The Spectacles Seller (A Pedlar Selling Spectacles, Sight)

This is the earliest painting we can put Rembrandt's hand to. He was about 18, still living in Leiden, the mill town where he was born, years before Amsterdam and the fame. It belongs to a small set on the five senses, and this one is Sight. A pedlar holds up a pair of spectacles to a squinting old couple who lean in to try them. The panel is barely larger than a sheet of paper. You can already see the thing he would spend his life on, a warm light falling out of surrounding dark onto the faces that matter. Three of the other Senses have since been found, but the panel for Taste has never turned up.