The painting appears ill-conceived. By placing the magi’ arrival at night, for no good reason, the result to my eye is a dark, dreary, dismal and disheartening mess. Whether or not Rembrandt himself painted it, he produced his share of dark works, And the purpose of this one seems elusive.
Yeah, it does seem off- usually his dark broody/moody paintings had some color- this one seems really washed out like more of a value study with neutral grey colors- Maybe it was intentional t try to depict colder moon light, i dunno