# An Elderly Man in Prayer

- By: Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669)
- Date: 1660s or later
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Framed: 119.4 x 106.7 x 15.9 cm (47 x 42 x 6 1/4 in.); Unframed: 87.3 x 72 cm (34 3/8 x 28 3/8 in.)
- Culture: Netherlands
- Credit line: Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1967.16)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1967.16/1967.16_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Toward the end of his life, Rembrandt explored religious themes from an intimate perspective, producing a number of works for a possible Apostle series. The personal religiosity of An Elderly Man in Prayer, formerly attributed to Rembrandt, bears resemblance to such late works. Seated with eyes nearly closed and hands clasped in prayer over a large book, the figure appears still and introspective. While the dramatic lighting and dark color palette are reminiscent of Rembrandt's late works, this painting, formerly attributed to the artist, has since been assigned to a follower or a later eighteenth-century imitator of Rembrandt's style for reasons associated with the broad, flat brushwork of the garment, the poor handling of shadow on the hands, and the uniform treatment of the hair.