Young Rembrandt review – how a master learned from his mistakes

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
This absorbing show of Rembrandt’s early work reveals how sweat and dedication turned an error-prone teenager into an artist of unrivalled greatnessRembrandt is shocked to see you. He reels backwards, mouth open, eyebrows raised in amazement at your startling arrival. You can see the whites of his eyes.This is the one-two action – you appear, he reacts – of this tremendous etching, made in 1630 when Rembrandt was around 24. It is a portrait of the artis