The Meeting of Christ with Martha and Mary after the Death of Lazarus

The Meeting of Christ with Martha and Mary after the Death of Lazarus, c. 1662–65. Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). Reed pen and brown ink and wash, heightened with white gouache (in the heads of the kneeling figures); sheet: 17.5 x 20.8 cm (6 7/8 x 8 3/16 in.); secondary support: 17.5 x 20.8 cm (6 7/8 x 8 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1962.116

Created in 1662 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the portrait tradition. Rembrandt van Rijn worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

Executed in reed pen and brown ink and wash, heightened with white gouache (in the heads of the kneeling figures), measuring Sheet: 17.5 x 20.8 cm (6 7/8 x 8 3/16 in.); Secondary Support: 17.5 x 20.8 cm (6 7/8 x 8 3/16 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Rembrandt van Rijn builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”