Orly Maiberg

Born in Tel Aviv, 1958
Lives and works in Tel Aviv

The unique moment of an intimate collaboration between artist and model inspired Orly Maiberg's study of bathers. "In Israel's social, political, and religious climate," she says, "there are two groups of women who bathe in their clothes - Orthodox Jews and Palestinians." Her bathers ignore the viewer's gaze, immersing themselves in the experience. Among them is Maiberg's personal model: wearing a black skirt and a white blouse, she pulls up her hem in the pose eternalized by Rembrandt's painting A Woman Bathing in a Stream, while conveying something of the sensuality and intimacy that envelop Hendrickje's figure.


Hendrickje Stoffels

1926, Bredevoort, Holland
1663, Amsterdam, Holland

In 1654, Rembrandt painted A Woman Bathing in a Stream - an image of a woman pulling up her white gown and entering the water. The model for this painting was probably Rembrandt's long-term companion Hendrickje Stoffels, who came to his house as a servant after his first wife's death. Hendrickje answers the classical definition of an "artist's wife" - the woman supporting and assisting the great artist, his model and source of inspiration. Rembrandt refused to marry her - either due to her low-class origins or to the financial arrangement linked to the will of his first wife, Saskia (another quintessential "artist's wife"). Rembrandt paints Hendrickje with her face tilted downwards. She is withdrawn, yet her smile reveals that she is aware of being observed. The hesitant, delicate, careful manner in which she enters the water reveals the delicacy and care taken by the artist in handling his model.