Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

An artist, clad in his smock and armed with brush and palette, stands at a distance from the easel. Rather than showing the artist in the act of painting, Rembrandt focuses on the daunting expectations of the surface to be painted. He heightens the drama by illuminating the large easel with an intense light that reflects off its edge. In this little picture, then, Rembrandt shows that making art is every bit as intellectual as it is technical, a product of the mind, as much as the hand.