Although there was a plate in the collection of De Jonghe in 1679 under nr. 57, Titus conterfysels, there are serious doubts whether this refers to this plate, since no later impressions are known. It may have referred to another plate. The plate did not appear in any of the early collections and is almost certainly not anymore in existence.

The print was originally classified, by Gersaint and Bartsch, as a self-portrait. In 1824 De Claussin suggested that the sitter is probably Titus, who was born in 1641 and thus fifteen years old at the time this print was made. This identification is now generally accepted. Titus died of the plague in 1668, a year before his father died.

Around the same time Rembrandt made at least three paintings of Titus, one now in the Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam (Bredius 120, Corpus VI 242), one in the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna (Bredius 122, Corpus VI 307) and one in the Wallace Collection in London (Bredius 123, Corpus VI 257).
There are several drawings which are supposed to show Titus, but some of these are made by followers from Rembrandt’s circle, like one drawing in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Benesch 1184).

There are two copies in the same direction. A is an anonymous copy (96 x 70 mm, WB 1).
B is by Ignace Joseph De Claussin, inscribed Le fils de Rembrandt. It is included in the Recueil de H.L.Basan, (in the collection ‘Rembrandt in B&W’, 92 x 70 mm, WB 2).

The plate is not by Rembrandt according to Coppier.

All authors list one state only.

Five of the eight known impressions are printed on Japanese paper.

H 261, BB 56-1, G 15, M 165, Mz 74, RA 46-47, Cl 11, W 11, Bl 236, Du 11, CD 219
Hinterding 2008, p. 47-48; Verdi 2014, p. 211;