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Hendrickje Pregnant (therefore 1654) with, on the right for comparison of features, a detail of Hendrickje Asleep. Both are in the British Museum yet the curator, Mr Royalton-Kish, accepts the second as Rembrandt (beyond doubt and I agree) inspite of his admitted inability to find stylistic comparisons with known Rembrandt drawings and he rejects the first though it has many incontestible links with drawings and the etching. His judgements are arbitrary - based on wishful thinking. Hoping that Rembrandt was indeed as neat and predictable in his development as the scheme Benesch had proscribed to contain it. It was foolish of Benesch to design this procrustean bed for Rembrandt, yet more foolish for his followers to continue in that tradition in the face of a wealth of evidence that Rembrandt's drawing style had little to do with the date and a lot to do with the initial stimulus. (See Konstam's aricle in the Burlington Magazine Feb 1977).

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