Simeon's Song

An old man with half-closed eyes holds a swaddled child on his outstretched forearms. He does not grasp it; his hands lie flat together as in prayer. Behind him the face of a woman is just visible.

The picture stood unfinished in Rembrandt's house when he died in October 1669. Thirty-eight years lie between this Simeon and the one in The Hague, and nothing is left of the temple. The woman behind him was probably added by another hand.