Bathsheba at Her Bath

A depiction that is both sensual and empathetic, it shows a moment from the Old Testament story related in 2 Samuel 11 in which King David sees Bathsheba bathing and, entranced, impregnates her. In order to marry Bathsheba and conceal his sin, David sends her husband into battle and orders his generals to abandon him, leaving him to certain death.

While the scene of David spying on Bathsheba had been painted by earlier artists, Rembrandt's depiction differs in its tight pictorial focus and erotic vitality, achieved through broad, thick brushstrokes and vibrant coloration.

The painting hangs in The Louvre; it is one of 583 works donated by Dr. Louis La Caze in 1869. For Kenneth Clark, the canvas is "Rembrandt's greatest painting of the nude". Its insight into Bathsheba's moral dilemma has been described as "one of the great achievements of western painting."