How are you?
Currently, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting
Art Stories”.
The 50th story is “The Storm on
the Sea of Galilee” by Rembrandt van Rijn.
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| Rembrandt van Rijn |
“The Storm on the Sea of Galilee” is a 1633 oil painting on canvas by Rembrandt van Rijn, the Dutch Golden Age painter. It was in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, but stolen in 1990 and remains missing.
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| Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum |
The painting depicts the
biblical story of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee as described in
the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark and is also Rembrandt's only seascape
painting.
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| Sea of Galilee, Israel |
Painted in vertical format,
the painting shows a close-up view of Christ's disciples struggling against the
violent storm to control their fishing boat again. In the painting, a huge wave
beats the bow and tears the sail, and one of the disciples vomits into the sea.
Another one who looks directly at the viewer is a self-portrait of Rembrandt
himself, and only Christ depicted on the right seems calm.
The close-up treatment of
the subject and the overall composition shown in this painting traces back to
the print made by Adriaen Collaert after designed by the Flemish artist Maerten
de Vos.
That print depicting the
storm on the sea of Galilei was the eighth work of the 12-part "Vita,
passio et Resurrectio Iesu Christ" published by Jan and Raphael Sadeler in
Antwerp in 1583.
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| The storm on the sea of Galilei, print by Adriaen Collaert after design by Maerten de Vos |
Rembrandt's painting follows
the portrait format in his composition and also depicts the tilted boat. Like
in the print, most of the space in this painting is occupied by the disciples
on the boat struggling against the storm.
The painting was stolen on
the morning of March 18, 1990 by two thieves disguised as police officers and
broke into the museum, which is considered the biggest art theft in U.S. history
and remains unsolved to this day.
On March 18, 2013, the FBI
announced that they had identified a suspect in the case, but no public
conclusions were made.
The painting has been cited
in many fields of popular culture.
The painting was used on the
cover of the 1996 book “Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk” by
Peter L. Bernstein.
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| Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, Peter L. Bernstein |
The painting was used as the
cover for “The Struggle (2012)”, the third studio album by Tenth Avenue North.
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| The Struggle, Tenth Avenue North (2012) |
The painting and its theft
are referred to in the 2013 film “Trance”.
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| Trance (2013) |
The painting appears in the
fictional town of Lost in Sarah Beth Durst's 2014 novel “The Lost.”
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| The Lost, Sarah Beth Durst (2014) |
The theft of the painting
was discussed in the 2021 Netflix show "This is a Robbery: The World's
Biggest Art Heist."
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| This Is a Robbery The World's Biggest Art Heist |
Thank you.
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