Rembrandt and The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Words by Meg Bulmer

On the 18th of March 1990 two men posing as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied up the guards on duty, and stole 13 paintings from the gallery walls over the course of an hour. Leaving without a trace, the men disappeared with the artworks (valued at hundreds of millions of dollars), and have remained undiscovered to this day. Over twenty years later a prize of 10 million dollars remains for anyone with information leading to the recovery of the valuable artwork and the arrest of the thieves responsible. The stolen paintings were part of a permanent collection at the museum, and their frames have sat empty on the walls for twenty years as a stark reminder of one of the most infamous art thefts in history. Of the 13 artworks stolen, most notable is The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, which to this day is ‘thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting in the world’. Additionally, there were sketches and paintings by well known artists such as Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Govert Flink, along with some relatively unknown and far lower value pieces. Although not the most valuable piece stolen from the museum, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is one of the most striking missing artworks, being the only seascape Rembrandt painted over the course of his career. 

The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, 1664

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in the Netherlands in 1606 and went on to lead a quiet life built entirely around his passion for painting and art. Not only did he become the most famous and successful painter in Amsterdam during the 1630s, he was also an avid collector of artworks (much to the chagrin of his finances). Although he was offered the rare opportunity to receive a formal education, Rembrandt quickly discovered his passion and purpose in life was art, and left University to begin a painting apprenticeship. Despite some early success, his artistic career did not truly take off until the 1630s when he moved to the bustling city of Amsterdam to make a name for himself as a painter. Rembrandt faced numerous obstacles in his path to artistic success, namely the religious circumstances of the country in which he lived; having just experienced a Protestant reformation, the Netherlands offered him far fewer opportunities than Catholic countries whose churches frequently commissioned work from local artists. The advice thus became to travel to Italy to widen his career prospects and learn from Italian art. However, Rembrandt disregarded this advice, steadfast in his belief that all he had to learn about art could be found in the works of his native country. There is something moving about his loyalty to and faith in his home, in his desire to live a simple life of love and duty to painting and his country. This commitment continued throughout Rembrandt’s entire life; he fell in love with and married a young woman in Amsterdam in 1634 and remained there until his death in 1669, when he was buried next to his son and his second love. Despite his comfortable beginnings and his successful career, Rembrandt died bankrupt, poor of everything apart from the love of his family and the joy of his art; it was not gambling or drink, but his passion for art collecting that resulted in his penniless end. They say you cannot take things with you to the next life, but the pure love Rembrandt had for his painting and the artworks around him undoubtedly lives on and echoes in all those who continue to find peace and acceptance in art. 

A Woman Bathing in a Stream (Hendrickje Stoffels?) 1654

Rembrandt painted The Storm on the Sea of Galilee just after he arrived in Amsterdam, in 1633, and the artwork exemplifies his early desire to establish himself as a painter of historical paintings and portraits. The piece depicts a scene from the bible in which Christ and his disciples are caught up in a storm on the Sea of Galilee; while the disciples fear desperately for their lives, Christ sleeps peacefully, and on awakening scolds them for their lack of faith, before commanding the storm to cease. Rembrandt captures this moment remarkably, painting every nuance of emotion on the faces of the disciples; the faces to the left of the piece are painted in lighter shades to reflect the light of the sun, which illuminates their distress and fear. It is this use of light and shade which I believe makes the painting so dramatic and striking to observe; the upper left triangle of the piece is bathed in bright light, representative of the sun but also of hope and faith, while the lower right triangle is shadowed and dark, cloaking the disciples and personifying their terror in the face of death. As well as being a powerful reflection of emotional contrast and a skillful means of animating the miracle depicted by the painting, Rembrandt’s use of light and dark also exhibits the chiaroscuro (light-dark) painting style which he favoured. Another poignant aspect of this piece is its depiction of humanity in the face of nature; many of the disciples on the boat were fishermen and sailors, yet against the force of the waves and the strength of the sea they can do nothing but fear and pray. It is only Christ who has the power over the elements, and in a religious sense this serves to illustrate the omnipotence of God. Rembrandt captures all of this subtlety and meaning in every brushstroke, creating a truly remarkable and striking piece with a powerful religious message.

The Storm on the Sea of the Galilee by Rembrandt, 1633

The loss of this painting, along with the 12 others, has remained a mystery for two decades. Over the years an unending stream of conspiracy theories and hypotheses have been produced by legitimate and illegitimate sources alike, yet we are no closer to unravelling the enigma of the heist. It is a tragedy that these artworks are lost to us, that their frames remain empty and the brilliance of their contents stolen from sight. However, in the case of The Storm on the Sea of Galilee there is something almost fate-like about its disappearance; the fearful wonder of the piece and the miraculous and terrifying scene that it depicts feel synonymous with its infamous absence from the museum wall. Will we see Rembrandt’s brilliant seascape one day returned to its rightful place? Or will its empty frame sit there forever - an extension of the dramatic mystery depicted by its lost painting?

The frame marking its empty spot on the wall of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston where Rembrandt’s stolen “Storm” had been displayed.