Willem Drost (1633–1659), ‘Ruth and Naomi.’

Willem Drost (1633–1659), Ruth and Naomi, Oil on canvas, 89 x 71 cm, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

For much of its history this canvas was thought to be the work of Carel Fabritius (1622–1654), one of Rembrandt’s most brilliant pupils. The attribution only shifted in the twentieth century, after careful stylistic comparison suggested Willem Drost (1633–1659) as the painter. In the 1960s scholars confirmed this view, pointing to the close parallels with Drost’s small but distinctive body of work and to a preparatory sketch now in the Kunsthalle, Bremen, long attributed to Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621–1674) but convincingly linked to Drost. The reassessment not only clarified the authorship of the Ashmolean picture but also expanded the fragile outline of a career cut short at the age of twenty-six.

The subject comes from the opening chapter of the Book of Ruth. Naomi, bereaved of her husband and sons, prepares to return from Moab to her native Judah. Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law, refuses to part from her and utters the pledge that defines the story: ‘Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God’ (Ruth 1:16–17). Drost seizes on this moment of choice and devotion, shaping it as an intimate exchange between two women. The picture is restrained in setting but charged in gesture and expression, emphasising fidelity, compassion, and the strength of matriarchal bonds.

The story of Ruth carried layered meanings in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Within Christian exegesis it was often read as part of a providential chain leading to Christ, since Ruth, a foreigner by birth, became the great-grandmother of King David. In Jewish tradition, by contrast, the focus lay on Ruth’s personal decision: her acceptance of the Jewish faith as a free act of conviction, not compulsion. That difference of interpretation reflects the richness of the subject. In Drost’s painting, stripped of overt theological signs, the emphasis falls above all on human choice, endurance, and loyalty — themes that gave the biblical episode a wide resonance in the city’s diverse religious culture.