Reclining Youth

Van den Eeckhout was a pupil of Rembrandt from 1635 to 1641. He continued drawing in his master’s style for a long time. He also made a fascinating group of figure studies in brush and wash, the finest of which is this loosely portrayed youth. Such freely drawn studies were undoubtedly the kind of work he preferred making, for at the time, artists likened working for publishers to slave labour.