Three Oriental Figures (Jacob and Laban?)
1641
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Three Oriental Figures (Jacob and Laban?) is a 1641 ink by Rembrandt, a Baroque work, depicting visitation, held at National Gallery of Art.
You see three men in old clothes, possibly from a Bible story. They're dressed in robes and have serious faces. The interesting thing about this work is that it's an etching, which is a way of making prints from metal plates, and Rembrandt was really good at it - he could make lots of copies of the same image. The men are shown in a simple setting, with not much background to distract from them. Rembrandt used simple lines to create a sense of depth and texture in the image. Check out the technique of etching to learn more about how Rembrandt made this image.
