Scholar in His Study, a subject visited often by Rembrandt. The rich dark tones are characteristic of the artist's palette as is the interplay of light and shadow providing depth, contrast, and focus. The scholar, placed in the immediate foreground and viewed slightly from below, appears imposing and monumental. The thick folio lighted against rich brocade, the globe, the books, the surprised, even pained, response to what seems outside interruption imply that the study is of consequence and time of the essence.