Adoration of the Shepherds

Rembrandt finished this small night scene in 1646 for Frederik Hendrik, the prince of Orange who governed the Dutch Republic as stadtholder. It is a late addition to a series on the life of Christ that Rembrandt had begun for him in the early 1630s. The museum points out that the six pictures never formed a coherent whole, since central events of Christ's life and Passion are missing, and that they were not painted in the order of the Gospels. The Deposition was done in 1633, this Adoration of the Shepherds only in 1646. The prince died the following year, which probably put an end to any further scenes. By then the long war with Spain was nearly over, and peace came in 1648. Like most of the series, the picture came to Munich in 1806 from the Düsseldorf gallery.