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Artist in his studio

Rembrandt, 1628

Rembrandt's Artist in his studio, dated 1628, is a small early work in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. It shows a young painter standing back from a large easel in a bare room. It is a compact picture of a painter's working life, and it rewards a slow, close look.

Where to see it

Artist in his studio belongs to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, in Boston. Works can be moved, rotated off view or lent elsewhere, so check the museum's official website for current display status before you visit. The painting measures only 24.8 cm high by 31.7 cm wide, so plan to stand close to take in its details.

What to look for in person

The easel that dominates the room

Start with the easel. It stands in the foreground and fills much of the composition. We see the large painting on it only from behind, as a plain back edged with light. Whatever the artist is making stays hidden from us. Note how big the easel looks next to the small figure at the back of the room. That difference in scale shapes the whole picture. It turns a simple studio scene into a picture about looking and judging. The finished image is withheld, and the act of making takes its place.

The small figure keeping his distance

Look toward the far side of the room. A young painter stands there in a long robe and a hat, holding his brushes and other tools. He is not painting. He stands back and looks at his work from across the room. His face is small and only lightly described, yet his stance shows concentration. Watch how the distance between painter and easel draws your eye back and forth across the floor. You end up repeating his act of stepping back to assess.

Light, plaster and worn surfaces

Spend time on the room itself. Light enters from the left and falls across the floorboards and the pale walls. It brings out cracks and patches in the plaster and the rough texture of the door. Look for the studio equipment against the walls and hanging on them. These are tools of the painter's trade, shown without decoration. The young Rembrandt gives these plain surfaces as much care as the figure. Up close, you can see how he builds the sense of a real, lived-in workspace in a very small format.

About the painting

Rembrandt painted Artist in his studio in 1628, early in his career, when he was in his early twenties and working in his home town of Leiden. The picture is small: 24.8 cm high and 31.7 cm wide, a horizontal format a little wider than it is tall. Today it is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

The subject is the painter at work, or more exactly, the painter thinking about his work. Many studio scenes show an artist with brush raised. Here the painter stands at a distance from his easel, apparently studying what he has done or what he will do next. The painting on the easel is turned away, so viewers never see its image. This choice is often read as a statement about painting: the work begins with looking and judgment, not only with the hand.

The room is sparse. There are bare floorboards, worn walls and a few tools of the trade. Rembrandt makes this ordinary interior absorbing through light, which falls from the left and gives each surface its own texture. The contrast between the looming easel and the small, distant figure gives the scene its drama.

For visitors, the main pleasure is in the close detail. Stand near enough to follow the light across the floor and the textures of the plaster. Then step back, as the painter in the picture does, and see how the whole room fits together.

Key facts

More by Rembrandt

• Rembrandt and Saskia in the parable of the Prodigal Son — Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
• Belshazzar's Feast — National Gallery
• Syndics of the Drapers' Guild — Rijksmuseum
• The Abduction of Europa — J. Paul Getty Museum
• Juno
• The Night Watch — Rijksmuseum
• The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis — Rijksmuseum
• The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
• Danaë
• Aristotle with a Bust of Homer — Metropolitan Museum of Art
• The Stoning of Saint Stephen
• The Mill — National Gallery of Art

Sources

• Wikidata Q3905873
• www.mfa.org