Description
This broadly brushed study was made in Rembrandt's workshop in the late 1630s by a student. There are other studies of this man's head from different directions. Rembrandt operated a school within his workshop, and many young men studied with him to learn his expressive style. They set up their easels in a circle around the model-perhaps a poor man from the neighborhood who had an interesting face.
Rembrandt was one of the first to see the faces of the elderly, reflecting a lifetime of experience, as wonderful subjects. With loose brush strokes and selective highlighting, the painter explores the sitter's lined, weathered face.
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