The Sleeping Student

A student has fallen asleep in a chair. On the table are gloves, writing materials and books. The focus is on the pile of books, with its intricate play of light and shadow that creates a tension in the picture. The painting has been interpreted as conveying a moral message – about the importanceof making proper use of one’s time. But when it was brought to attention in the major Rembrandt exhibition in 1992, interest in the work was also prompted by associations with a modern esthetic –the arrangement of piled-up books recalled a stylised idiom akin to modernism.