Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee
The Storm
Rembrandt van Rijn · 1633
01
Amsterdam. 1633.
Rembrandt has just left Leiden.
He paints the sea once.
This is the once.
02
The bow climbs the wave.
The sail tears loose.
Half the boat fights the rigging.
03
One man hangs over the rail.
Seasick.
Rembrandt kept him in.
04
At the stern, they wake him.
Every face in the boat is fear.
Except his.
05
One man isn't watching the storm.
He's watching you.
That face looks like Rembrandt's own.
The whole storm.
Uncropped.
“Master, carest thou not that we perish?”
18 March 1990
Two men dressed as police talk their way into the Gardner Museum, Boston.
Thirteen works leave with them. This is one.
The frame still hangs. Empty.
The reward is ten million dollars.
Nobody has collected it.
Rembrandt van Rijn
Dutch · Baroque · 1606 to 1669
Sources · 4