The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 22, 2023

Tobias Healing His Father's Blindness

c. 1640–45

Rembrandt van Rijn

(Dutch, 1606–1669)

Netherlands, 17th century

Pen and brown ink, touched with white gouache; framing lines in pen and brown ink

Support: Beige(1) laid paper

Sheet: 21.1 x 17.7 cm (8 5/16 x 6 15/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1969.69

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The seated figure in this drawing is receiving cataract surgery on his left eye, a procedure pioneered in Amsterdam in 1635 by Dr. Job Janszoon van Meekren.

Description

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

Inscription

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. 1
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

Provenance Footnotes

1 An exhibition catalogue from 1879 erroneously listed this drawing as once belonging to the Narcisse Revil collection, a mistake that was been repeated in the subsequent literature as late as 1991 but here resolved.
Citations
Dutuit, Eugène. Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt; catalogue historique et descriptif. Paris: A. Lévy, 1885. p. 104 as "Tobie recouvrant la vue" (under Chevalier de Claussin)
Hofstede de Groot, C. Die Urkunden über Rembrandt (1575-1721). Haag: M. Nijhoff, 1906. p. 182, no. 815
Greeff, R. Rembrandts Darstellungen der Tobiasheilung; nebst Beiträgen zur Geschichte des Starstichs; eine kulturhistorische Studie. Stuttgart: F. Enke, 1907. pp. 54-56, no. 3, pl. VI
Hofstede de Groot, C. and F. Lippmann. Original Drawings by Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn: Reproduced in the Colours of the Originals by Emrik & Binger at Haarlem. 1900-1911. fourth series, part 2, no. 55
Bredt, Ernst Wilhelm. Rembrandts Erzahlungen: mit etwa 70 Abbildungen eingeleitet und gewahlt. Munchen: H. Schmidt, 1918. pp. 76, 89
Kruse, John, and Carl Neumann. Die Zeichnungen Rembrandts und seiner Schule im National-Museum zu Stockholm. Haag: M. Nijhoff, 1920. p. 60, fig. 69
Bredt, Ernst Wilhelm. Rembrandt-Bibel: vier Teile in einem Band gebunden, mit 240 Abbildungen und zwanzig Gravüren. München: Schmidt, 1921. Vol 1, p. 159 (2nd ed, 1927, vol. 1, p. 178)
Valentiner, Wilhelm Reinhold. Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts. New York: E. Weyhe, 1925-. Vol. 1, pp. 252, 271 (repr.), 479, no. 252
Van Dyke, John Charles. The Rembrandt Drawings and Etchings, With Critical Reassignments to Pupils and Followers. New York, London: C. Scribner, 1927. no. 149 (as unknown pupil F), pl. XXXVIII
Benesch, Otto. Rembrandt, Werk und Forschung: von Otto Benesch. Wien: Gilhofer u. Ranschburg, 1934-35. pp. 35-36
Benesch. Otto. The Drawings of Rembrandt. [A Critical and Chronological Catalogue]. London: Phaidon Press, 1954. Vol. 3, p, 156, no. 547, fig. 677
Held, Julius S. Rembrandt and the Book of Tobit. [Northampton, Mass.]: Gehenna Press, 1964. p. 16, pl. 24 (reprinted in Held 1996, p. 129, pl. 26)
Slive, Seymour. Drawings of Rembrandt. New York: Dover Publications, 1965. Vol. 2, no. 501
Tümpel, Christian, and Astrid Tümpel. Rembrandt legt die Bibel aus. Zeichn. u. Radierungen aus d. Kupferstichkabinett d. Staatl. Museen Preuss. Kulturbesitz, Berlin. Berlin: Hessling, 1970. no. 33
Benesch, Otto, and Eva Benesch. The Drawings of Rembrandt. London: Phaidon Press, 1973. Vol 3, p. 150, no. 547. fig 715
Robinson, Franklin Westcott. Seventeenth Century Dutch Drawings from American Collections. International Exhibits Foundation, 1977. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 34, pp. 38-39, no. 34; frontispiece
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 158 archive.org
Schatborn, Peter, "Ben Broos, Rembrandt en tekenaars uit zijn omgeving, Oude tekeningen in het bezit van de Gemeentemusea van Amsterdam waaronder de collectie Fodor [review]. Oud Holland 96 (1982): pp. 251-58. p. 254, fig. 2
Wetering, Ernst Van De, J. Bruyn, J., C. J. van Nes, and Murray Pearson. A corpus of Rembrandt paintings. The Hague: M. Nijhoff Publishers, 1982. Vol. 3, p. 555; Vol. 5, pp. 216-217, fig. 161
Bevers, Holm, Peter Schatborn, and Barbara Welzel. Rembrandt, the Master & His Workshop: Drawings & Etchings. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. pp. 70-72, no. 18
Tümpel, Christian. Het Oude Testament in de schilderkunst van de Gouden Eeuw. Zwolle: Waanders, 1991. p. 121, n. 81
Liedtke, Walter A., von Sonnenburg Hubertus, et al. Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. p. 167, fig. 87.
Graff, Jan. Drawings by Rembrandt and other 17th Century Dutch Artists in the Department of Prints and Drawings. Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, 1996. pp. 34-35, fig. 10.
Schama, Simon. Rembrandt's Eyes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. pp. 425-28 (repr.)
Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: no. 67, pp. 166-67, p. 293; Reproduced: 167
Kozieł, Andrzej, and Michael Lukas Leopold Willmann. Rysunki Michaela Willmanna (1630-1706). Wrocław: Wydawn. Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 2000. p. 72, fig. 19
Rosand, David. Drawing Acts: Studies in Graphic Expression and Representation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. pp. 248-251, fig. 238
Ackley, Clifford S., Ronni Baer, Tom Rassieur, and William W. Robinson. Rembrandt's Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher. 2003. Mentioned and reproduced: cat. no. 133, p. 202
Schwartz, Gary. The Rembrandt Book. New York: Abrams, 2006. p. 360, fig. 638
Taylor, Michael. Rembrandt's Nose: Of Flesh & Spirit in the Master's Portraits. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2007. p. 77, fig. 25 (French edition 2006, p. 52, fig. 25)
De Witt, David, Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The Bader Collection: Dutch and Flemish Paintings. Kingston, Ont: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 2008. p. 180, fig. 108a
Slive, Seymour. Rembrandt Drawings. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009. p. 211, fig. 15.20
Petherbridge, Deanna. The Primacy of Drawing: Histories and Theories of Practice. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. p. 109, fig. 65
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin--Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Holm Bevers, Georg Josef Dietz, and Antje Penz. Zeichnungen der Rembrandtschule im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett: kritischer Katalog. Dresden : Sandstein Verlag ; Berlin : Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, [2018] Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 229-230
Exhibition history

Catalogue descriptive des dessins de maitres anciens expoose a l’ecole des beaux-arts. L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1879.

Exposition d’oevures de Rembrandt, dessins et gravures. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, 1908.

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 Paintings 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).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1969.69