Joseph accused by Potiphar's wife

Joseph Accused by Potiphar's Wife from 1655, in the former Sedelmeyer collection and now traceable to its current holding, depicts the Genesis episode in which the Egyptian official's wife, rebuffed by the virtuous Joseph, accuses him of attacking her to her husband. The subject fascinated Baroque painters because it combined sexual temptation, false accusation, and the persecution of innocence into a single dramatic scene — all the elements of a morality narrative with psychological complexity. Rembrandt's 1655 version concentrates on the three-figure dynamic: the woman's calculated presentation of the incriminating garment to her husband, Joseph's gesture of self-defense, and Potiphar's position caught between his wife's claim and his servant's virtue. The Sedelmeyer collection in Paris was one of the nineteenth century's most important art dealing operations, dispersing major Dutch works to collectors in France, Britain, and the United States through its famous illustrated catalogues.

Rembrandt renders the charged emotional scene with restrained dramatic lighting, using the interplay of gestures and expressions to convey the complex psychology of accusation, betrayal, and bewilderment.