
C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. De Rembrandt Tentoonstelling te Amsterdam. Amsterdam, [1898], unpaginated, no. 14 [text section] and no. 56, pl. 14.
Marcel Nicolle. "L'Exposition Rembrandt à Amsterdam." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 4 (July–December 1898), p. 548, ill. opp. p. 540.
Malcolm Bell. Rembrandt van Rijn and His Work. London, 1899, pp. 76, 176.
Marcel Nicolle. Rembrandt aux expositions d'Amsterdam et de Londres. Paris, 1899, p. 26, ill., reprints Ref. Nicolle 1898.
C. G. 'T Hooft. Verzameling Jhr. Steengracht van Duivenvoorde. 1899, unpaginated, ill.
Wilhelm [von] Bode with the assistance of C. Hofstede de Groot. The Complete Work of Rembrandt. Vol. 4, Paris, 1900, pp. 12–13, 82, no. 246, pl. 246.
Adolf Rosenberg. Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde. Stuttgart, 1904, pp. XXVIII, 259, 266, ill. p. 132.
Gustave Geffroy. La Hollande: Amsterdam, Alkmaar, Haarlem, Leyde, La Haye, Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Utrecht. Paris, [1904], pp. 128–29, ill., suggests that Saskia was the model.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Rembrandt und seine Umgebung. Strasbourg, 1905, pp. 83–84, observes that the woman cutting Bathsheba's toenails does not appear in Lastman's painting of this subject, and suggests that the source for this motif was a Tintoretto ["Susanna and the Elders"] in the Louvre, probably known to Rembrandt through an engraving.
Carl Neumann. Rembrandt. 2nd ed. Berlin, 1905, vol. 1, pp. 213, 304, fig. 71; vol. 2, p. 436.
Adolf Rosenberg. Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde. 2nd ed. Stuttgart, 1906, p. 400, ill. p. 209.
Jan Veth. Rembrandt's Leven en Kunst. Amsterdam, 1906, p. 58.
[Wilhelm von] Bode. "Pieter Lastmans Gemälde der Susanna mit den Alten und seine Beziehungen zu den Darstellungen des gleichen Motivs von Rembrandt." Amtliche Berichte aus den königl. Kunstsammlungen 30 (December 1908), col. 59.
Adolf Rosenberg. Rembrandt, des Meisters Gemälde. Ed. W. R. Valentiner. 3rd ed. Stuttgart, 1909, p. 556, ill. p. 228.
Kurt Freise. "Bathsebabilder von Rembrandt und Lastman." Monatshefte fuer Kunstwissenschaft 2 (1909), pp. 302–13, fig. 4.
Alfred von Wurzbach. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon. Vol. 2, Vienna, 1910, p. 400.
Kurt Freise. Peter Lastman: sein Leben und seine Kunst. Leipzig, 1911, pp. 150, 251, 253–57.
"Das Schicksal der Steengracht-Galerie." Der Cicerone 4 (1912), p. 522.
Emile Dacier. "La Galerie Steengracht." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 33 (1913), pp. 354–55, ill. p. 353.
R[obert]. E. D[ell]. "Art in France." Burlington Magazine 22 (January 1913), p. 238.
Wilhelm von Bode. Letter to Henry Duveen. May 1, 1913, calls it an exceptionally fine work by Rembrandt in an excellent state.
M[ax]. J. F[riedländer]. "Auktionsnachrichten." Kunst und Künstler 11 (1913), p. 531.
Karl Lilienfeld. "Die Sammlung Steengracht zu ihrer Bevorstehenden Auflösung." Der Cicerone 5 (1913), pp. 328–29, ill. p. 327.
"D'un Rembrandt, chez Petit, on donne un million cent mille francs." New York Herald [Paris] (June 10, 1913), p. ?, ill.
Galerie Steengracht. Galerie Georges Petit, Paris. June 9, 1913, vol. 1, pp. 77–80, no. 61, ill. opp. p. 78, gives extensive provenance and bibliographic information.
"De Vereeniging "Rembrandt" koopt op de veiling Steengracht." Algemeen handelsblad 86, no. 27358 (June 10, 1913), p. 6, as "Bethsabée".
"Beeldende Kunsten: Collectie Steengracht." De Telegraaf (June 10, 1913), p. 3, as "Bethsabée".
"Het einde van de Steengracht-verzameling." Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant (June 9, 1913), p. B1, as "Batseba".
Handbook of the Benjamin Altman Collection. New York, 1914, pp. 15–18, no. 9.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. "The Rembrandts of the Altman Collection: I." Art in America 2 (August 1914), pp. 356–57.
W. Stchawinsky. "Trois générations." Starye Gody (May 1914), pp. 25–30, ill. between pp. 26 and 27.
"Peinture et spéculation: La vogue de l'ecole Hollandaise." La gazette de Hollande (1914), p. 1, as "Bethsabée".
"The Altman Collection in the Metropolitan Museum, New York." Art and Progress 6 (January 1915), p. 81.
C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Ed. Edward G. Hawke. Vol. 6, London, 1916, pp. 44–45, no. 40.
Isabella Errera. Répertoire des peintures datées. Vol. 1, Brussels, 1920, p. 236.
Algernon Graves. Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century. Vol. 2, H to Reme. London, 1921, pp. 379–80.
François Monod. "La Galerie Altman au Metropolitan Museum de New-York (2e article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 5th ser., 8 (November 1923), pp. 303–4.
D. S. Meldrum. Rembrandt's Paintings. London, 1923, p. 10 n. 4, pp. 88, 110–11, 113, 197, pl. CCXCII.
Alan Burroughs. "Rembrandts in the Metropolitan Museum." The Arts 4 (November 1923), p. 270, ill. p. 263.
Werner Weisbach. Rembrandt. Berlin, 1926, pp. 244, 247–49, 429–30, 612 n. 6 to chapter 8, fig. 65.
E. W. Bredt. Die Rembrandt-Bibel, altes und neues Testament. [3rd ed.]. Munich, [1926], ill. p. 110.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Rembrandt Paintings in America. New York, 1931, unpaginated, no. 75, pl. 75.
A[braham]. Bredius. Rembrandt Gemälde. Vienna, 1935, p. 22, no. 513, pl. 513.
O[tto]. Benesch inAllgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Hans Vollmer. Vol. 29, Leipzig, 1935, p. 264.
William M. Ivins Jr. "The Art of Rembrandt." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 37 (January 1942), pp. 3, 6, ill. p. 7.
Introduction by William M. Ivins Jr. The Unseen Rembrandt. New York, 1942, pls. 7–8 (overall and detail).
Julius S. Held. "Rembrandt: The Self-Education of an Artist." Art News 40 (February 1–14, 1942), p. 14, ill. pp. 11 (detail), 28.
Margaret Breuning. "Metropolitan Re-Installs Its Treasures in Attractive Settings." Art Digest 18 (June 1, 1944), ill. p. 6.
Josephine L. Allen. "The Museum's Rembrandts." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 4 (November 1945), p. 77.
Richard Hamann. Rembrandt. Potsdam, 1948, pp. 328, 333, 337, 364, fig. 227.
Jakob Rosenberg. Rembrandt. Cambridge, Mass., 1948, vol. 1, pp. 195, 202; vol. 2, pl. 257.
Henrik Bramsen. "The Classicism of Rembrandt's 'Bathsheba'." Burlington Magazine 92 (May 1950), p. 128.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "Rembrandt." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 11 (November 1952), pp. 84–85, ill.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 81.
Gerard Knuttel. "On the Bathseba of Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum, New York." Actes du XVIIme congrès international d'histoire de l'art. The Hague, 1955, pp. 421–24, fig. 2.
Werner Sumowski. "Nachträge zum Rembrandtjahr 1956." Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 7, no. 2 (1957/58), p. 227.
Gerard Knuttel. Adriaen Brouwer: The Master and His Work. The Hague, 1962, p. 97 n. 1.
Elisabeth Kunoth-Leifels. Über die Darstellungen der "Bathseba im Bade". Essen, 1962, pp. 64, 69–71, 87–88 nn. 141–43, 146–47, fig. 56, notes that Rembrandt did not necessarily adopt the motif of a servant cutting Bathsheba's toenails from Tintiretto's painting in the Louvre.
Jakob Rosenberg. Rembrandt: Life & Work. rev. ed. London, 1964, pp. 221, 310, 321, fig. 257.
Kurt Bauch. Rembrandt Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, p. 2, pl. 25.
Madlyn Kahr. "Rembrandt's Esther: A Painting and an Etching Newly Interpreted and Dated." Oud Holland 81 (1966), p. 236.
Horst Gerson. Rembrandt Paintings. Ed. Gary Schwartz. Amsterdam, 1968, p. 496, no. 213, ill. p. 321, as a reworking by Rembrandt of an earlier painting by a pupil.
Christian Tümpel. "Studien zur Ikonografie der Historien Rembrandts: Deutung von bisher nicht oder falsch gedeuteten Historien." PhD diss., Universität Hamburg, 1968, pp. 104–5 [published in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 20 (1969), pp. 167–68].
Paolo Lecaldano inL'opera pittorica completa di Rembrandt. Milan, 1969, p. 111, no. 250, ill. p. 110.
Horst Gerson, ed. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings.. By A[braham]. Bredius. 3rd ed. London, 1969, pp. 589, 600, no. 513, ill. p. 425.
Benjamin A. Rifkin. "Rembrandt and His Circle, Part I." Art News 68 (May 1969), pp. 26, 64, supports the attribution to Rembrandt.
H[orst]. Gerson. "The Rembrandt Exhibitions of 1969." Burlington Magazine 111 (December 1969), p. 782, as "an example of a pupil's picture reworked by Rembrandt".
Wolfgang Stechow. "Some Observations on Rembrandt and Lastman." CAA: 57th Annual Conference. January 1969 [published in Oud Holland 84 (1969), p. 161].
Francis Haskell. "The Benjamin Altman Bequest." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 276–78, fig. 18.
Jacques Foucart inLe siècle de Rembrandt: Tableaux hollandais des collections publiques françaises. Exh. cat., Petit Palais. Paris, 1970, p. 182.
Edward Fowles. Memories of Duveen Brothers. London, 1976, pp. 76–77.
B[en]. P. J. Broos. Index to the Formal Sources of Rembrandt's Art. Maarssen, The Netherlands, 1977, p. 54.
Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen. The Rembrandt Documents. New York, 1979, p. 237.
Christopher Brown. Carel Fabritius. Oxford, 1981, p. 26.
Werner Sumowski. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. Vol. 4, Ch. Paudiss–Anonyme. Landau/Pfalz, 1983–[94?], pp. 2877–78, 2885 n. 56, as by a pupil.
Werner Sumowski. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. Vol. 5, Nachträge Ortsregister. Landau/Pfalz, 1983–[94?], pp. 3367, 3407.
Colin Eisler. "Rembrandt and Bathsheba." Essays in Northern European Art Presented to Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann on His Sixtieth Birthday. Ed. Anne-Marie Logan. Doornspijk, The Netherlands, 1983, pp. 85–88, fig. 3, notes Gerson's opinion [see Ref. 1968] that it is a reworking by Rembrandt of a student piece, but argues that Rembrandt may have painted it in the 1630s and returned to it in the 1640s; states that the composition was influenced by a red chalk drawing (Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin) made by Rembrandt in the 1630s after Lastman's "Susanna" of 1614 (Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin).
Amy Golahny. "Rembrandt's Early 'Bathsheba': The Raphael Connection." Art Bulletin 65 (December 1983), pp. 671–75, fig. 1, states that Bathsheba's pose is adapted from the lost Raphael drawing "Alexander and Roxane," recorded in an engraving by Jacopo Caraglio.
Gary Schwartz. Rembrandt, His Life, His Paintings. New York, 1985, pp. 226, 228, 234, fig. 245 (color).
Christian Tümpel. Rembrandt: Mythos und Methode. Königstein, 1986, pp. 287–88, 419, no. A1, ill. (color), as by a pupil.
Svetlana [L.] Alpers. Rembrandt's Enterprise: The Studio and the Market. Chicago, 1988, p. 75, fig. 3.39.
Walter Liedtke. "Dutch Paintings in America: The Collectors and Their Ideals." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1990, p. 48.
Edwin Buijsen in Ben Broos. "The Battle Against the Dollar: The Dutch Reaction to American Collecting in the Period from 1900 to 1914." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis. The Hague, 1990, pp. 71–72, fig. 14.
Richard Rand inThe Ahmanson Gifts: European Masterpieces in the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1991, p. 187, under no. 48.
Christian Tümpel inPieter Lastman: The Man Who Taught Rembrandt. Exh. cat., Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1991, p. 81, calls it a studio work from which Rembrandt borrowed the main group for his Bathsheba of 1654 in Paris.
Jan Kelch. Rembrandt: The Master & His Workshop. Ed. Sally Salvesen. Exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Vol. 1, "Paintings."New Haven, 1991, pp. 244–45, as a workshop painting.
Mieke Bal. Reading "Rembrandt": Beyond the Word-Image Opposition. Cambridge, 1991, pp. 168–69, fig. 4.13.
Petra Welzel. Rembrandts "Bathseba"—Metapher das Begehrens oder Sinnbild zur Selbsterkenntnis? Frankfurt, 1994, pp. 33–35, fig. 11, as from the circle of Rembrandt.
Walter Liedtke inRembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, "Paintings, Drawings, and Prints: Art-Historical Perspectives."New York, [1995], pp. 24, 64–65, no 10, ill. (color), supports Sonnenburg's attribution (1995) to Rembrandt.
Hubert von Sonnenburg. Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, "Paintings: Problems and Issues."New York, 1995, pp. 14, 28, 31–32, 61–63, 94–99, no. 10, ill. (color) and figs. 77, 79 (color detail), 121, 123 (x-radiograph detail), 124, 125 (color detail), 126 (infrared reflectogram detail), 127 (color detail), based on extensive technical analysis, defends the attribution to Rembrandt.
William Grimes. "An Enigma Sometimes Wrapped in a Fake." New York Times (October 1, 1995), p. H34.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 314, ill.
Lillian B. Miller inThe Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. Vol. 1, New York, 1996, p. 731.
B[en]. P. J. Broos inThe Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. Vol. 26, New York, 1996, p. 163.
Jan Leja. "Rembrandt's 'Woman Bathing in a Stream'." Simiolus 24, no. 4 (1996), p. 321 n. 2.
Paul Broekhoff and Michiel Franken. "Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship." Simiolus 25, no. 1 (1997), pp. 78, 80, fig. 1.
Michiel Franken. "'Aen stoelen en bancken leren gaen'. Leerzame vormen van navolging in Rembrandts werkplaats." Album Discipulorum J. R. J. van Asperen de Boer. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1997, pp. 71–72, fig. 4, as from Rembrandt's workshop.
Eric Jan Sluijter. "Rembrandt's Bathsheba and the Conventions of a Seductive Theme." Rembrandt's "Bathsheba Reading King David's Letter". Ed. Ann Jensen Adams. Cambridge, 1998, pp. 65–66, 69–70, 81–82, 84, 86, 93 n. 31, p. 94 nn. 36, 38, fig. 17.
Svetlana Alpers. "Not Bathsheba: I. The Painter and the Model." Rembrandt's "Bathsheba Reading King David's Letter". Ed. Ann Jensen Adams. Cambridge, 1998, pp. 154, 156, 159 n. 2, as formerly attributed to Rembrandt; assigns it to Rembrandt's workshop.
Gary Schwartz. "'Though deficient in beauty': A Documentary History and Interpretation of Rembrandt's 1654 Painting of Bathsheba." Rembrandt's "Bathsheba Reading King David's Letter". Ed. Ann Jensen Adams. Cambridge, 1998, pp. 181–82, 187–88, 191–93, 201 nn. 39–40, p. 202 nn. 43–44.
Christopher Wright. Rembrandt. Paris, 2000, p. 100, fig. 86 (color).
Eric Jan Sluijter in "'Horrible Nature, Incomparable Art': Rembrandt and the Depiction of the Female Nude." Rembrandt's Women. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh, 2001, p. 247 n. 18.
Amy Golahny. "Homer, Raphael, Rembrandt: Reading 'Vulcan's Net'." Rethinking Rembrandt. Ed. Alan Chong and Michael Zell. Boston, 2002, p. 89, as by Rembrandt.
Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, pp. 117, 478.
Esmée Quodbach. "'Rembrandt's "Gilder" is here': How America Got its First Rembrandt and France Lost Many of its Old Masters." Simiolus 31, no. 1/2 (2004), p. 103.
Ernst van de Wetering inRembrandt? The Master and His Workshop. Exh. cat., Statens Museum for Kunst. [Copenhagen], 2006, pp. 120, 122, fig. 26 (color), calls it a "free workshop variant" of Rembrandt's "Susanna and the Elders" in Berlin.
Duncan Bull and Taco Dibbits inRembrandt—Caravaggio. Exh. cat., Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 2006, pp. 151, 198 n., fig. 56 (color), as attributed to Rembrandt.
Ernst van de Wetering inRembrandt: Quest of a Genius. Exh. cat., Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 2006, pp. 244, 248, figs. 271, 273 (color, overall and detail) [Dutch ed., "Rembrandt: Zoektocht van een genie"], as by a Rembrandt pupil.
Michiel Franken inRembrandt: Quest of a Genius. Exh. cat., Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 2006, pp. 173, 175, fig. 196 (color) [Dutch ed., "Rembrandt: Zoektocht van een genie"], as from the workshop of Rembrandt.
Everhard Korthals Altes inRembrandt-Bilder: Die historische Sammlung der Kasseler Gemäldegalerie. Exh. cat., Staatliche Museen Kassel. Kassel, 2006, p. 31, fig. 8 (color).
Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), pp. 33, 35, 37–38, 70, figs. 38 (color), 40 (color, MMA Altman gallery photograph).
Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, p. ix; vol. 2, pp. 613–23, no. 149, colorpl. 149, figs. 154 (detail, reversed), 157.
Teresa Posada Kubissa inRembrandt, pintor de historias. Ed. Alejandro Vergara. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2008, p. 190, fig. 32.1 (color).
Walter Liedtke. "Rembrandt Revelations at the Metropolitan Museum." Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, Beiheft: Wissenschaft auf der Suche 51 (2009), p. 46.
Elmer Kolfin inThe Image of the Black in Western Art. Ed. David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr. Vol. 3, part 1, From the "Age of Discovery" to the Age of Abolition: Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque. Cambridge, Mass., 2010, pp. 279, 291, 379 n. 34, fig. 162 (color).
Dennis P. Weller inRembrandt in America: Collecting and Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. New York, 2011, p. 157.
George S. Keyes inRembrandt in America: Collecting and Connoisseurship. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 73–74, 84 n. 41.
Annette de Vries and Quentin Buvelot. Passie voor schilderijen: de verzameling Steengracht van Duivenwoorde. Voorschoten, The Netherlands, 2012, pp. 100–102, no. 65, ill. (color).
Diana J. Kostyrko. The Journal of a Transatlantic Art Dealer: René Gimpel 1918–1939. London, 2017, pp. 70, 259.
Anja K. Ševčík inInside Rembrandt: 1606–1669. Ed. Anja K. Ševčík. Exh. cat., Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Cologne, 2019, p. 220.
"Works in the Exhibition." Making The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer and Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, p. 247.
Andrea Bayer, Barbara Drake Boehm, and Daniëlle O. Kisluk-Grosheide. "Princely Aspirations." Making The Met, 1870–2020. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, pp. 73, 83, fig. 66 (color).
This work was also engraved by Smith (Vosmaer 1877), and W. Steelink (Someren n.d.). Two impressions of the Moreau engraving are in The Met.
Mireur's Dictionnaire des ventes d'art . . ., Paris, vol. 6, 1912, p. 157, lists a "Bethsabée sortant du bain" by Rembrandt in the sale of Heer Hendrick, Amsterdam, 1740, sold for Fr 727. On an old ex collections card, the sale is given as Heer Hendrick Trip, Amsterdam, May 11, 1740, sold for fl. 350, but there is no Bathsheba listed in Hoet's catalogue of the Trip sale.
This work may not be lent, by terms of its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam)
1635
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