Portrait of the painter Jan Asselijn called “Krabbetje”

Rembrandt was a superb portraitist, sensitive yet unsentimental, a fact which is equally true of his prints. In the portrait of his friend, painter Jan Asselijn (1610-1652) - who was nicknamed “Krabbetje” (Little Crab) owing to the sitter’s crippled left hand - he had to tackle a problem in composition. Asselijn was very short and to avoid embarrassment, Rembrandt additionally removed the easel from the setting, which he had placed in the scene's first version but which overtly emphasized Asselijn’s “handicap”.