Suzanne et les vieillards

Rembrandt kept this small panel in his studio for more than ten years. He began it around 1636 and only signed it finished in 1647, reworking the figures again and again and painting over his own earlier decisions; later X-rays show just how much he changed. The story comes from the Book of Daniel. Susanna, a virtuous wife, is bathing in her garden when two respected elders step out of the shadows and threaten to accuse her of adultery unless she submits to them. Rembrandt catches the exact instant she flinches away, one hand shielding herself, her face turned toward us in alarm. He based the composition on a picture by his old teacher Pieter Lastman, though he stripped away Lastman's crowd and pulled in close on just the three figures.