Rembrandt, 'The Woman taken in Adultery', 1644

The Woman taken in Adultery

Rembrandt

Room 22

About the work

Overview

A woman weeps on the steps of a shadowy temple, while members of the Jewish ruling council gather round. Afraid of Christ’s popular preaching, they planned to trick him into transgressing the Jewish law. They said to him: ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. What do you say about her?’

This is the moment of decision that could entrap the young preacher. A man puts his finger to his lips as if hushing the crowd. Will Christ plead for mercy or will he uphold the law? It seems that either way, he will be condemned as well as the woman.

His reply became one of the most famous quotations in the history of Christianity: ‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’ The woman was released, the accusers confounded. Christ was free to preach again, but not without a parting word to the repentant woman: ‘Go and sin no more.’

In-depth

A woman kneels and weeps. Darkness like a great cavern surrounds her. A shaft of light picks her out on the stone steps. Behind her, huge gold columns and a tall gilded altar loom out of the shadows cast by glimmering candles. They tower up into the gloom, dwarfing the people gathered below.

Blurred figures of worshippers by the altar follow an ancient ritual, but the woman is alone in a crowd of men – old men in black with beards, and one in red velvet with a huge, glittering turban. A gnarled hand, caught in the light, indicates her. An armed soldier grasps the fragile veil that almost slips from her bowed head. Her long hair tumbles over her shoulder onto her white shift, an undergarment – her shame is made visible, with not even a simple robe to cover her.

The men’s eyes are on a single figure. His brown robe, his red beard and long hair have become an image widely recognisable: Christ. Calm and unmoving, he looks down at the woman. He waits, as does one of his disciples with a shorn head, hand grasping his robe.

This is a moment from the story of the woman taken in adultery, as told in the Gospel of John. The Sadducees and Pharisees – members of the Jewish ruling council – were afraid and jealous of Christ’s preaching and growing influence in the community, and planned to trick him into transgressing the Jewish law. They said to him: ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. What do you say about her?’ (John 8: 3–7)

The tension in the group of men, Christ’s thoughtful air and the woman’s continuing tears suggest that Rembrandt has depicted the moment of decision that could entrap the dangerous young preacher. A man in black puts a finger to his lips, as if hushing the crowd. Will Christ plead for mercy or will he uphold the law? It seems that either way, he is condemned as well as the woman.

His reply became one of the most famous quotations in the history of Christianity. ‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’ The woman was released, the accusers confounded. Christ was free to preach again – but not without a parting word to the repentant woman: ‘Go and sin no more.’

In seventeenth-century Holland, the Church had rejected the Catholic practice of decorating churches with holy images and statues of saints, which for centuries had served to illuminate Bible texts for ordinary worshippers. The walls in Protestant churches were whitewashed and unadorned, but there was still a market for pictures that told stories from the Bible. The pictures told a moral tale, but the drama in them also entertained and provided a talking point. They were also a symbol of wealth but not least were they appreciated and treasured for their artistic merit. The young Rembrandt was acclaimed for his striking ability to portray drama in a way that struck to the heart.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Woman taken in Adultery
Artist: Rembrandt
Artist dates: 1606 - 1669
Date made: 1644
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 83.8 × 65.4 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1824
Inventory number: NG45
Location: Room 22
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: John Julius Angerstein
Frame: 17th-century Dutch Frame

Provenance

Said to have been painted for Jan Six (1618–1700), Amsterdam, but this is unlikely and there seems to be no evidence that it was even in his collection. It is probably the painting of this subject by Rembrandt which is the highest valued painting in the inventory of the Amsterdam dealer, Johannes de Renialme, 1657, and which is also in the inventory made in 1705 of the collection of Jacob Hinlopen, Amsterdam (deceased). It was in the collection of Willem Six (nephew of Jan Six) in Amsterdam by 1718; at the Willem Six (d. 1733) sale, Amsterdam, 12 May 1734 (lot 5), it was apparently bought in (2,510 guilders); it is said to have remained in the possession of the Six family until 1803 and to have been sold then, with some other pictures, to Coclers of Amsterdam. It was bought from Coclers in the same year by P. J. Lafontaine, Paris, who brought it to England in 1807; at the [Lafontaine] sale, London, 13 June 1807 (lot 44) it was bought in (5,000 gns) and was sold by Lafontaine the following day to John Julius Angerstein. Purchased with the Angerstein collection in 1824.

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
2009

Turner and the Masters

Tate Britain

23 September 2009 - 31 January 2010
2011

Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus

Musée du Louvre

21 April 2011 - 18 July 2011

Philadelphia Museum of Art

3 August 2011 - 30 October 2011

The Detroit Institute of Arts

20 November 2011 - 12 February 2012
2017

Rubens and Rembrandt

The National Gallery (London)

22 March 2017 - 6 August 2017
2019

Rembrandt's Light

Dulwich Picture Gallery

4 October 2019 - 2 February 2020
2020

Rembrandt’s Orient. West Meets East in Dutch Art of the Seventeenth-Century

Kunstmuseum Basel

31 October 2020 - 14 February 2021

Museum Barberini

13 March 2021 - 18 July 2021
2022

Sin (National Touring Exhibition)

Perth Museum and Art Gallery

18 June 2022 - 25 September 2022

York Museums Trust

7 October 2022 - 22 January 2023

The Arc (Hampshire Cultural Trust)

24 February 2023 - 14 May 2023

The Auckland Project

17 June 2023 - 1 October 2023

Bibliography

1823

J. Young, A Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Pictures of the Late John Julius Angerstein, Esq: Containing a Finished Etching of Every Picture, and Accompanied with Historical and Biographical Notices, London 1823
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
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
1922

A.P. Laurie, 'The Authenticity of Rembrandts', The Connoisseur, LXII, 1922, pp. 191-6
1956

H.M. Rotermund, 'Wandlungen des Christus-Typus bei Rembrandt', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, XVIII, 1956, pp. 197-237
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1973

W. Sumowski, 'Kritische Bemerkungen zur neusten Gemäldekritik', in O. von Simson and J. Kelch (eds), Neue Beiträge zur Rembrandt-Forschung, Berlin 1973
1976

C. Brown, Art in Seventeenth Century Holland (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 30 September - 12 December 1976), London 1976
1982

M. Kitson, Rembrandt, Oxford 1982
1982

N. Reiling, 'Rembrandt und die Juden', Du, II, 1982, pp. 42-69
1985

G. Schwartz, Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings, Harmondsworth 1985
1987

M. Podro, 'Rembrandt's Woman Taken in Adultery', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, L, 1987, pp. 245-52
1987

A. Golahny, 'The Adulteress by Rembrandt and by Van den Eeckhout: Variations on an Italian Magdalene', in Papers from the Second Interdisciplinary Conference on Netherlandic Studies held at Georgetown University June 1984, Lanham 1987, pp. 115-22
1988

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

J. Mills and R. White, 'Paint Media Analyses', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XIII, 1989, pp. 69-71
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

J. Held, 'Rembrandt and the Spoken Word', in J. Held, Rembrandt Studies, Princeton 1991, pp. 164-83
1993

C. Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour, Antwerp 1993
1994

H. Raupp, 'Rembrandts Radierungen mit biblischen Themen 1640-1650 und das "Hundertguldenblatt"', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 1994, pp. 403-20
1999

J. Drury, Painting the Word: Christian Pictures and Their Meanings, New Haven 1999
1999

A. Golahny, 'Rembrandt's Practical Approach to Italian Art. Three Variations', Low Countries, VII, 1999, pp. 123-31
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2002

S. Michalski, 'Rembrandt and the Church Interiors of the Delft School', Artibus et historiae, XXIII/46, 2002, pp. 183-93
2003

K. Muizelaar and D. Phillips, Picturing Men and Women in the Dutch Golden Age: Paintings and People in Historical Perspective, New Haven 2003
2006

W.J. Meijer, Rembrandt en het Evangelie: Beeldgedichten & beeldgedachten, Vaassen 2006
2006

V. Scholl, Rembrandts biblische Frauenporträts: Eine Begegnung von Theologie und Malerei, Zürich 2006
2006

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

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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