The artist drawing from the model.

Etching, drypoint, and burin, 23,7 x 18,5 cm, thin laid paper without watermark, unsigned (trimmed outside the platemark with thread margin, sm. def. in paper of 2 cm at top left corner).

"Numerous issues are raised by this fascinating but incomplete image that points so directly to the theme of making art. A surviving drawing suggests that Rembrandt had ideas about completing this print, but he never took it past this second state. Nonetheless, we can conclude that he was beguiled by its strong contrasts of light and dark, finished and unfinished. The etching circulated during Rembrandt’s lifetime, perhaps a case of the accidentally unfinished proving a great success" (Metropolitan Museum of Art). The 3rd state (of 4), with background havily worked, finishing of the painter's easle, addition of pot under the model's throne, and with shaded passages reworked throughout by another hand.
Ref. Hind 231.- Hollstein 192.2. - New Hollstein 176.