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Óleo sobre painel - 16x21 - 1646
This small panel by Rembrandt has remained in private hands for over a century and a half. Nevertheless, it is one of the most well-documented paintings by the artist, and it has the distinction of never being doubted in the literature. As the renowned Rembrandt scholar Ernst van de Wetering has stated, the painting’s reliable signature and date, as well as the “unmistakably Rembrandtesque character of its conception and execution,” assure its authenticity. Moreover, this is almost certainly the “Abraham with the three angels by Rembrandt” (Abraham mette drye engelen van Rembrant) that was described in a transaction in Amsterdam between two merchants on 28 March 1647, a year after the painting was executed.
Even though this is a small picture, and parts of it are freely executed like a sketch, we can make out the details of the complex biblical story that it depicts. This is the moment in Genesis (18: 1-15), when Abraham, who has generously offered nourishment to three complete strangers, recognizes that two of them are angels, while the third is the Lord himself, indicated here by the luminescent figure of an angel who is the principal source of light in the scene. We are witnessing the precise instant when God reveals Himself to Abraham and prophesies that his elderly wife Sarah will bear him a son within a year; this son would be Isaac, patriarch of the Israelites and according to Matthew (1:1-17) a link in the lineage from David and Abraham to Christ. Abraham is also regarded as the father of the Muslim people through his first child, Ishmael. We can almost make out the smile on the disbelieving Sarah’s face, as she leans out of the door of their home and overhears the proclamation of the Lord.
the men were human “in appearance and according to Abraham’s opinion; but in reality [there were] two angels and the third the Lord Almighty Himself, who showed themselves for the duration of this mission in human form.”
Dutch States General Bible, 1637.
The bible clearly indicates that the encounter occurred “in the heat of the day,” however Rembrandt has chosen to depict an evening scene in order to enhance the divine light that emanates from the principal angel—an apparition that, according to the States General Bible of 1637, reveals itself to Abraham as the Almighty Lord himself. It should be noted that, as John Calvin (1509 – 1564) explained, God the Father often appeared to the patriarchs of the Old Testament as an angel attended by other angels. Calvin further reasons that the three strangers must have appeared to Abraham as mortal men, because otherwise Abraham would not have offered them sustenance. Fully aware of Calvin’s arguments, the translators and compilers of the States General Bible annotated this passage to explain that the men were human “in appearance and according to Abraham’s opinion; but in reality [there were] two angels and the third the Lord Almighty Himself, who showed themselves for the duration of this mission in human form.”
Clearly, Rembrandt read the States General Bible very carefully, but he also had in mind artistic precedents for this Old Testament scene. One possible source is the painting from 1616 by his teacher, Pieter Lastman, which is currently on loan to the museum in Kassel. Here the angel who reveals Himself as the Lord is not differentiated from his companions, other than His prominent placement and His gesture towards Abraham. Another possible inspiration for Rembrandt might have been the obscure etching by the Dutch printmaker Jan Barentsz. Muyckens from 1637. Here the artist distinguished the Lord from the two angels by surrounding His head with a halo of divine light and depicting Him somewhat in the guise of Jesus Christ. In a later etching of the subject from 1656, Rembrandt imagines the revealing angel as the patriarchal God the Father, with his long flowing white beard. Like the painting under discussion, Rembrandt has shown the protagonists sitting at a table that is situated close to the ground, in conformity to what was then understood as the common dining practice of the ancients. In the later etching, Rembrandt derived much of the composition from his study of a Moghul miniature, which he copied in a drawing that was likely executed in the same year as the print.
There are other parallels between Rembrandt’s etched and painted treatments. In both scenes, the protagonists are seated in the shade of a large tree, apparently in reference to the “terebinth trees of Mamre,” where the biblical episode was supposed to have taken place, but also in direct reference to the passage in Genesis, where it is described that the three visitors sat under a tree as they ate. Furthermore, Abraham’s son Ishmael is shown in the print, in clear reference to the later event, when Abraham banishes Hagar and their son from the family home. Ishmael can be identified as the boy stretching his bow over the wall behind the principal figures. Our painting might also contain a reference to Ishmael, because there is an indistinct depiction of a bow hanging on the house above the potted plants.
As often occurs with Rembrandt, we see parallels in his work throughout his career. In addition to his etched treatments of this theme, there are also precedents to the Abraham and the Angels in his paintings. From the late 1630s and throughout the 1640s, Rembrandt strove to determine the ideal arrangement of figures in space in order to create a balanced and convincing composition. In his Risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene, now in the Royal Collections we see a very similar angel sitting on Christ’s tomb, with his wings stretched out and his leg lying straight in front of him, in mirror image to the principal angel in our painting. In this painting Rembrandt has also employed a similar compositional device, wherein the foreground falls away to reveal a pronounced drop in terrain. In the present picture, we can make out a cow in this transitional area, which is undoubtedly a reference to the slaughter of the beast that Abraham prepared for his guests’ meal. The painting in the Royal Collections dates from 1638, and two years later Rembrandt was to create another New Testament scene set in semi-darkness and with an abrupt drop in topography, the superb Visitation in Detroit. Here a horse and groom fill the void some six-to-eight feet below the paving stones on the far right. Another remarkable painting that demonstrates Rembrandt’s innate sense of composition and his superb control of the brush on a relatively small scale is Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery of 1644, in London’s National Gallery. In reviewing these three paintings that were executed between 1638 and 1644 it becomes clear that even though Rembrandt is better known for his expansive canvases and expressive brushstrokes, he also possessed a great painterly facility on a small scale. His formulation of the Abraham and the Angels is in keeping with these precedents in his oeuvre, albeit on a reduced scale.
What all these paintings have in common is that they possess a convincing illusion of space, without extensive use of linear perspective. This quality in Rembrandt’s work, especially his use of houding, was praised by his contemporaries. Houding can be described as the creation of space by the judicious use of color and tone, a convincing rendering of light and shade, and the implementation of overlapping objects and figures and their diminution of scale as they recede from foreground to background. The goal of mastering houding was to create a satisfying arrangement of differentiated figures, rendered in harmonious colors and set into a convincing and balanced illusionistic space. The concept was elaborated upon by Rembrandt’s pupil, Samuel van Hoogstraten, in his instruction manual for young painters of 1678, the “Introduction to the Lofty School of Painting.” Van Hoogstraten describes houding as an ordered arrangement of chiaroscuro, with which one creates a sense of depth in a painting; moreover, he stressed the importance of symmetry, harmony and proportion toward the understanding of the concept. We should keep in mind that Van Hoogstraten was a pupil of Rembrandt’s precisely when the master painted the Abraham and the Angels. Many of Van Hoogstraten’s thoughts on the broader aspects of painting were highly dependent on what Rembrandt taught him during this period.
The present painting is the perfect representation of Rembrandt’s employment of houding: the only perspectival element is the walking stick, set aside in the immediate foreground by the angel on the left. This staff and its shadow set the four figures solidly in a defined space, in an area that we imagine exists a few feet from the bottom edge of the painting, and some ten to fifteen feet from where we stand in witness. Muted tones define a plausible space throughout: the red cloak of the angel seen from behind on the left; Sarah’s red bodice on the right; the subtle green of the potted plants before the house; and finally, the night sky in the distant background to the left, rendered in restrained tones of slate blue. With little use of color, Rembrandt has created an illusion of convincing space in a small surface area. Rembrandt’s talent in the application of houding is not immediately evident in his earliest works executed in Leiden in the 1620s; nor is it readily apparent in his powerful, Baroque compositions of the mid-1630s. Instead, Rembrandt’s mastery of houding develops slowly throughout his contemplative works of the 1640s, reaches perfection later in the decade, and would remain a hallmark of the master’s style for the remainder of his career.
Throughout his career, Rembrandt was very inventive and discovered new ways of rendering the same subject, as we have seen in the present Abraham and the Angels and his later treatment of the subject in an etching. Yet one finds parallels and self-borrowings in his works, and it is clear that the master’s acute visual memory could conjure up and re-employ any number of compositions and figures. It has never before been noted in the literature that two of the figures in this painting were more or less repeated two years later, in the acclaimed Supper at Emmaus in the Louvre. The man on the right in the painting in Paris is very similar to the figure of Abraham in the present picture while the man seen from behind on the left recalls the angel to the left. And like our painting, the principal light source in Supper at Emmaus is a figure in the center: the cloth on the dinner table is strongly illuminated by the figure of Christ, while the figures on the left and right cast shadows away from this central luminescence. Clearly Rembrandt drew from this visual memory, because the Abraham and the Angels was already sold by the time he executed Supper at Emmaus.
Rembrandt attempted to diminish the obvious drama in favor of a more subtle rendering worthy of thoughtful observation. This search for the inner story is what distinguishes Rembrandt from his contemporaries, and it is this introspective approach that still appeals to us today. The Abraham and the Angels is a painting that demands such quiet contemplation.
In the literature devoted to Rembrandt, various authors have noticed that after the death of his wife Saskia in 1642, the artist’s works underwent a transformation. He moved away from the Baroque concept of capturing the most dramatic instance of a story, such as the gouging out of an eye in the Blinding of Samson (1636) or the sudden drop of a knife in mid-air in the Sacrifice of Isaac (1635), and began to explore more contemplative scenes instead of focusing on Baroque violence and mayhem. This change in style is exemplified by two of the works already cited: the Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery of 1640 and the Supper at Emmaus of 1648, and we can add to this any number of pictures executed during this period that concentrate on more contemplative aspects of the story, such as the sublime Holy Family with Angels from 1645 (St. Petersburg, The Hermitage) and the serene domestic interior of the Holy Family from 1646 (Kassel, Gemäldegalerie). Apparently, in the 1640s and early 1650s, Rembrandt reworked several earlier canvases that had been sitting in his studio. The touching Saul and David (The Hague, Mauritshuis) was started circa 1645 but was reworked in circa 1652; the Susanna and the Elders (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) was begun circa 1638 but reworked in 1647; and the famous but now ruined Danaë (St. Petersburg, The Hermitage), was largely completed in 1636 but reworked around 1643. In all of these transformations, one can see that Rembrandt attempted to diminish the obvious drama in favor of a more subtle rendering worthy of thoughtful observation. This search for the inner story is what distinguishes Rembrandt from his contemporaries, and it is this introspective approach that still appeals to us today. The Abraham and the Angels is a painting that demands such quiet contemplation.
As Rembrandt’s art became increasingly introspective, he began to produce many drawings and etchings of landscapes, including the superb Winter Landscape in Kassel, which is almost exactly the same size as the Abraham and the Angels and is signed and dated 1646 on the extreme lower edge of the painting, in precisely the same manner. A close comparison of these two paintings reveals a remarkable similarity in the handling of paint. Surprisingly, it has been recently discovered that the Winter Landscape is painted on a walnut panel, which is very unusual in Rembrandt’s existing oeuvre.
It is clear that Rembrandt experimented with new supports for his paintings at this time. Our painting is on the more traditional support of seasoned Baltic oak, possibly indicating that, unlike the Winter Landscape on walnut, it was intended to be sold. As we have seen, the Abraham and the Angels indeed changed hands relatively quickly during the year after it had been painted.
There are two drawings from the Rembrandt School that relate to the Abraham and the Angels. They were initially regarded as preliminary studies by Rembrandt for the scene in question, but since they are now given to Rembrandt’s pupil, Samuel van Hoogstraten, they are thought to have been inspired by the painting. One of these drawings is in a private collection in New York and the other in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin. In 1646 Van Hoogstraten was working in Rembrandt’s studio, and he executed many drawings that were dependent on Rembrandt’s style of draughtsmanship. These two drawings are evidence that Van Hoogstraten saw the painting in Rembrandt’s studio in 1646 and jotted down his reminisces. The first drawing is a vague recollection, while the second must have been executed in front of the painting itself, as so many elements are derived from the painting. There is no doubt that Samuel van Hoogstraten knew our painting directly; his finished drawing of Abraham and the Angels in Dresden is also directly dependent on our painting. Note especially the figure of Sarah, quietly opening the door on the right.
It is highly unusual for any Rembrandt painting to be documented twice in the seventeenth century, let alone the year after its execution and again within the artist’s lifetime.
This painting is one of the most well-documented paintings by Rembrandt in existence. We cited the transaction that took place in Amsterdam in 1647, the year after the painting was executed. On 28 March of that year a certain merchant named Martin van den Boeck exchanged this painting, along with three other paintings by Rembrandt, with Andries Ackersloot for ship provisions. Ackersloot probably sold this painting to Rembrandt’s pupil, Ferdinand Bol. When Bol drew up an inventory of his possessions on the occasion of his second marriage in 1669, he listed a painting of “Abraham and the angels [by] Rembrandt” (Abraham en de Engelen, Rembrandt). We are reasonably certain that this refers to our painting and not to another depiction of the subject by Rembrandt, because Bol himself executed at least one painting that shows the direct influence of the present picture’s design. Here we see Abraham on the left hand side, similarly kneeling and holding an ewer with which to wash the feet of his guests or to provide them with water; the principal angel wears white robes and has white wings, and he is bathed in light; finally, we note the large tree under which Abraham and his guests dine, as well as Sarah in the doorway at the right. The relationship between these two scenes makes it certain that Rembrandt’s student owned this very painting. It is highly unusual for any Rembrandt painting to be documented twice in the seventeenth century, let alone the year after its execution and again within the artist’s lifetime.
The impressive provenance of this panel continues throughout the eighteenth century and up to the present. It was next owned by Jan Six, the famous friend and patron of Rembrandt. An “Abraham with the angels, very good, by Rembrandt” appeared in the sale of Six’s collection held in Amsterdam in 1702. The little panel next appears in the collection of the expatriate American artist, Benjamin West, and it was included in his estate sale at Christie’s in London in 1824. In the mid-nineteenth century the picture entered the important collection of Thomas Baring, later Lord Northbrook. After passing through several other hands, it finally entered the celebrated Pannwitz Collection in Heemstede, later to be incorporated into the Aurora Trust. It remained with the Pannwitz family for at least ninety years, until it was sold privately to the present owner.
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