Portrait of Dr. Ephraim Hezekiah Bueno

Rembrandt van Rijn

1647

Portrait painting of a bearded man in collar and wearing hat facing viewer standing on a staircase with his right arm resting on a balustrade.
Rembrandt van Rijn lived in the part of Amsterdam where the artists’ guild (St. Luke’s Guild) was located. By coincidence, it was also home to a number of Jews. Rembrandt’s artworks attest to an interest in the biblical past. This portrait is thought to be of Ephraim Bueno (1599–1665), a prominent member of the Portuguese Jewish congregation, but we do not know what, if any, relationship there might have been between Bueno and Rembrandt. Bueno belonged to a Sephardic family that had settled in the Netherlands. This portrait is one of two extant ones of him by Rembrandt.

Credits

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1647. De joodse arts Ephraim Bonus Ephraim Bueno.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Rembrandt van Rijn

1606–1669
Rembrandt von Rijn is considered one of the greatest artists of all time. Born in Leiden in the Netherlands as the son of a prosperous miller, he apprenticed with a local painter and an artist in Amsterdam as a teenager and eventually set up his own studio in Amsterdam. He pioneered a new way of using light and shadow. Rembrandt soon became the city’s most sought-after portrait artist, but despite his fame, he experienced financial difficulties and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1656. Near the end of his life, he increasingly painted self-portraits. In addition to portraits, Rembrandt’s more than three hundred known paintings include historical and biblical scenes and landscapes.

You may also like

Page of four pencil drawings: a half-naked man posing, an animal figure with wings underneath figure with halo, man and angels, and soldier fighting against smaller figure.
Tooltip info icon

Four Biblical Scenes

These four etchings were made by Rembrandt van Rijn for Menasseh Ben Israel’s book, Piedra Gloriosa (Glorious Stone), a messianic treatise. Clockwise from upper left, they illustrate the biblical…
View Source
Printed engraving of man wearing hat and collar and holding bag, standing next to table with jewelry and household objects, and French caption.
Tooltip info icon

Jew of Lorraine

A depiction of a Jew from Lorraine, engraved by Sébastien Leclerc in Paris. The antisemitic inscription, which alludes to the Jewish man having acquired wealth by deceptive means, is a rhymed couplet…
View Source
Metal box engraved with images of dogs and foliage, with handle and key on top.
Tooltip info icon

Jewelry Box

This exquisite jewelry box was crafted in Nuremberg, Germany, before 1540 and given to a bride for her wedding. Etched in steel, copper-plated, and partly gilt, the panels, on four sides and the lid…
View Source