Jacob and his Sons, Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1641
pen and brown ink, with opaque white; paper correction by the artist for the seated figure on the left; framing line in brown ink, h 176mm × w 230mm Catalogue entry
You can identify the leading figures, even without knowing the story: the seated old man is Jacob, and the boy standing next to him Benjamin, the youngest of his eleven sons. They are rendered in detail. The third main character, to their left, is the bearded Judah, one of Jacob’s elder sons. He speaks, while all others listen. He tries to persuade his father to let Benjamin go with his brothers to Egypt.
