Joseph racontant ses rêves à ses parents et à ses frères

Rembrandt painted this in 1633 in brown and grey alone, with almost no colour at all. He had just moved from Leiden to Amsterdam, a young man building a name, and a monochrome panel like this was working stock. It let him plan a crowded scene before committing it to an etching. The story comes from Genesis. Joseph, still a boy, tells his family the dreams in which they all bow down to him, and Rembrandt fills the room with the reactions that will get him sold into slavery: a sister leaning in, brothers turning away, the old father Jacob listening from his chair. Everything is built from light rather than line. Rembrandt kept the little panel, and it still shows up years later in the inventory of his own collection.