Picture 11 / 11
The Birth of Christ
Rembrandt, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1646
- Painter
- Rembrandt
- Collection
- Alte Pinakothek, Munich
- Scripture
- Luke 2:16
- Published
- 4 October 2026
- Image
- Wikimedia Commons, public domain ↗
A dark barn. At the lower right, people have gathered around a glow: the child lies in the straw, and the light comes from him. A shepherd holds a lantern that looks dim beside it.
The picture belongs to the series on the life of Christ that Rembrandt painted for Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange, the stadtholder of the Netherlands. This canvas and its companion were delivered in 1646, and the prince paid twice the price of the earlier ones. The series is in Munich today.
Faces and hands appear out of the dark as far as the light of the child reaches.