Young Woman Sleeping

A young woman dozes, her head sunk onto her arm, her body relaxed in sleep - and Rembrandt fixes her in a handful of swift, broad strokes of brush and brown ink, leaving much of the paper bare. The economy is astonishing: a few confident sweeps conjure the weight of the head, the fall of cloth, the abandon of rest. Likely his companion Hendrickje, she is caught with utter tenderness. Now in the British Museum, the little drawing is a marvel of how few marks a master needs to seize a living, breathing moment.