A Man seated reading at a Table in a Lofty Room

In 1917, in the middle of the First World War, the National Gallery bought this small panel as an important early Rembrandt called A Philosopher. The name has not held. Close study found brushwork that does not match his, lines scratched into the paint and an unusual way of joining the boards, and the faint signature is now generally accepted as a later, fraudulent addition. The Gallery catalogues it as by a follower, someone who knew his workshop and methods, and dates it to about 1628 to 1630, the years when the young master was still working in his home town of Leiden. The man bent over his book is almost lost in shadow, with shelves of books and globes in the dark behind. Most of the panel is given to the light from the tall window, laid on in thick white paint with grey touches for the reflections in the glass.