Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah

1690s

Arent de Gelder(Dordrecht 1645 – 1727 Dordrecht)

oil on canvas
112 x 155 cm
indistinctly signed in dark paint, along upperedge, right of center: “A(??)lder f.”
AG-103Currently on view at: The Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston

How To Cite
Manuth, Volker. "Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur
K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah
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Arent de Gelder studied with Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) for at least

Comparative Figures

two years in the early 1660s, at a time when his master created some of
his greatest paintings, among them the Staalmeesters (The Sampling
Officials of the Amsterdam Draper’s Guild ) of 1662 (fig 1). The stylistic
and thematic impact of these works on the young artist remained strong for
decades

thereafter.

For

example,De

Gelderlearnedfrom

the

Staalmeesters how to use a table with a heavy orange-red tablecloth as acompositional focus for his figure paintings. He also emulated
Rembrandt’s expressive painting techniques, including scratching away
paint with a palette knife, to create works with vibrant and lively surfaces,
often with a palette of olive, brown, ochre, red, and orange colors. The

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn,
Staalmeesters (The Sampling
Officials of the Amsterdam
Draper’s Guild), 1662, oil oncanvas, 191.5cm × 279 cm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SKC-6

importance of Rembrandt’s inspiration is particularly evident in thisevocative painting, Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah , which De Gelder’s
executed some thirty years after his apprenticeship with that master.
Like Rembrandt, De Gelder based a number of his biblical scenes onbooks from the Apocrypha, particularly the story of the pious, blind, andimpoverished Tobit.[1] Although the Book of Tobit was not accepted by theProtestants as part of the biblical canon, it was included at the very end of
the authorized translation of the Bible of the Dutch Reformed Church, theso-called Statenvertaling of 1637. In the preface to the Bible, the Dutch
theologians responsible for the translation specifically prohibited thereading of the Apocrypha during the divine service. Nevertheless, theFig 2. Arent de Gelder, Tobias
Welcomed by His Mother Hanna,
1690/1700, oil on canvas, 87.5 x
111 cm, Museum
Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, on
loan from the Cultural Heritage
Agency of the Netherlands,
Amersfoort/Rijswijk, inv. RMCC
S129

Book of Tobit was recommended for its moralistic overtones and gained
popularity during the seventeenth century.
De Gelder’s Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah features Tobit’s son
Tobias, who had undertaken a long journey on his father’s behalf to thecity of Ecbatana in Media.[2] In Ecbatana, Tobias and his travelingcompanion who, unbeknownst to him, was the Archangel Raphael, metwith one of Tobit’s kinsmen, Raguel, and his wife, Edina. The couple’sdaughter Sarah was both beautiful and wise, and Tobias fell in love withher. Sarah, however, was beset by a demon, who had already killed eachof her seven bridegrooms when they entered the bridal chamber. Acting on
the advice of Raphael, who also promised his help to conquer the demon,
Tobias obtained Raguel’s permission to marry Sarah.[3] De Gelder’spainting focuses on the moment that Raguel’s wife, Edna, seated calmly
between Sarah and Tobias, entrusts the young Tobias with herdaughter.[4] Raguel, seen in profile at the near side of the table, gazes at© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah
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his wife and reacts to her words with an expressive gesture.[5]The words to which Raguel reacts are recorded in chapter ten, verse
thirteen of the book of Tobit, where Edna says: “I commit my daughter unto
thee as a special trust; do not bring her pain.”[6] The richly decorated
gloves of young Tobias allude to the important role of wedding gloves as amarriage pledge in seventeenth-century wedding ceremonies.[7] De Gelder
likely based the physiognomies on live models. Whether he did this with
the intention of making his figures more convincing or to satisfy the wish ofa patron who might have ordered a portrait historié is not known.
The identification of De Gelder’s painting with this text from the Book of
Tobit has been questioned in the past because of the young ages ofTobias and Sarah.[8] By the end of the seventeenth century, however, along pictorial tradition had been established in which Tobias was depicted
as a young boy. A number of paintings and drawings from Rembrandt’s
circle, for example, show Tobias about the same age as the boy
represented here.[9] Moreover, the Statenvertaling refers to Tobias
explicitly as a jongelinck (young man) and to Sarah as het dochterken (thelittle daughter).[10]An alternative passage in the Book of Tobit (7:13), which describes thewedding of Tobias and Sarah, has in the past been wrongly associatedwith this painting. In that text it is written, “then he [Raguel] called his
daughter Sarah, and she came to her father, and he took her by the hand,and gave her to be wife to Tobias, saying, Behold, take her after the law ofMoses, and lead her away to thy father. And he blessed them.” Thereafter,a marriage contract was drawn and signed. De Gelder did depict thissubject in a painting now in Brighton.[11] In the Brighton work he showed
the drafting and scrutinizing of the marriage contract following, it seems,
the example of Jan Steen (1626–79), who painted at least three versionsof this subject.[12] Aside from the fact that the present painting does notdepict the marriage contract of Tobias and Sarah, the gesture of Raguelcould hardly be interpreted as a blessing. Instead, Raguel’s wife, Edna,
who holds the hands of the young couple with warmth and affection, is thecentral figure, as would be appropriate for the moment in which she
entrusts Tobias with Sarah.
A painting by De Gelder in Utrecht (fig 2), incorrectly interpreted as Edna
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah
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Entrusting Tobias with Sarah, differs in the scene’s much more modest
setting and in the fact that one of the two female figures is an old
woman.[13] She resembles Anna, the mother of Tobias, as Rembrandt andhis circle traditionally portrayed her. Werner Sumowski correctly identified
the subject of the Utrecht picture as Anna greeting or blessing Tobias
upon his return with Sarah.[14] Here, too, De Gelder followed the text in theStatenvertaling (Tobit 11:9), which relates that Anna greeted her son even
before Tobit did.[15]Von Moltke’s opinion that the Leiden Collection painting dates from theearly 1700s is incorrect.[16] The rich, fanciful dress of Sarah and hermother, particularly Edna’s square neckline, open gown tied at the waist,and the long streamers that attach the back of her headdress, areconsistent with female fashions of the 1690s. Although very few paintings
by De Gelder from the 1690s can be reliably dated, in comparison withpaintings from the 1680s it seems that his brushwork, especially in thedetailed characterization of the lavishly decorated costumes, becamemuch finer and more detailed, an effect particularly seen in his rendering oftransparent veils. As with Sarah’s veil, in most cases he often renderedthese delicate garments with little more than fine white contour lines.
Raguel and Tobias, with their sumptuous cloaks and curiously shaped,
multicolored turbans, are dressed in a more Orientalizing fashion than
Sarah and Edna. De Gelder’s knowledge of genuine Oriental dress can bedetected in Tobias’s yellow kaftan and heron-feather aigrette. A portrait
medallion with the image of a head in profile, similar to the one hanging
from Tobias’s neck, is also featured in De Gelder’s painting Judah’s
Humble Supplication to Joseph, ca. 1685.[17]Arnold Houbraken, who was also from Dordrecht and well acquainted withDe Gelder, described the artist’s use of studio props: “But our De Gelder
has collected, no less so than he [Rembrandt], a chest of all kinds ofclothes, hangings, firearms and bayonets, armor, and so on, including
shoes and clogs; and the attic and walls of his studio are hung withdraperies and embroidered cloths and veils, some intact, others torn. . . .
From this rich stock he takes the requisites for his pictures.”[18] Taking
Houbraken’s account of De Gelder’s use of studio props into
consideration, one would not be surprised to find that the tablecloth might
be identical with “1 root fluwel taefelkleed” (one red velvet tablecloth)© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah
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documented in the inventory of the artist’s estate in 1727.[19]-Volker Manuth© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah
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Endnotes
1. See Julius S. Held, Rembrandt and the Book of Tobit , The Gehenna Essays in Art 2(Northampton, Mass., 1964), also published as “Rembrandt und das Buch Tobias,” in Julius
S. Held, Rembrandt-Studien (Leipzig, 1983), 78–100.
2. The purpose of the trip was to gather silver that his blind father had deposited with his
kinsman Gabael.
3. During their wedding night Tobias exorcised the demon by burning the liver and the heart of
the fish which he had caught in the river Tibris and which he would later use to cure his oldfather’s blindness.
4. The literature contains various interpretations of the theme of Arent de Gelder’s painting. In
the earliest monograph on the painter, Lilienfeld suggests that it represents a biblical scene,
perhaps Young Tobias in the House of Raguel (see Karl Lilienfeld,Arent de Gelder: Sein
Leben und seine Kunst [The Hague, 1914], 173, no. 114.) Van Fossen and Von Moltke
agreed with him (see David R. van Fossen, “The Painting of Aert de Gelder” [Ph.D. diss.,
Harvard University, 1969], 264, no. 64; Joachim W. von Moltke,Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht
1645–1727 [Doornspijk, 1994], 80–81, no. 43). Sumowski, who disagreed with theidentification of the scene as a story from the Old Testament, assumed it to be a “subject of
antiquity in a feudal setting” (Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandtschüler in vierBänden, 6 vols. [Landau and Pfalz, 1983–95], 6:3713, no. 2293). See also Volker Manuth, in
Inaugural Exhibition of Old Master Paintings (Exh. cat. New York, Otto Naumann Ltd.) (NewYork, 1995), 133–36, no. 30 (“Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah”); and Volker Manuth in P.
Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts laatste leerling (Exh. cat.
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) (Ghent, 1998),
188–89, no. 29 (“Tobias in het huis van Edna and Sarah” [Tobias in the House of Edna andSarah]).
5. The X-radiograph reveals that De Gelder originally placed a figure between Edna and Sarah.
Whether this figure was the first position of Sarah or another figure altogether is not clear.
6. Book of Tobit 10:13: “ik geef u mijn dochter over als een vertrouwd pand, bedroef haar niet.”
Edna’s farewell words derive from the Greek translation of the Bible, the Septuagint, but do
not occur in either the Latin (Vulgate) or Luther’s translation. The Greek text was the basis of
the Dutch Bible produced in 1637—the so-called Statenvertaling—which explains theinclusion of this scene and its subsequent treatment by Arent de Gelder. On this subject, see
Christian Tümpel et al., eds., Im Lichte Rembrandts: Das Alte Testament im Goldenen
Zeitalter der niederländischen Kunst (Exh. cat. Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum;
Amsterdam, Joods Historisch Museum; Jerusalem, Israel Museum) (Zwolle, 1994), 296, no.
63, and Volker Manuth, “‘De voorwerpen van zyn Historische vertooningen zyn meest© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah
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Bybelstof…’: De bijbelse historiestukken van Arent de Gelder; Keuze van onderwerpen en
iconografie,” in P. Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder (1645–1727): Rembrandts laatste leerling(Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) (Ghent,1998), 51–69, esp. 61–63.
7. For the gloves in seventeenth-century Dutch wedding ceremonies, see Bianca M. Du
Mortier, “De handschoen in de huwelijkssymboliek van de zeventiende eeuw,”Bulletin van
het Rijksmuseum 32 (1984): 189–201.
8. David R. van Fossen, “The Painting of Aert de Gelder” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University,1969), 264; Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandtschüler in vier Bänden, 6 vols.
(Landau and Pfalz, 1983–95), 6:3713, no. 2293.
9. Compare for example Rembrandt’s pen and brush drawing Tobias Frightened by the Fish ofca. 1650 in the Copenhagen Printroom; see Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, ed.
Eva Benesch, 6 vols. (London, 1973), 3: no. 638 (ill.).
10. “So seyde de Engel tot den Iongelinck, Broeder wy sullen heden tot Raguël ter herberge
gaen.” Tobit 6:13: “ende het dochterken is schoon ende verstandich.” Tobit 6:12.
11. The Marriage Contract, ca. 1670, oil on canvas, 94.6 x 143.5 cm, Art Gallery and Museum,
Brighton, inv. no. FA000014. See Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandtschüler invier Bänden, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–95), 2: no. 733 (ill.), and Joachim W. vonMoltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727 (Doornspijk, 1994), 81, no. 44 (ill.)
12. The three versions (excluding several variants and copies) are: (1) M. H. de Young Memorial
Museum, San Francisco; (2) Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig; and (3) unknown
private collection. See Baruch D. Kirschenbaum, The Religious and Historical Paintings of
Jan Steen (New York, 1977), 121, 25/487, fig. 86; 122, 25a/457, fig. 66; and 123, 25b, fig.
77.
13. Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, inv. RMCC S129 (on loan from the Instituut Collectie
Nederland). For an overview of the identification of the subject matter of the painting, see
Joachim Wolfgang von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727 (Doornspijk, 1994),
81–82, no. 45 (plate XXIV).
14. Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandtschüler in vier Bänden, 6 vols. (Landau andPfalz, 1983–95), 2: no. 762.
15. “En Anna liep toe en viel haar zoon aan de hals, en zeide tot hem: Kind, ik heb u gezien,thans wil ik wel sterven; en zij weenden beiden” (Statenvertaling, Tobias 11:9).
16. Joachim W. von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727 (Doornspijk, 1994), 80.
17. Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts laatste leerling (Exh. cat.
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) (Ghent, 1998), no. 14.
See also Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandtschüler in vier Bänden , 6 vols.
(Landau and Pfalz, 1983–95), 5: no. 2090a, and 2: no. 735.
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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18. “Maar onze de Gelder, heeft niet minder dan hy [Rembrandt] een voddekraam vanallerhande soort van kleederen, behangsels, schiet-en steekgeweer, harnassen, enz. tot
schoenen en muilen inkluis, by een verzamelt; en de zoldering en de wanden van zyn
schildervertrek, zyn behangen met floersche en gestikte zyde bewindselen en sluijers,
sommige geheel, andere gescheurt…Uit dezen ryken voorraad haalt hy de toerustinge zyner
beelden.” Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,
Amsterdam, 1980), 3:208.
19. Published in Joachim Wolfgang von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727(Doornspijk, 1994), 203.

Provenance
E. J. de Court van Valkenswaard (his sale, Dordrecht, Mak van Way, 12 April 1847, no. 49[64 guilders to De Gruijter]).
H. Konow, Copenhagen, 1914.
T. Kroepelien Collection, Bergen, Norway, by 1961; and by descent [Thomas Agnew andSons, Ltd., London, 1989; Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam, 1994; Otto Naumann, Ltd., New
York, 1995].
Alfred Bader, by 1995 [Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

Exhibition History
Copenhagen, Kunstforeningen I Kobenhavn, “Billender af gammel kunst,” 1891, no. 60.
New York, Otto Naumann Ltd., “Inaugural Exhibition of Old Master Paintings,” 12 January–1
March 1995, 133–36, no. 30.
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, “Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts Laatste
Leerling.” 10 October 1998–17 January 1999; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 17January–19 May 1999, no. 29 [lent by Otto Naumann].
Budapest, Szépművészeti Múzeum, “Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age,” 31 October
2014–15 February 2015, no. 118 [lent by the present owner].
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, on loan with the permanent collection, 5 May, 2017–30 April
2017 [lent by the present owner].
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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References
Lilienfeld, Karl. Arent de Gelder: Sein Leben und seine Kunst . The Hague, 1914, 145,
173–74, no. 114.
Van Fossen, David Raymond. “The Paintings of Aert de Gelder.” Ph.D. diss. Harvard
University, 1969, 264, no. 64
Von Moltke, Joachim Wilhelm. Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727. Doornspijk, 1994,
80, no. 43, fig. 43.
Sumowski, Werner. Die Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden. 6 vols. Landau
and Pfalz, 1983–95, 6:3713, no. 2293; 3887, fig. 2293.
Manuth, Volker. “Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah.” In Inaugural Exhibition of Old Master
Paintings. Exh. cat. New York, Otto Naumann Ltd. New York, 1995, 133–36, no. 30.
Manuth, Volker. “Tobias in het huis van Edna en Raguel.” InArent de Gelder: (1645–1727):
Rembrandts laatste leerling. Edited by Dirk Bijker, et. al., 188–89, no. 29. Exh. cat.
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Ghent, 1998.
Cavalli-Björkman, Görel. “Tobias in the House of Edna and Raguel.” InRembrandt and theDutch Golden Age. Edited by Ildikó Ember, et al., 404–5, no. 118. Exh. cat. Budapest,
Szépművészeti Múzeum. Budapest, 2014.

Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of medium-weight, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed,
has been lined. Cusping along all four edges indicates the original dimensions have not beensignificantly altered. There is a handwritten inscription and hand-drawn circle but no wax
collection seals, stencils, paper labels or import stamps along the lining or stretcher reverse.
The ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by a light-brown underlayer that remains
visible through the glazes of paint applied along the majority of the foreground and background.
The paint has been applied more opaquely through the flesh tones and drapery, with areas of
low impasto along areas of white highlight associated with all four figures. Areas of detail in all
four figures have been scratched into glazes of wet paint with the back of a brush.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. The
images and X-radiograph reveal that Sarah’s head was shifted to the left and positioned slightly
higher during the paint stage and was originally painted with more radio-opaque pigments than
the four faces in the final composition. A pentimento indicates that Edna’s shoulder was shiftedto the right and that Sarah and Edna were originally positioned closer together. Pentimenti under© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah
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Raquel’s chin and throughout Tobias’s lower face indicate shifts in the position of their faces.
The painting is indistinctly signed in dark paint right of center along the upper edge and isundated.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2002 prior to its acquisition in 2004. The painting is infair condition and state of preservation with areas of abrasion and out-of-tone restorations along
the background.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden Collection