Nude Youth Seated before a Curtain

In 1646 Rembrandt organized classes so his students could draw from nude models. His choice of relatively unremarkable sitters is unusual for the time. Traditionally, drawn studies and prints of nude males depicted athletic bodies of muscular, Herculean proportions. Unidealized depictions of the human body were usually reserved for images of the aged or infirm. Rembrandt seems to have recruited young students or workshop assistants for the exercise. As their fellow students drew on paper, Rembrandt apparently sketched with a needle on coated copper plates.