Unfinished Portrait of a Boy

Because Rembrandt left this one unfinished, you can watch him work. The boy's collar, hair, and face are brought up close to done, softened with glazes, while the body and clothes are barely there, just a few broad, confident strokes dragged over a dark brown ground. That was his method laid bare: build the head first, keep the rest loose until late. For a long time the sitter was called Titus, the painter's son, because the face is handled with such tenderness. Scholars are no longer sure it is him. The right edge of the canvas has been cut, and the cut slices through brushstrokes, which hints that the boy may once have been part of a larger picture. Painted around 1655, it stops exactly where Rembrandt set it down.