Zwei Afrikaner

Rembrandt signed and dated this in 1661, in his hard late years after bankruptcy, and it is unlike almost anything of its moment. In Dutch painting Africans usually appeared as minor figures, servants or exotic extras at the edge of a Bible scene. Here two Black men, thought to be free residents of Amsterdam and perhaps brothers, are the whole subject, painted close and serious with real individuality. Rembrandt lavished attention on their faces and a white shawl, then left much of the rest loose and sketchy, so that despite the signature it can look half finished. Amsterdam was a busy port with a small free Black community, and these are almost certainly two of its ordinary inhabitants, sitting for their own portrait.