In this picture the young Joseph is shown recounting his dreams to his father Jacob, in the presence of his brothers. According to biblical narrative (Genesis 37:5–10), Joseph relates how in one dream the sun, the moon and eleven stars—an obvious reference to his father, mother and eleven brothers—bowed down before him, and the artist has clearly articulated the mixture of astonishment and irritation with which his family greets his account. The conspicuously confused sense of space in this picture relates to works from early in Van der Pluym’s known oeuvre, including a signed and dated Fish and Vegetable Seller of 1648 and a signed Scholar at His Desk, which likely dates from a little later, around 1650.