The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 3, 2024

Tobias Healing His Father's Blindness

Tobias Healing His Father's Blindness

c. 1640–45
(Dutch, 1606–1669)
Netherlands
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.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1969.69
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

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.

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.
  • ?-1844
    Ignace-Joseph de Claussin, Paris and London, 1766-1844 (Lugt 485, not stamped); his sale, Batignolles, Paris, 2 December 1844, lot 53 ("Tobie recouvrant la vue") to Van Os.
    1844-1851
    George Jacob Johan van Os, Paris and Amsterdam, 1782-1861; his sale, Roussel et Defer, Paris, 20-22 January, 1851, lot 179 ("Tobie recouvrant la vue")
    ?-1900
    Collection Defer-Dumesnil, Pierre Defer (1798-1870) and Henri Dumesnil (1823-1898), Paris (Lugt 739); his sale, Drouot, Paris, 10-12 May, 1900, lot 84) to Reinach
    1900-?
    Joseph Reinach, Paris, 1856-1921.
    by descent to Madame Pierre Goujon, daughter of Joseph Reinach, Paris
    with Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York
    1969-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 An exhibition catalogue from 1879 erroneously listed this drawing as once belonging to the Narcisse Revil collection, a mistake that was been repeated in the subsequent literature as late as 1991 but here resolved. 
  • Dutuit, Eugène. Tableaux et dessins de Rembrandt; catalogue historique et descriptif. Paris: A. Lévy, 1885. p. 104 as "Tobie recouvrant la vue" (under Chevalier de Claussin)
    Hofstede de Groot, C. Die Urkunden über Rembrandt (1575-1721). Haag: M. Nijhoff, 1906. p. 182, no. 815
    Greeff, R. Rembrandts Darstellungen der Tobiasheilung; nebst Beiträgen zur Geschichte des Starstichs; eine kulturhistorische Studie. Stuttgart: F. Enke, 1907. pp. 54-56, no. 3, pl. VI
    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. fourth series, part 2, no. 55
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    Kruse, John, and Carl Neumann. Die Zeichnungen Rembrandts und seiner Schule im National-Museum zu Stockholm. Haag: M. Nijhoff, 1920. p. 60, fig. 69
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    Benesch, Otto, and Eva Benesch. The Drawings of Rembrandt. London: Phaidon Press, 1973. Vol 3, p. 150, no. 547. fig 715
    Robinson, Franklin Westcott. Seventeenth Century Dutch Drawings from American Collections. International Exhibits Foundation, 1977. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 34, pp. 38-39, no. 34; frontispiece
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 158 archive.org
    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]. Oud Holland 96 (1982): pp. 251-58. p. 254, fig. 2
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    Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: no. 67, pp. 166-67, p. 293; Reproduced: 167
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  • {{cite web|title=Tobias Healing His Father's Blindness|url=false|author=Rembrandt van Rijn|year=c. 1640–45|access-date=03 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1969.69