The Toilet of Bathsheba (1643)

Rembrandt (1606-1669)

The Toilet of Bathsheba
1643
Oil on wood, 57.2 x 76.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

Rembrandt shows the biblical figure Bathsheba completely nude, lost in a moment of contemplation and unaware that she is being observed by King David in the distant tower in the background. Classicist critics particularly objected to Rembrandt’s realistic representation of the female body, declaring that the marks of garters could be seen on the legs of his figures from history or myth—see Bathsheba’s left calf here. Like much of the picture, the attendant arranging Bathsheba’s hair is badly abraded from past cleaning, but she may have been intended to represent a woman of African origin. (MET)