Bust of an Old Man with Turban

Catalogue number: Bredius 72.

This little tronie (character head) is one of the earliest indications in Rembrandt’s oeuvre of his interest in oriental culture. The sitter had modelled for Rembrandt and other painters in his circle in Leiden in a variety of roles.

In these years Rembrandt was concerned above all with light and shadow, which would occupy him to the end of his life. He experimented with light when studying and recording the forms of the head. In the present painting our attention is immediately drawn to the turban by the light coming from behind on the left, which casts most of the face in shadow.