St. Jerome in a Dark Chamber
Rembrandt van Rijn
- Institution
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
- Accession
- 41.1.56
- Credit
- Gift of Felix M. Warburg and his family, 1941
- Rights
Public domain: the artist died in 1669. The Metropolitan Museum of Art releases this image under CC0 through its Open Access programme.
- Description
- A dim, vaulted room with a spiral staircase at its centre. Light from a window at the right falls on a man seated at a desk with books, and the rest of the space sinks into deep, finely hatched shadow.
- Image
- 1600 × 1406
source file retrieved 2026-10-11 - Catalogue no.
- G-009030
coldlibrary.com/g/009030 - Credit line
- Rembrandt van Rijn, St. Jerome in a Dark Chamber, 1642. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain (CC0). Via Cold Library: https://coldlibrary.com/g/009030
Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, is the patron of translators and librarians, and painters liked to show him at work in his study. Rembrandt makes him small, tucked into the corner by the window, and gives most of the plate to darkness. This is what a translator’s room is like: quiet, deep, lit from one side.
