The subject is the storm described in the Gospel of Mark: the disciples struggling with the sails and rigging of a small vessel in a violent storm, while Jesus sleeps below and then calms the waves when woken. Rembrandt depicted the moment of struggle rather than the miracle itself—the painting catches the disciples at maximum effort and fear, the boat tilting, the sky above them dark and churning.
Among the fourteen figures in the boat is one that looks directly out of the canvas at the viewer. This is, by longstanding scholarly consensus, a self-portrait. Rembrandt inserted himself into his own biblical painting. The face that looks out from the crowd of struggling disciples is the same face that appears in Rembrandt’s many self-portraits throughout his career.
Isabella Gardner acquired the painting in 1898, through Bernard Berenson, for $6,000. The price reflected the market value of a seventeenth-century Dutch master in the late nineteenth century rather than the current valuation—the painting’s replacement cost today would be orders of magnitude higher.
The canvas was cut from its stretcher by the thieves. This was the fastest way to remove a large painting, but it is also one of the most damaging. The stretcher provides structural support; without it, canvas is vulnerable to creasing, cracking, and deformation. The paint layers, which are rigid while the canvas flexes, can fracture and flake. Whether the cutting has caused significant visible damage depends on how the painting has been stored in the thirty-six years since it was taken.