Susanna and the Elders

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Susanna and the Elders: Rembrandt

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Rembrandt Oil Painting - Susanna and the Elders

Keywords: Susanna, Elders

Work Overview: Susanna and the Elders
Artist Rembrandt
Year 1647
Dimensions 76.6 cm × 92.8 cm (30.2 in × 36.5 in)
Location Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Among the many important works by Rembrandt in the Gemäldegalerie’s possession is his masterpiece 'Susanna and the Elders’. The painting’s theme is the Old-Testament story of Susanna, the virtuous wife of a rich man, who is observed bathing by two lecherous old judges who blackmail her to grant them sexual favours (which Susanna refuses). Rembrandt painted the Berlin painting in three stages. He started the panel painting sometime around 1635 and only completed it twelve years later, in 1647.

The original inspiration for the work was a drawing he made after a painting by his teacher, Pieter Lastman. He made more studies at each stage of the pentimenti (alterations to the composition). During this time, the story of Susanna was also a subject in his workshop as a whole, as seen in numerous depictions of her in drawings by his pupils. The exhibition is jointly organized by the Gemäldegalerie and Kupferstichkabinett and takes a closer look at the pentimenti. Also on display are the variations on the theme made by Rembrandt’s pupils. Technical analysis and research have also delivered sensational findings: we now know that significant changes were made to the painting by the English artist and collector Sir Joshua Reynolds, who owned the painting at one point.

Susanna and the Elders is a 1647 painting by Rembrandt, now in the Gemaldegalerie in Berlin. It is an oil on panel painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt and represents the story of Susanna from the Bible. The scene shows the moment when Susanna is surprised at the moment she enters her bath.

This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot in 1915, who wrote:[1]

"55. SUSANNA AT THE BATH. Sm. 41.; Bode 255 ; Dut. 36; Wb. 21 ; B.-HdG. 322. Susanna, turning to the left, is about to descend the stone steps from the right into the water. She is surprised by the two Elders. One of them tries with his left hand to tear away her bathing-towel, and makes a threatening gesture with his clenched right fist. The more aged of the two men, behind to the right, hobbles forward out of the shadow. Susanna, shivering, stands with one foot in the water ; with her right hand she presses the towel firmly against her body with a gesture of alarm, and holds her left arm before her bosom. She looks out of the picture with an expression of dread and entreaty. On the stone bench to the right lies her rich gown of brilliant red. To the left, beyond the basin, are the terraces, arcades, and towers of the royal palace of Babylon. On the bank is a peacock. A couple are walking amid the bushes. Small full-length figures.
Signed on the right at foot on the edge of a step, " Rembrandt f. 1647 " ; oak panel, 30 inches by 36 inches.
There are painted studies for the Susanna in the Louvre (58) and in the collection of Leon Bonnat, Paris (60) ; for the elder in front in the Bischoffsheim collection, Paris (59), and in the Von Nemes collection, Budapest (56).
A finished drawing is in the Landesgalerie, Budapest, reproduced in Handzeichnungen der Albertlna, 286. A study in red chalk is in the Berlin Print-room, reproduced by Lippmann and Hofstede de Groot, 20. A chalk study for the Susanna is also in the Berlin Print-room, reproduced by Lippmann, 197. Several pen-and-ink studies for the elder in front were in the collection of J. P. Heseltine (HdG. 986 and 1021).
Engraved in mezzotint by R. Earlom, 1769.
Mentioned by Bode, pp. 485, 591 ; by Dutuit, p. 25 ; by Michel, pp. 323, 551 [247, 249-50, 436]. For the relation of this and other pictures of "Susanna" by Rembrandt to a picture by Lastman, see Valentiner in the Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, November 1907, and Kurt Freise, P. Lastman, pp. 249, etc.
Exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, London, 1883, No. 236.
Possibly in the collection of Adriaen Banck, Amsterdam, who in 1647 bought a " Susanna " from Rembrandt for 500 florins and sold it to Adriaen Maen of Schiedam in 1660 for 560 florins. See Hofstede de Groot, Urkunden über Rembrandt, Nos. 207, 732.
Sales. Baron Schonborn, Amsterdam, April 16, 1738 (Hoct, i. 511), No. 66 but No. 65 of the original catalogue (700 florins). J. A. J. Aved, Paris, November 24, 1766 (2760 francs).
In the collection of Edmund Burke, London, 1769.
Sale. Sir Joshua Reynolds, London, March 11, 1795 (£156, according to Sm.).
In the collection of Sir E. Lechmere, Bart., The Rhydd, till 1883.
In the possession of the Paris dealer C. Sedelmeyer, " Catalogue of 300 Paintings," No. 135 ; sold in 1883 to Berlin.
In the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, 1911 catalogue, No. 828E.".

The subject is taken from the Apocryphal History of Susanna. Two Jewish Elders, hidden in the garden, threaten Susanna that they will publicly accuse her of committing adultery with a young man unless she gives herself to them. She is eventually exonerated by the wise judge, Daniel, and the Elders are punished.

The subject, like that of Bathsheba, clearly had a considerable fascination for Rembrandt and is evidence (of which there is plenty more elsewhere in his work) that he was a man of strong sensuality. He made numerous drawings of Susanna and at least one other painting, now in The Hague. That picture executed in 1636 was, in fact, used as the starting point for the present one, which appears to have been begun shortly afterwards, i.e. ten years before it was completed in the form we see it now. As X-rays show, the Berlin painting consists of three layers, the first of which reveals the agitated type of composition characteristic of Rembrandt's style of the 1630s. When he re-painted the picture in 1647, he revised the design throughout, changing it into something much calmer. It is now the handling which is lively, not the composition. The figure style, the lighting, the colour and even the relationship of the figures to the landscape setting are all typical of the mid-1640s. For the composition, Rembrandt used a painting of the same subject by Lastman, also now in Berlin, which he copied in a drawing. For all the lack of movement, the narrative and psychological elements of the story are conveyed with the utmost clarity. Rembrandt no longer needed the heightened dramatic language of the Baroque to express emotion at this period of his life.

The painting was once owned by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was among Rembrandt's greatest admirers.

Mahogany panel. One of the many paintings of the story of Susanna, who is spied upon by two old men when taking a bath. When the modest Susanna rejects their advances, they cause serious problems for her. Daniel comes to the rescue in the end.

Rembrandt had depicted Susanna before, in 1636. On that panel the two men are still hidden.

Research has shown that much of the background in the painting was painted over by the English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), who at the time owned the panel.

Rembrandt painted his Susanna in 1647, a period when he was using a reduced palette—here browns, ochers and reds. Like in Veronese's painting in the Louvre, the elders are shown imposing themselves on the lady. Curiously, Susanna does not appear panic-stricken. Her hands are joined in a gesture of prayer that looks like she is about to dive in the water. And she is the one looking. She is looking at the viewer, that is Rembrandt himself, perhaps seeking his permission. Unless she has realized that she was being spied on by the viewer, who as a result finds himself in the role of one of the elders. But the elders are fictitious painted figures, colored, ordered matter. Who then is the real voyeur in this story?

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