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Source 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
144844
label
Tobias Healing His Father's Blindness
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
144844
contentType
drawing
title
Tobias Healing His Father's Blindness
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.
date
c. 1640–45
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79922347
creators
2520
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 21.1 x 17.7 cm (8 5/16 x 6 15/16 in.)
cul
Netherlands
accession
1969.69
Source extras
tec
Pen and brown ink, touched with white gouache; framing lines in pen and brown ink
tombstone
Tobias Healing His Father's Blindness, c. 1640–45. Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). Pen and brown ink, touched with white gouache; framing lines in pen and brown ink; sheet: 21.1 x 17.7 cm (8 5/16 x 6 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1969.69
supportMaterials
description
beige(1) laid paper
collection
DR - Dutch
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]
didYouKnow
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.
citations
citation
Dutuit, Eugène. Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt; catalogue historique et descriptif. Paris: A. Lévy, 1885.
page_number
p. 104 as "Tobie recouvrant la vue" (under Chevalier de Claussin)
citation
Hofstede de Groot, C. Die Urkunden über Rembrandt (1575-1721). Haag: M. Nijhoff, 1906.
page_number
p. 182, no. 815
citation
Greeff, R. Rembrandts Darstellungen der Tobiasheilung; nebst Beiträgen zur Geschichte des Starstichs; eine kulturhistorische Studie. Stuttgart: F. Enke, 1907.
page_number
pp. 54-56, no. 3, pl. VI
citation
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.
page_number
fourth series, part 2, no. 55
citation
Bredt, Ernst Wilhelm. Rembrandts Erzahlungen: mit etwa 70 Abbildungen eingeleitet und gewahlt. Munchen: H. Schmidt, 1918.
page_number
pp. 76, 89
citation
Kruse, John, and Carl Neumann. Die Zeichnungen Rembrandts und seiner Schule im National-Museum zu Stockholm. Haag: M. Nijhoff, 1920.
page_number
p. 60, fig. 69
citation
Bredt, Ernst Wilhelm. Rembrandt-Bibel: vier Teile in einem Band gebunden, mit 240 Abbildungen und zwanzig Gravüren. München: Schmidt, 1921.
page_number
Vol 1, p. 159 (2nd ed, 1927, vol. 1, p. 178)
citation
Valentiner, Wilhelm Reinhold. Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts. New York: E. Weyhe, 1925-.
page_number
Vol. 1, pp. 252, 271 (repr.), 479, no. 252
citation
Van Dyke, John Charles. The Rembrandt Drawings and Etchings, With Critical Reassignments to Pupils and Followers. New York, London: C. Scribner, 1927.
page_number
no. 149 (as unknown pupil F), pl. XXXVIII
citation
Benesch, Otto. Rembrandt, Werk und Forschung: von Otto Benesch. Wien: Gilhofer u. Ranschburg, 1934-35.
page_number
pp. 35-36
citation
Benesch. Otto. The Drawings of Rembrandt. [A Critical and Chronological Catalogue]. London: Phaidon Press, 1954.
page_number
Vol. 3, p, 156, no. 547, fig. 677
citation
Held, Julius S. Rembrandt and the Book of Tobit. [Northampton, Mass.]: Gehenna Press, 1964.
page_number
p. 16, pl. 24 (reprinted in Held 1996, p. 129, pl. 26)
citation
Slive, Seymour. Drawings of Rembrandt. New York: Dover Publications, 1965.
page_number
Vol. 2, no. 501
citation
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.
page_number
no. 33
citation
Richards, Louise S. “A Rembrandt Drawing.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 57, no. 2 (February 1970): 68–75.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 68-69; fig. 1
citation
Benesch, Otto, and Eva Benesch. The Drawings of Rembrandt. London: Phaidon Press, 1973.
page_number
Vol 3, p. 150, no. 547. fig 715
citation
Robinson, Franklin Westcott.<em> Seventeenth Century Dutch Drawings from American Collections.</em> International Exhibits Foundation, 1977.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 34, pp. 38-39, no. 34; frontispiece
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 158
citation
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]. <em>Oud Holland</em> 96 (1982): pp. 251-58.
page_number
p. 254, fig. 2
citation
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.
page_number
Vol. 3, p. 555; Vol. 5, pp. 216-217, fig. 161
citation
Bevers, Holm, Peter Schatborn, and Barbara Welzel. Rembrandt, the Master & His Workshop: Drawings & Etchings. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.
page_number
pp. 70-72, no. 18
citation
Tümpel, Christian. Het Oude Testament in de schilderkunst van de Gouden Eeuw. Zwolle: Waanders, 1991.
page_number
p. 121, n. 81
citation
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.
page_number
p. 167, fig. 87.
citation
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.
page_number
pp. 34-35, fig. 10.
citation
Schama, Simon. Rembrandt's Eyes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.
page_number
pp. 425-28 (repr.)
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: no. 67, pp. 166-67, p. 293; Reproduced: 167
citation
Kozieł, Andrzej, and Michael Lukas Leopold Willmann. Rysunki Michaela Willmanna (1630-1706). Wrocław: Wydawn. Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 2000.
page_number
p. 72, fig. 19
citation
Rosand, David. Drawing Acts: Studies in Graphic Expression and Representation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
page_number
pp. 248-251, fig. 238
citation
Ackley, Clifford S., Ronni Baer, Tom Rassieur, and William W. Robinson. <em>Rembrandt's Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher.</em> 2003.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: cat. no. 133, p. 202
citation
Schwartz, Gary. The Rembrandt Book. New York: Abrams, 2006.
page_number
p. 360, fig. 638
citation
Taylor, Michael. Rembrandt's Nose: Of Flesh & Spirit in the Master's Portraits. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2007.
page_number
p. 77, fig. 25 (French edition 2006, p. 52, fig. 25)
citation
De Witt, David, Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The Bader Collection: Dutch and Flemish Paintings. Kingston, Ont: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 2008.
page_number
p. 180, fig. 108a
citation
Slive, Seymour. Rembrandt Drawings. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009.
page_number
p. 211, fig. 15.20
citation
Petherbridge, Deanna. The Primacy of Drawing: Histories and Theories of Practice. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
page_number
p. 109, fig. 65
citation
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin--Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Holm Bevers, Georg Josef Dietz, and Antje Penz. <em>Zeichnungen der Rembrandtschule im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett: kritischer Katalog. </em>Dresden : Sandstein Verlag ; Berlin : Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, [2018]
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 229-230
citation
Petherbridge, Deanna. <em>The Primacy of Drawing</em>. London: Thames and Hudson, 2026.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 135-136, fig. 6.10
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:26:40.959000
sourceId
144844
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - Dutch
med
Pen and brown ink, touched with white gouache; framing lines in pen and brown ink
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
a3e607c42fdd6b3a