Joseph Interpreting the Prisoners' Dreams

Joseph Interpreting the Prisoners' Dreams — Govert Flinck. c. 1638.

Medium: Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, on ivory laid paper. Dimensions: 17.3 × 20.6 cm (6 13/16 × 8 1/8 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

For many years, this drawing was believed to be by Rembrandt. Recent efforts to distinguish Rembrandt’s drawings from those of his pupils have led scholars to reattribute this work to Govert Flinck, who studied with Rembrandt in the 1630s and later achieved great critical and financial success. Here Flinck represented a scene from the life of Joseph, the Old Testament figure whose adventures inspired many drawings, paintings, and even plays in Rembrandt’s time.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.