Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606-1669) - Joseph and Putiphar's wife (1634), Original etching

Original etching by Rembrandt

"Joseph and Putiphar's wife" 1634

A very nice, clear and contrasted impression on laid paper with late 18th-century watermark (letters) of the 3rd state (of 4), before the last crude rework. Trimmed to the square line, with atmospheric platetone.

Rembrandt drew inspiration from Antonio Tempesta’s etching of the 1590s for this starkly realistic scene. As in his print Adam and Eve, Rembrandt typically refuses to idealize the female body, which he renders in a very corporeal, unvarnished manner. The unmistakably phallic bedpost and the chamber pot revealed beneath the bed—both characteristic of Rembrandt’s earthy approach to certain subjects—intensify the sexual charge of the image through their suggestive presence.

Joseph’s resistance traditionally carried strong exemplary value for religious commentators, including Calvin, who saw in it both a warning to husbands against the perfidy of their wives and an exhortation to mistrust one’s senses. Rembrandt’s interpretation must surely have shocked many viewers by its bluntness, especially when compared with earlier, more modest treatments of the theme in Northern iconography.

Catalogue raisonné: New Hollstein (Hinterding and Rutgers), 128 iii/iv