# Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee > Rembrandt van Rijn - 1633 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/rembrandt-van-rijn/rembrandt-storm-on-the-sea-of-galilee-gardner/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-10-08 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Rembrandt van Rijn - **Date:** 1633 - **Medium:** Oil on canvas - **Dimensions:** 160 x 128 cm (63 x 50 3/8 in.) - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Dutch Golden Age, 1600-1700 - **Current location:** Unlocated. Stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, on 18 March 1990 and not recovered. The Museum is the last recorded owner and no source consulted records any transfer of title. - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary Rembrandt's only known seascape, painted in 1633 in his first Amsterdam years, a 160 by 128 centimetre canvas of Christ and the disciples in a storm, with one disciple looking out at the viewer in a face the Gardner Museum's curators take to be the painter's own. Two men in police uniform cut it from its frame at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on 18 March 1990, and it has never been recovered. Every image of it is a reproduction made before the theft.Its recorded history is long and uneven. The Gardner's own provenance runs from a possible owner in seventeenth-century Amsterdam through the Braamcamp sale of 1771, where this picture fetched 4,360 guilders, and well over a century in the Hope banking family, to a bankrupt lord's sale in 1898 and Isabella Stewart Gardner's purchase that September for 6,000 pounds through Bernard Berenson. The early links are uncertain: the Rembrandt Research Project says Houbraken probably confused two Hinloopens, and Wikipedia's dollar price for the 1898 sale is a currency error. The record gives each link its grade.The FBI said in 2013 that it believes the art went to the Connecticut and Philadelphia regions and that it has identified the thieves, whom it has not named. The museum's reward is 10 million dollars. Nothing has been recovered and CBS Boston reported in March 2026 that no one has been arrested. No source consulted gives a current valuation of the picture alone, because a stolen Rembrandt has none. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1633** Rembrandt van Rijn, Amsterdam `[documented]` (origin) Signed on the rudder and dated 1633 by the Gardner Museum's transcription (Rembrant. f/1633). Painted in Rembrandt's first Amsterdam years, after he moved from Leiden at the end of 1631. No commission, contract or first purchaser is recorded in any source consulted, and Wikipedia citing Walsh says expressly that no record confirms whether it was a commission. - **1633-1644** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) The first documented owner is dated at least a decade after the painting. Nothing in the sources consulted records who owned it, or where it was, between 1633 and the first name in the Gardner's chain. - **by 1644** Possibly Tymen Jacobsz Hinloopen (1572-1637), Amsterdam, as a painting of St. Peter's ship `[unknown]` (possible ownership) The Gardner says 'possibly', and gives his dates as 1572-1637 against 'by 1644', which no source consulted explains. Wikipedia's article on the picture states 1644 flatly. No source consulted confirms or rejects this link; the Corpus V note concerns a different Hinloopen. - **by 1653** Jacques Specx (1588 or 1589 to 1652), Amsterdam, a Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies `[disputed]` (ownership) Named in the Gardner's catalogue entry as in Amsterdam by 1653, which postdates his death on 22 July 1652 by Wikipedia's date, so the date presumably reflects a record made after his death. Wikipedia's article on Specx puts the picture in his collection in 1651 and says he owned five Rembrandts. The underlying inventory was not seen. The two dates are given as the sources give them. The museum and Wikipedia disagree on the date, so the grade is disputed. - **by 1705** Jacob Jacobsz Hinloopen (1644-1705), Amsterdam, a burgomaster and sheriff `[disputed]` (ownership) Named by the Gardner as in Amsterdam by 1705. Houbraken (1718) puts the St. Pieters scheepje with 'Jan Jakobzen Hinloopen, voorheen Schout en Borgermeester'. Corpus V (note 22 to V 29, p. 646) says the picture was never in Jan's collection and that Houbraken probably confused Jan Jacobsz Hinloopen (1626-1666) with his nephew Jacob (1644-1705). The attachment to Jacob therefore rests on the museum's entry and on that inference, and no inventory was seen. The Corpus cites its own entry II A 68, section 8, which was not read. - **undated** Johannes Coop (died 1746), calico-printer, Amsterdam `[unknown]` (ownership) Named in the Gardner's catalogue entry with no date of ownership, and no document for his ownership was seen. The order of Coop and Braamcamp in the chain is the museum's. - **before 1750-1771** Gerrit Braamcamp (1699-1771), Amsterdam, distiller, timber merchant and collector `[documented]` (ownership and sale) The Gardner says he held it before 1750 and Wikipedia says he bought it around 1750. His collection was sold at Amsterdam from 31 July 1771. - **1771-07-31** J. Wubbels, Amsterdam `[documented]` (purchase at auction) Bought at the Braamcamp sale, lot 172, for 4,360 guilders. Whether Wubbels was a dealer or a private buyer is not stated in any source consulted. This is the only auction price recorded for the picture. - **1771-1784** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) The Gardner's catalogue entry names Wubbels at the 1771 sale and John Hope as the next owner without a link between them. The date, price and route by which the picture reached the Hope collection are not recorded in the sources consulted. - **1784-1794** John Hope (1737-1784), Amsterdam, banker and collector, then by descent his widow Philippina Barbera van der Hoeven (died 1790) and his sons Thomas, Adrian Elias and Henry Philip `[documented]` (by descent) The museum gives the descent from John Hope in 1784 to his widow in 1784 to the three sons in 1790, and the two younger sons under the guardianship of their cousin Henry Hope in 1794. Wikipedia's article on the Hope collection says 372 paintings went with Henry Hope when he moved to London in 1794. - **1794-1839** Henry Philip Hope (1774-1839), London, and his elder brother Thomas Hope (1769-1831) `[documented]` (by descent, move to London) The museum has Henry Philip Hope owning it possibly by 1802 and shows it exhibited at the house of his eldest brother Thomas, London, in 1819. - **1839-1884** Henry Thomas Hope (1808-1862), Surrey, then his widow Adele Bichat Hope (died 1887) `[documented]` (by descent) A Royal Academy exhibition label of 1881 on the back of the frame names the proprietor as Mrs. Hope, Belgrave Square, which places the picture with the family in 1881. - **1884-1898** Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope (died 1941), grandson of Adele Bichat Hope, later the 8th Duke of Newcastle `[documented]` (by descent, then sale) Wikipedia says he was discharged in bankruptcy in 1896 and that most of the Hope Collection of Pictures was sold. The 83 pictures shown at South Kensington in 1891 were sold together in 1898 for 121,550 pounds, paid by Asher Wertheimer, according to Wikipedia. The Hope page says the pictures were sold together and the Gardner says the dealers purchased this one; neither describes an auction. The museum gives 1884 for his ownership and 1887 for his grandmother's death, while Wikipedia's article on him says he inherited her estate in 1884; the two are repeated here without reconciliation. - **1898-1898-09** Asher Wertheimer and Colnaghi and Company, London, dealers `[documented]` (purchase) The Gardner's provenance says the dealers bought it together from Pelham-Clinton-Hope in 1898. The price paid for this single picture is not published in the sources consulted. - **1898-09-1924** Isabella Stewart Gardner, Boston, through Bernard Berenson `[documented]` (purchase) Bought from Colnaghi and Company in September 1898 for 6,000 pounds, about 29,000 dollars at the rate MeasuringWorth implies for 1898. Wikipedia's article on the picture gives 6,000 dollars, which conflicts with the museum and is treated as an error. The same month Gardner paid 13,000 pounds for A Lady and Gentleman in Black. - **1924-1990** Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston `[documented]` (bequest and public display) Catalogued in the Fenway Court catalogue of 1903 and hung in the second-floor Dutch Room. Gardner's will, as summarised by a Tufts University student blog, required the collection to be preserved without alteration. The museum's collection record gives the accession number P21s24. - **1990-03-18-present** Unknown. The museum is the last recorded owner and no source consulted records a transfer of title `[documented]` (theft) Stolen between about 1.24 and 2.45 am on 18 March 1990 by two men in police uniform, with twelve other works, according to the Gardner Museum. Nothing has been recovered. The FBI said in 2013 that it believed with a high degree of confidence that the art was taken to Connecticut and the Philadelphia region and that some of it was offered for sale in Philadelphia. The FBI and the museum statements are about the thirteen works as a group, and no source places the Storm itself in either region. The Museum doubled its reward to 10 million dollars in May 2017 and extended it in January 2018. A former FBI agent's book of 2026 and the Associated Press and CBS Boston coverage of it say nothing has been recovered, and CBS reports Kelly saying the alleged main players have died. Press reports of a 2018 federal sentencing in Connecticut touch the investigation and CBS Boston reported in March 2026 that no one has been arrested. Wikipedia says the museum lacked an insurance policy, and no market price exists. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **1771-07-31** Amsterdam sale of the collection of Gerrit Braamcamp, Held at the lodging Het Wapen van Amsterdam according to the title of the sale catalogue as cited on Wikipedia, lot 172 - Estimate: None recorded in the sources consulted - Hammer: Not stated. The Gardner gives 'for 4360 guilders' without saying whether that is hammer or total - With premium: Not recorded in the sources consulted - Price as given by the Gardner: 4,360 guilders, paid by a J. Wubbels, according to the Gardner Museum's provenance. This is the only auction price recorded for the picture. The 1898 sale of the Hope pictures to Wertheimer and Colnaghi and Gardner's purchase from Colnaghi are not recorded as auctions. No auction of the picture after 1771 appears in the Gardner's provenance. It has no current market price because it is stolen. ## Open questions - Who commissioned or first bought the picture in the 1630s, and what is the true sequence of owners before Jacob Jacobsz Hinloopen? The Gardner's chain begins with a possible Tymen Jacobsz Hinloopen who died in 1637 and is dated 1644; the Rembrandt Research Project's note says Houbraken probably confused Jan and Jacob Jacobsz Hinloopen; and Wikipedia's page on Specx dates his ownership to 1651 against the museum's 1653. The Corpus II A 68 provenance section, which the Corpus V note cites, was not read. - How did the picture pass from the buyer J. Wubbels at the Braamcamp sale of 31 July 1771 to John Hope? The Gardner's provenance names both and gives no link. Corpus V records a J. Wubbels buying at other Amsterdam sales in the 1770s, in 1773 and April 1778, and nothing in the sources consulted says whether he was a dealer. - What did Wertheimer and Colnaghi pay for this picture inside the 121,550 pounds paid for the 83 Hope pictures, and who bore which share? The Gardner's price of 6,000 pounds is a resale price and the dealers' cost for this single picture is not published in the sources consulted. - Where did the picture hang in Boston between September 1898 and the opening of Fenway Court in 1903? The sources consulted say only that it was catalogued in the 1903 Fenway Court catalogue, and no photograph of it before 1903 was found. - Is the figure who looks out of the boat Rembrandt, and who first said so? The museum's catalogue words it as a resemblance and its audio walk as a fact. The Corpus II entry, where the Rembrandt Research Project would have taken a position, could not be read for this record. - What is the physical condition of the canvas? The Gardner's audio walk describes deep gashes in the wood supports and the thieves cutting the canvas out of its frame, and nothing is published about the condition of the paint layer before or after. A 1985 to 1986 re-examination by John Walsh is listed in the museum's bibliography and was not read. - Where is the picture now? The FBI said in 2013 that the art was transported to the Connecticut and Philadelphia regions in the years after the theft and that it had not identified where it was then. A former FBI agent said in 2026 that he has no doubt the works still exist. No source consulted gives a location, and the FBI National Stolen Art File entry for the picture could not be retrieved. These statements are about the thirteen works as a group, and no source places the Storm itself in either region. - Does the Corpus fifth volume's tentative proposal, that the Storm could possibly also have originated in the same context as the series of prints it discusses at that point, rest on anything beyond similarities in the small works it mentions? The authors cite no commission or inventory, and none links the picture to any such series. ## Sources - [1] Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, collection record for Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, P21s24: description, signature, labels, the full provenance with the 1898 price of 6,000 pounds, commentary by Michael Zell and bibliography. Read through the Internet Archive copy, because the live page is behind a bot challenge. - [2] Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 'Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft': the museum's account of the night of 18 March 1990 and the list of the thirteen works. Primary, museum. - [3] Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Theft Audio Walk, transcript (March 2020), narrated by Anthony Amore with Nathaniel Silver: times, the thieves' route, the Dutch Room, the Self-Portrait left behind, the 10 million dollar reward. Primary, museum. - [4] Holly Salmon, 'The Five Frames Left Behind', Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum blog, 15 March 2022, updated March 2025: the frame of the Storm, its labels and alterations and the repair of the five frames. Primary, museum. - [5] Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, press release, January 2018, 'Board of Trustees Extends $10 Million Reward for Return of 13 Works of Stolen Art': the 1997 rise from 1 to 5 million dollars, the 2017 rise to 10 million and the extension. Primary, museum. - [6] FBI, 'Reward Offered for Return of Stolen Gardner Museum Artwork', 18 March 2013 (published as '$5 Million Reward Offered for Return of Stolen Gardner Museum Artwork'): statements by Richard DesLauriers and Anthony Amore. The FBI site returns 403 to scripted requests, so the page was read through an Internet Archive copy. - [7] Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times, 'FBI says it knows who pulled off unsolved 1990 Boston art heist', 18 March 2013: the full DesLauriers statement and the remarks of the United States Attorney, Carmen Ortiz, on the statute of limitations. - [8] Associated Press via WBUR, 'Gardner Museum Doubles Reward For Stolen Artwork To $10M', 23 May 2017: the doubling of the reward, its deadline and the FBI's 2015 statement to the AP that two suspects were deceased. - [9] Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 5 September 2017, report on the Connecticut federal sentencing of Robert Gentile, as hosted by the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Press report of court proceedings; the paragraphs on Gentile are attributed in the text to the Courant and to prosecutors. - [10] Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 28 February 2018, report on the sentencing, 54 months on gun charges, as hosted by the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. - [11] Leah Willingham, Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, 'What to know about the world's largest art heist from a Boston museum', 26 April 2026: Geoff Kelly's book, the Reuters photograph of the frame reinstalled in March 2025, the statute of limitations, the Dutch Room. - [12] CBS Boston, 'Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston marks 36 years since historic unsolved heist', 18 March 2026: Geoff Kelly's account and the title Thirteen Perfect Fugitives. - [13] GBH (WGBH), '34 years after Gardner heist, the museum's director of security is still on the case', 18 March 2024, Anthony Amore interviewed on the reward, Philadelphia and the search. - [14] Lloyd Schwartz, 'Christ In The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee, By Rembrandt Van Rijn', WBUR Last Seen, 15 September 2018: a description of the picture, the Matthew passage and the self-portrait remark. - [15] Ernst van de Wetering and others, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings V: Small-Scale History Paintings (Springer, 2011), full text on the Internet Archive. Used for the figure captions naming II A 68, the comment on a rarely depicted subject, the Hoogstraten passage, the lead-white underpainting note and the footnote on Houbraken and the two Hinloopens. Scholarly; the Corpus II entry itself was not consulted. - [16] Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, I (1718), life of Rembrandt, DBNL edition: the St. Pieters scheepje passage (p. 260), the cheese and bread passage and the remark on freedom (p. 273). - [17] Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, collection record for A Lady and Gentleman in Black, P21s9: the price of 13,000 pounds, September 1898 and the descent through the Hope family. Read on 8 October 2026 through the Internet Archive copy requested as web.archive.org/web/2024/ plus the museum URL. - [18] Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, collection record for Self-Portrait, Age 23, P21n6: the price of 3,000 pounds and the commentary on Gardner's four Rembrandts and the more than eighty surviving self-portraits. Read on 8 October 2026 through the Internet Archive copy requested as web.archive.org/web/2024/ plus the museum URL. - [19] Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, collection record for Landscape with an Obelisk, P21w24: the price of 4,500 pounds in March 1900. Read on 8 October 2026 through the Internet Archive copy requested as web.archive.org/web/2024/ plus the museum URL. - [20] Wikipedia, 'The Storm on the Sea of Galilee'. Tertiary. Used for the Walsh and Unverfehrt attributions, the Luke reading and the (erroneous) dollar price; each use is attributed in the text. Flagged for replacement with the originals. - [21] Wikipedia, 'Hope Collection of Pictures'. Tertiary. Used for the 83 pictures, the South Kensington display of 1891 and the 121,550 pound sale of 1898. Flagged for replacement with the 1898 catalogue (Wertheimer 1898). - [22] Wikipedia, 'Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 8th Duke of Newcastle'. Tertiary. Used for the marriage of 1894, the bankruptcy of 1896 and the sale of the pictures. Flagged for replacement. - [23] Wikipedia, 'Jacques Specx'. Tertiary. Used for his office, his death on 22 July 1652 and the statement that the Storm belonged to him in 1651. Flagged for replacement. - [24] Wikipedia, 'Gerrit Braamcamp'. Tertiary. Used for his trades, the date 31 July 1771 and the sale catalogue title. Flagged for replacement. - [25] Wikipedia, 'Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen'. Tertiary. Used for his dates, 1572-1637, and the whaling company. Flagged for replacement. - [26] Wikipedia, 'John Hope (banker)'. Tertiary. Used for John Hope's trades and dates. Flagged for replacement. - [27] MeasuringWorth, Purchasing Power of the Pound calculator, result for 6,000 pounds of 1898 in 2024: 901,500 (retail price index), 3,335,000 (labour earnings), 5,430,000 (relative income), 10,140,000 (share of output) and 854,300 (real project cost). Retrieved 8 October 2026. - [28] MeasuringWorth, Computing Real Value Over Time With a Conversion Between U.K. Pounds and U.S. Dollars (Officer and Williamson), result for 6,000 dollars of 1898: 1,240 pounds, implying about 4.84 dollars to the pound. Retrieved 8 October 2026. - [29] Wikipedia, 'Rembrandt'. Tertiary. Used for dates, apprenticeships, the move to Amsterdam, Uylenburgh, the early Amsterdam manner and the self-portrait count. Flagged for replacement with the Rijksmuseum and Rembrandt House Museum biographies. - [30] Wikipedia, 'Hendrick van Uylenburgh'. Tertiary. Used for the studio, 1631 and Saskia. Flagged for replacement. - [31] Wikipedia, 'Pieter Lastman'. Tertiary. Used for his dates and his teaching of Rembrandt. Flagged for replacement. - [32] Wikipedia, 'Jan Porcellis'. Tertiary. Used for his dates, his tonal manner and the statements that Rembrandt collected his pictures and that the ship was read as a metaphor of the soul. Flagged for replacement with Slive and the 1656 inventory. - [33] Wikipedia, 'Calming the storm'. Tertiary. Used for the three Gospel references, the Mark text and the quoted devotional reading of Justus Knecht. - [34] Wikipedia, 'Oopjen Coppit'. Tertiary. Used for the 160 million euro joint purchase of the 1634 pendants and the 20 million pound Portrait of a Foreign Admiral of 2009. Flagged for replacement with the Rijksmuseum announcement. - [35] Tufts University Museum Studies blog, 'The Contested Legal Legacy of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum', 4 March 2022: the terms of Gardner's will. - [36] Wikimedia Commons file page for the lead plate, Rembrandt Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee.jpg (public domain, 3002 x 3731 px, credited to gardnermuseum.org), with the page of the alternative file "Rembrandt - Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee.jpeg" (4274 x 5315 px, credited to a Boston Globe opinion page) and the RKD art-work number 46845. - [37] Wikimedia Commons file page for the Rijksmuseum print RP-P-1980-56, Adriaen Collaert after Maerten de Vos, with the Rijksmuseum's description (Mark 4:35-41, 8 of 12, published by the Sadelers, Antwerp, 1583-1588). - [38] Wikimedia Commons file page for the FBI photograph of the Dutch Room with the empty frame of the Storm, released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on 18 March 2013 (public domain). - [39] National Arts Program Foundation, 'Gardner art heist masterpieces have been sighted, FBI agent says', 22 May 2014, a reprint of a Fox News report quoting FBI agent Geoff Kelly and stating that authorities have said there is no market for the art. - [40] Wikipedia, 'Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft'. Tertiary. Used only for the statements that the museum carried no theft insurance and that the empty frames remain because of Gardner's will. Flagged for replacement. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.