Rembrandt, 'Ecce Homo', 1634

Ecce Homo

Rembrandt

Room 22

About the work

Overview

‘Ecce Homo’, the Latin title of this painting, is taken from the Bible, and means ‘Behold the man!’ These were the words of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, when he was sitting as the judge during the trial of Christ. Pilate, here shown wearing a turban and rising to his feet, is presenting Christ to the crowd. The picture evokes the fevered atmosphere of this show trial and is dominated by images of earthly power and authority. Christ stands slightly higher than his captors – he’s the only figure looking upwards towards the ’true' judge, God.

In-depth

‘Ecce Homo’, the Latin title of this painting, is taken from the Bible, and means ‘Behold the man!’ These were the words of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, when he was sitting as the judge during the trial of Christ, as described in the Bible (John 19: 5). It’s a critical point in the story of the events leading to Christ’s crucifixion – the moment when he is left alone and isolated, spurned and condemned by his own people.

Pilate, here shown wearing a turban and rising to his feet, is presenting Christ to the crowd. He rejects the long rod of justice the Jewish elders are offering him, his indication that there is no fault for which he can find Christ guilty. But as a seventeenth-century audience would have known, the priests – depicted by Rembrandt as ugly caricatures clamouring at Pilate’s feet – continued to accuse Jesus of claiming to be ’King of the Jews‘ and the crowd demanded his crucifixion. ’We have no king but Caesar!‘ was their chant, a sentiment Rembrandt has echoed visually with a monumental bust of Tiberius Caesar that towers over the right-hand side of the scene. The hand of the clock behind him points to six, the time specified in the Bible (John 19: 14), which goes on to tell of Pilate’s weakness and his agreement to Christ’s crucifixion.

The picture evokes the fevered atmosphere of this show trial and is dominated by images of earthly power and authority: soldiers, priests, judges, the emperor and the mob. But Christ has an air of detachment, despite the bindings, the crown of thorns that has been mockingly placed on his head and the sharp blades of the soldiers’ spears that stand threateningly behind his head. He is slightly higher than his captors, and is the only figure looking upwards towards the ’true' judge, God.

This small black and white painting (known as a grisaille) was not made for sale. It is a full-scale preparatory study for one of Rembrandt’s etchings – the only known example of such a work. The painting, which is on paper, was laid onto the etching plate, onto which the design was traced with a stylus. A print – a mirror image of the study – would be made from that. Indentations made during this tracing process are visible in the outlines of the key figures and features, and are especially clear around the clock tower. Despite the lack of colour (which wasn’t necessary for an etching) Rembrandt has focused considerable attention on Pilate and the priests in the foreground. He has used thick layers of paint and white highlights to capture the raking light on their exotic costumes and anxious expressions. Much of the rest of the painting, especially on the right side, has been only lightly sketched in. More detail was added to the final etching.

Rembrandt was a prolific print maker and his studio produced hundreds of images for sale. This was one of his most popular and by the eighteenth century it had become known as ‘The Thirty Guilder Print’, reflecting the high price paid for impressions of it.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Ecce Homo
Artist: Rembrandt
Artist dates: 1606 - 1669
Date made: 1634
Medium and support: oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Dimensions: 54.5 × 44.5 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1894
Inventory number: NG1400
Location: Room 22
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Sir Charles Lock Eastlake

Elizabeth Rigby, Lady Eastlake

Provenance

Perhaps identical with the ‘Ecce Homo’ in grisaille in the inventory of Rembrandt’s goods made in July 1656 in connection with his bankruptcy; possibly in the inventory of Jan van de Cappelle’s possessions made between January and August 1680. According to Smith it was sold with another grisaille in the Willem Six sale, Amsterdam, 12 May 1734; the only possible lot in that sale is 175 which consisted of three undescribed grisailles by Rembrandt, bought by de Barij (30 guilders). In the 1738 inventory of Valerius Röver, however, no. 8, valued at the high price of 125 guilders and marked ‘bijgeleijt 1738’, is: ‘de capitaalste tekening die van Rembrandt bekent is, verbeeld de groote Ecce Homo, waar na hij de print heeft gesneden - met olieverwe op papier int graauw geschildert’. This is almost certainly No. 1400 which makes it unlikely (but not impossible) that it was in the Six sale. It was later purchased by Johan Goll van Franckenstein of Amsterdam, who sold it in 1827 to the Amsterdam dealer, A. Brondgeest, from whom it passed into the possession of Thomas Emmerson, London. By 1836 it was in the collection of Jeremiah Harman; J. Harman sale, London, 17–18 May 1844 (lot 92), bought by John Smith (112 gns) who sold it to G. Blamire. George Blamire sale, London, 7–9 November 1863 (lot 57), bought by Mulvaney (16 gns). In the collection of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (d. 1865); bought from the executors of Lady Eastlake for a nominal sum (in accordance with the terms of Sir Charles’ will) in 1894.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2008

Rembrandt. History Painter

Museo Nacional del Prado

15 October 2008 - 6 January 2009
2012

Rembrandt and the Passion (Hunterian)

Hunterian Museum

15 September 2012 - 2 December 2012
2016

Rembrandt intime

Musée Jacquemart-André

16 September 2016 - 23 January 2017
2017

Rubens and Rembrandt

The National Gallery (London)

22 March 2017 - 6 August 2017
2017

Monochrome: Painting in Black and White

The National Gallery (London)

30 October 2017 - 18 February 2018
2017

Monochrome: Painting in Black and White.

Museum Kunstpalast

22 March 2018 - 15 July 2018
2018

Rembrandt: Painter as Printmaker

Denver Art Museum

16 September 2018 - 6 January 2019
2019

Young Rembrandt

Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal

1 November 2019 - 9 February 2020

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology

27 February 2020 - 1 November 2020

Bibliography

1753

Z.C. von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland und England, Frankfurt am Main 1753
1830

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
1844

Christie, Manson & Woods, A Catalogue of the Very Celebrated Collection of Pictures, of Jeremiah Harman, Esq., Deceased, and Removed from Higham House, Woodford, London, 17 May 1844 - 18 May 1844
1883

E. Dutuit, L'œuvre complet de Rembrandt, Paris 1883
1897

W. von Bode and C. Hofstede de Groot, The Complete Work of Rembrandt, 8 vols, Paris 1897
1907

C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
1909

A. Rosenberg and W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: Des Meisters Gemalde mit einer biographischen Einleitung, Stuttgart 1909
1922

A.P. Laurie, 'The Authenticity of Rembrandts', The Connoisseur, LXII, 1922, pp. 191-6
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1967

E. Haverkamp-Begemann, 'Purpose and Style in Oil Sketches of Rubens, Jan Breughel, Rembrandt', in Stil und Überlieferung in der Kunst des Abendlandes, Berlin 1967, vol. 3, pp. 104-13
1973

J.G. van Gelder, 'Frühe Rembrandt-Sammlungen', in O. von Simson and J. Kelch (eds), Neue Beiträge zur Rembrandt-Forschung, Berlin 1973, pp. 189-206
1984

M. Royalton-Kisch, 'Over Rembrandt en Van Vliet', Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis, 1-2, 1984, pp. 3-23
1984

M. Royalton-Kisch, 'Rembrandt: Two Passion Prints Reconsidered', Apollo, CXIX/264, 1984, pp. 130-2
1985

G. Schwartz, Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings, Harmondsworth 1985
1985

National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, January 1984 - December 1984', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, IX, 1985
1988

D. Bomford et al., Rembrandt (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 12 October 1988 - 17 January 1989), London 1988
1989

M. Royalton-Kisch, 'Rembrandt's Sketches for His Paintings', Master Drawings, XXVII/2, 1989, pp. 128-45
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1991

C. Brown, J. Kelch and P.J.J. van Thiel, Rembrandt: The Master and his Workshop (exh. cat. Gemäldegalerie SMPK at the Altes Museum, 12 September - 10 November 1991; Rijksmuseum, 4 December - 1 March 1992; The National Gallery, London, 25 March - 24 May 1992), New Haven 1991
1993

C. Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour, Antwerp 1993
1995

P. Kaenel, 'L'énigme du "Christ présenté au Peuple" (1655) de Rembrandt ou les limites de la vraisemblance iconologique', in L. Golay et al., Florilegium. Scritti di storia dell'arte in onore di Carlo Bertelli, Milan 1995, pp. 177-83
1995

M. Royalton-Kisch, 'Rembrandt's Clock', in C.P. Schneider, W.W. Robinson and A.I. Davies (eds), Shop Talk. Studies in Honour of Seymour Slive, Cambridge MA 1995, pp. 216-8
2000

S.D. Squarzina, 'Rembrandt mennonita', Arts, IV/1, 2000, pp. 78-86
2000

E. Hinterding, G. Luijten and M. Royalton-Kisch, Rembrandt the Printmaker (exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, 22 July - 8 October 2000 and 14 October 2000 - 7 January 2001; British Museum, 26 January - 8 April 2001), Amsterdam 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2003

C.S. Ackley et al., Rembrandt's Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher (exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, 26 October 2003 - 18 January 2004; Art Institute of Chicago, 14 February - 9 May 2004), Boston 2003
2005

J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, Dordrecht 2005
2006

D. Bomford et al., Rembrandt (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 12 October 1988 - 17 January 1989), London 2006
2009

M. Alexander-Knotter, 'Rembrandt's Hebrew', in H. Bevers and J. Kelch (eds), Rembrandt: Wissenschaft auf der Suche, Berlin 2009, pp. 25-38

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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