An Evening School

In the pictureIn an arched darkness, a single candle lights the books on the table and the children's faces. On the left, an elderly teacher holds the candle and is tending to something, while on the right two children look into their own books or write. One more pupil stands in the shadows at the back. There is no light besides the candle, so most of the picture is pitch dark.

BackgroundGerrit Dou became Rembrandt's first pupil in Leiden at fifteen, and after his teacher left for Amsterdam he became the leading fijnschilder ("fine painter"), rendering every single hair on panels the size of a hand. Night scenes in which a single candle creates the light and shade of an entire room were a favorite subject of his, and royal courts across Europe competed to buy them. This painting, too, is only 25 cm tall.

Puzzle tipThe puzzle is fairly difficult. More than half the picture is close to black, so color does not help. It is faster to finish the bright pieces around the candle (faces, books, hands) first, then turn on the preview and judge where the dark pieces go by subtle differences in their brownish cast. The curved pieces of the arch at the top are also good clues.