Join receiving our map lists and exclusief offers - Click here →    
Paulus Swaen Rare Antique Maps & Prints
Welcome, Guest
  • Sign Up
  • Sign In
  • Wish List
Sign Up Sign In
  • Browse Catalog
  • 0
    Your shopping cart is empty.
  • wish list
BuyNow Catalog catalog
Invoices & Certificates invoices
FAQ Buying in the BuyNow Gallery
Personal Information
Terms and conditions
Update / Add (shipping) address
Wish List / Virtual Collection wish list
Mailing List
Catalog Archive
FAQ
Interesting articles
Client Center
Contact Us
Consignor Center
BuyNow Catalog catalog
Atlases
World
Celestial
Africa
Globes
Americas
Map Types
Asia
Sea Charts
Australia & Oceania
Title pages
Europe
Map Makers & Explorers
Wall Maps
Curated Collection
Highlights
Top Picks
BuyNow Catalog catalog
Old Stocks & Bonds
Books
Medieval Manuscripts
Nuremberg Chronicle
Prints - Decorative invoices
Posters / Publicity
Prints - 16-8th C.
East Meets West
Prints -19th C.
Maritime Prints
Prints - Modern
VOC & Trading Companies
Instruments, Games & Folding Fans
Virtual Collection
Paulus Swaen Rare Antique Maps & Prints
0
Your shopping cart is empty.
  • Welcome, Guest
  • Browse Catalog
  • Wish List
  • Articles
  • Highlights
  • Mailing List
  • Sign Up / Sign In
  1. Home
  2. Prints / Drawings
  3. Prints 16-18th century
Lot #: 82163
Sold in 2021 for $3300.
Subscribe to be notified if similar examples become available.
$0.00
wish list Virtual Collection

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife.

Maker / Publisher:  REMBRANDT Harmensz. van Rijn
Place & Date: Amsterdam, 1634
Colored: Uncolored.
Size: 91 x 115 mm / 3.6 x 4.5 inches
Condition: Etching, on laid paper, without watermark, a good impression of the second, state, trimmed on neatline. Some paper thinning on lower right verso, not affecting imprint.
   

Selling price: $3300
Sold in 2021


Missed this item!
Be the first to get notified about our newly added listings.
Feel free to contact us if you have a question about this item.
Inquire Now

Add your name to our mailing list.

Virtual Collection - Save and collect your favorite items in one place.
Unless logged in, the item is only saved for that session.
If you want to save the items permanently, please Login first
Learn more [+]

wish list Add/Remove
See Your Virtual Collection



H!BCoR*** help
GRADING Overall Rating: 90 points, 7 stars
Historical Historical Significance: Important ****
Beauty Beauty: Decorative *****
Condition Condition Rating: Fine ****
Rarity Rarity: Scarce -  A map which is very infrequently offered. ***
This item has been graded according to our grading system. Read more 
  • Description
  • FAQ - Guarantee - Shipping - More Info
Description
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife depicts a story from the Bible, wherein Potiphar's Wife attempts to seduce Joseph. This etching is signed and dated "Rembrandt f. 1634". Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669).

Second state of four.

Rembrandt's etching is a dramatic presentation of the moment Potiphar's wife grabs the fleeing Joseph.
Considered "unprecedented in its erotic candor", it shows Joseph averting his eyes from the frankly depicted nude lower body of his master's wife.
Only an etching of 1600 by Antonio Tempesta had portrayed a comparable sexual aggressiveness.

Despite compositional similarities to the Tempesta, Rembrandt's depiction of human emotions—Joseph's revulsion and the desperation of Potiphar's wife—is unique to him, and the work is more blunt in its suggestion of the woman's physical appetite.

As in his 1638 etching of Adam and Eve, the explicit depiction of the female's vulva is unusual, and emphasizes the seductress's lasciviousness; a persistent notion from antiquity to 17th century Holland was that a woman's genitals hungered insatiably for the male's seed.

Of some 300 etchings that Rembrandt produced, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife was one of only four or five that may be classified as erotica; these prints were not widely disseminated during his life.
A context for Rembrandt's unidealized interpretation of the nude was proposed by Kenneth Clark, who noted that the artist's female figures from the early 1630s marked a break with the abundant exuberance of his contemporary, Peter Paul Rubens, and were at stark contrast with the classicism of the conventional nude.

Rembrandt's etchings offered a "defiant truthfulness", as well as a sense of pity for physical imperfections, the fat and wrinkles of the human body.

Rembrandt may have intended moral implications in the dramatic use of light and shadow, with Joseph seen radiantly illuminated on the left side of the print and Potiphar's wife surrounded by the darkness of her bedchamber on the right.

The rich tonal quality Rembrandt achieved in early etchings like Joseph and Potiphar's Wife was produced by his building dark areas with multiple overlays of hatched lines, gained through repeated work on successive states of the print.
The original printing plate survives in a private collection.

Reference: Bartsch 39, H. 118. Sluijter, E., Rembrandt and the Female Nude, (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006)




FAQ - Guarantee - Shipping

Buying in the BuyNow Gallery
This item is available for immediate purchase when a "Add to Cart" or "Inquire Now" button is shown.
Items are sold in the EU margin scheme
Payments are accepted in Euros or US Dollars.

Authenticity Guarantee
Certificate of authenticityWe provide professional descriptions, condition report (based on 45 years experience in the map business)
Paulus Swaen warrants the authenticity of our items and a certificate of authenticity is provided for each acquired lot.

Condition and Coloring
We indicate the condition of each item and use our unnique HiBCoR grading system in which four key items determine a map's value: Historical Importance, Beauty, Condition/Coloring and Rarity.

Color Key
We offer many maps in their original black and white condition. We do not systematically color-up maps to make them more sellable to the general public or buyer.
Copper engraved or wood block maps are always hand colored. Maps were initially colored for aesthetic reasons and to improve readability. Nowadays, it is becoming a challenge to find maps in their original colors and are therefor more valuable.
We use the following color keys in our catalog:
Original colors; mean that the colors have been applied around the time the map was issued.
Original o/l colors; means the map has only the borders colored at the time of publication.
Colored; If the colors are applied recently or at the end of the 20th century.
Read more about coloring of maps [+]


Shipping fee
A flat shipping fee of $ 30 is added to each shipment by DHL within Europe and North America. This covers : International Priority shipping, Packing and Insurance (up to the invoice amount).
Shipments to Asia are $ 40 and rest of the world $50
We charge only one shipping fee when you have been successful on multiple items or when you want to combine gallery and auction purchases.
Read more about invoicing and shipping

FAQ
Please have a look for more information about buying in the BuyNow gallery
Many answers are likely to find in the general help section.

Virtual Collection Virtual Collection
With Virtual Collection you can collect all your favorite items in one place. It is free, and anyone can create his or her Virtual map collection.
Unless you are logged in, the item is only saved for this session. You have to be registed and logged-in if you want to save this item permanently to your Virtual Collection. Read More[+]
Register here, it is free and you do not need a credit card.
Add this item to Virtual Collection or click the following link to see my Virtual Collection.

High-Resolution Digital Image Download
Paulus Swaen maintains an archive of most of our high-resolution rare maps, prints, posters and medieval manuscript scans.
We make them freely available for download and study.
Read more about free image download

Click this image for a free HR-image download.
Old map image download for Joseph and Potiphar's Wife.
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife.

YOUR RIGHT TO CANCEL THE PURCHASE OF A LOT
In accordance with the EU Consumer Rights Directive and habitually reside in the European Union you have the right to cancel the contract for the purchase of a lot, without giving any reason.
The cancellation period will expire 14 calendar days from the day after the date on which you or a third party (other than the carrier and indicated by you) acquires, physical possession of the lot. To exercise the right to cancel you must inform Paulus Swaen Europe bv, which is offering to sell the lot either as an agent for the seller or as the owner of the lot, of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, or e-mail (amsterdam@swaen.com).
To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.

Interesting articles

  • Articles about Maps
  • Mapmakers & Explorers
  • Coloring
  • Mapping of
  • Mapping the Silk Road
  • Articles about Prints
  • Articles about trading companies

Gallery

  • Catalog
  • Gallery Highlights
  • Can I buy this item now
  • Paulus Swaen BuyNow Gallery
  • FAQ & Answers
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact Us

Helpful Links

  • About Us
  • WHAT IS NEW
  • The curated collection
  • Virtual Collection
  • Browse Articles
  • Articles about Maps
  • Types of maps
  • Articles about Prints
  • What is MetaMap.gallery
Sign-Up to NewsLetter
Be the first to get notified about our weekly added new listings, newsletters, and special offers.
Newsletter

Paulus Swaen Rare Antique Maps & Prints
901 North Hercules Avenue, Suite A
Clearwater, FL 33765, USA
Amsterdam, 1075 KJ, Netherlands
Email : @
Tel. USA: +1 727 687 3298
Tel. NL: +31 (0)20 2255198

©2025 Paulus Swaen Old Maps. All rights reserved.