Rembrandt and the Boy Who Drew Dogs

Author Molly Blaisdell transports young readers to the city of Amsterdam in the 1650s. It is a time when world-renowned artist Rembrandt van Rijn is at the height of fame among his patrons—and when his young son Titus longs to imitate his father and become a great painter. At first, Rembrandt rebuffs Titus’s attempts at drawing, telling the boy he is too young to learn art. But gradually, the master painter is won over by his son’s enthusiasm and persistence, and he begins to teach a very happy Titus the basic techniques of drawing from life. Here is a warmhearted story for children, with illustrations that capture the atmosphere of seventeenth-century Holland and suggest some of the genius that radiates from Rembrandt’s own magnificent paintings.