Compared with Rembrandt’s formal portraits of the same year, this picture is remarkable for its brilliant brushwork and dramatic illumination. He probably painted this work shortly after he moved from his native Leiden to Amsterdam, and intended it to appeal to the city’s sophisticated collectors. Pictures of imaginary Persian or Ottoman princes were popular at the time, in part because of new trade contacts between the Dutch Republic and the Middle East, which brought international visitors to Amsterdam. However, the model for Rembrandt’s painting may well have been a Dutchman who appears in other paintings by Rembrandt and by artists in his circle.
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