A man in oriental costume ('The Noble Slave')

The original, 152.7 x 111 cm, signed and dated 1632, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York since 1920 (W.Liedtke a.o., Rembrandt Not Rembrandt, exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1995, pp.42-45, n^o 2, with ill. in colour; P.P.J. van Thiel a.o., Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, II 1631-1634, pp.151-157, n^oA48). The portrait was one of Rembrandt's first major works on canvas, which ennabled him to experiment fully with the texture and tonalities of the paint in order to achieve more dramatic chiaroscuro effects.

See illustration