Noah's Ark
c. 1660
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown ink wash on cream laid paper
Dimensions
20.3 × 24.8 cm (8 × 9 13/16 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
90522
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Among his most expressive uses of the reed pen, this drawing is a fully realized depiction of Noah’s family boarding the ark prior to the great flood described in the Old Testament’s Book of Genesis. The vessel occupies the entire width of the sheet, and Rembrandt emphasized the act of departure by placing figures in the lower left corner who gesture inward, as if indicating where they will soon go. Rembrandt drew a borderline—albeit somewhat haphazardly—around the perimeter of his composition, ...
About the Artist
Rembrandt van Rijn · 1606–1669
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669) stands as one of the greatest visual artists in the history of Western art and the most important Dutch painter of the 17th century. Born in Leiden to a prosperous miller's family, Rembrandt transformed painting through his revolutionary use of light and shadow, his psychological depth in portraiture, and his elevation of etching to a fine art. His approx...