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 robes and turbans standing close together, one pointing at something we can’t see. This is an etching—Rembrandt scratched the image into a metal plate, then pressed paper onto it. The lines are soft, almost smudged, like he drew them quickly. The title says it might be Jacob and Laban from the Bible, but the clothes look more like what people in the Middle East wore in Rembrandt’s time. He never traveled there; he just imagined it from stories and fabrics in Amsterdam. To see how other artists showed biblical scenes, look up the technique etching.
