It was the aim of Rembrandt to paint the foulest things he could see--by rushlight...." Had Ruskin, one wonders, ever seen _The Syndics_ at Amsterdam, or the _Portrait of his Mother_, and the _Singing Boy_ at Vienna, or _The Old Woman_ at St.Petersburg, or the _Christ at Emmaus_ at the Louvre, or any of the etchings?
The time came when the child was allowed to visit the National Gallery unattended; but although he never lost his affectionate awe for the two dim interiors, he did not really begin to appreciate Rembrandt until he had reached manhood.

Rembrandt is too learned in the pathos of life, too deeply versed in realities, to win the suffrages of youth.

But he was attracted by another portrait in the National Gallery--that called _A Jewish Rabbi_.
This was the first likeness he had seen of a Rabbi, a personality dimly familiar to him through the lessons in church and his school Scripture class.

Remembering what his mother had told him about _chiaroscuro_, he noted how the golden-brown light is centred upon the lower part of the face; how the forehead is in shadow, and how stealthily the black hat and coat creep out from the dark background.

He had never seen, and never could have imagined, such a sad face.