Tobias Healing His Father's Blindness
c. 1640–45
Medium
Pen and brown ink, touched with white gouache; framing lines in pen and brown ink
Dimensions
{"sheet":{"height":0.211,"width":0.177}}
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1969.69
Tags
About this artwork
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 decepti...