Rembrandt van Rijn

Surviving sketches by Rembrandt’s pupils indicate that this etching originated during a life-drawing session held in the artist’s studio. The two male figures in the foreground are the same model presented in two different poses. While his students drew this model repeatedly on separate pages from their respective vantage points, Rembrandt sketched the figures directly onto a copper plate with his etching needle, adding a mother and child in the background to complete his image. In 17th-century Dutch emblem books, a child in a walker often illustrated the proverb “Practice makes perfect.” Rembrandt’s addition of this vignette transforms the print

from a studio exercise into a commentary on the importance of life drawing. As in most of his nudes, Rembrandt does not hide his models’ flaws, their sagging flesh and plain features, giving them an immediacy which can be both jarring and sympathetic.