C.G. BOERNER
REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606 Leiden – Amsterdam 1669): the Artist as Printmaker
REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606 Leiden – Amsterdam 1669): the Artist as Printmaker
For a brief moment, early on in his career, Rembrandt toyed with the idea of making large-sized prints that would reproduce his own paintings. One prominent example is the monumental Descent from the Cross after the painting commissioned by the stadtholder Frederik Hendrik of Orange. Yet instead of following in the footsteps of Rubens, Rembrandt soon decided to create prints that were neither reproductive nor translational but independent artworks entirely in their own right—and thereby became one of the greatest printmakers in the history of Western art. The more he mastered the techniques of etching and drypoint, the more he explored their potential in a way only Hercules Segers had done before him. But whereas Segers stupendous creations always remained at an experimental stage (making his prints unobtainable rarities nearly all of which are now kept in Amsterdam’s Rijksprentenkabinet), Rembrandt’s prints truly were multiples intended for a wider market.
Image Credit:
Armin Kunz: Rembrandthuis
By printing small editions from plates at different levels of finish (i.e. progressive states), by manipulating the appearance of the prints through tonal wiping, or by using surfaces other than the familiar laid paper made from rags, Rembrandt catered to a clientele of sophisticated collectors. Our selection includes an impression of La Petite Tombe on tissue-thin chine paper; the scene of Peter and John Healing the Cripple at the Gate of the Temple on firm, golden-hued Japanese gampi paper; and even an exceedingly rare, complete set of the Four Illustrations to Menasseh Ben Israhel's Piedra Gloriosa with Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts printed on vellum, probably the most difficult surface to print on with an intaglio plate.
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Rembrandt, The Goldweigher's Field
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Rembrandt, Four Illustrations to Piedra Gloriosa
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Armin Kunz: Rembrandthuis
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The Pancake Woman
REMBRANDT
1635
11 x 8 cm
etching; Bartsch 124, White/Boon third state (of three); Hind 141; The New Hollstein 144 second state (of seven)
PROVENANCE: Robert Dighton, London (Lugt 727); sale, Sotheby’s, London, February 20, 1962, lot 176; C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf (our stock no. in pencil on the verso 5494); private collection, Germany (acquired in October 1962)
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REMBRANDT
Ephraim Bonus, Jewish Physician
1647
24 x 17,7 cm
etching, engraving, and drypoint; Bartsch 278, White-Boon second (final) state; Hind 226; The New Hollstein 237 second (final) state
POR
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REMBRANDT
Young Man in a Velvet Cap (Petrus Sylvius?)
1637
9 x 8,5 cm
etching; Bartsch 268, White/Boon second (final) state; Hind 151; The New Hollstein 164 second (final) state
POR
REMBRANDT
The Fourth Oriental Head
ca. 1635
16,6 x 14,4 cm
etching; Bartsch 289, White/Boon second state (of three); Hind 134; The New Hollstein 152 third state (of six)
PROVENANCE: Pietro Giuseppe and Francesco Santo Vallardi, Milan (Lugt 2478); sale, Klipstein & Kornfeld, Berne, June 8, 1961, lot 108; Craddock & Barnard, London; private collection, USA
A fine impression, showing subtle tone along the edges of the plate; with margins all round. The first state, newly described by Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers in The New Hollstein, is unique; for the second state they list merely five impressions; and even the present third state is not common.
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It is perfectly appropriate, therefore, that the vast literature on Rembrandt often allows for the prints to stand side by side with his paintings. Their role in the marketplace, however, is only rarely touched upon. When one visits Het Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam’s Jodenbreestraat, where the artist lived and worked between 1639 and 1656 and where some of the interspersed images of this viewing room were taken, one can gain a wonderful glimpse into Rembrandt’s world. Yet it also makes one realize how the artist used prints as what we would today call “marketing tools.” First came the “ordinary” impressions sold at market stalls that helped to get his name and visual inventiveness known. If an interested collector would come to the artist’s studio, he might then be able to see the more “special” impressions mentioned above—either printed from an unfinished plate or on the special papers. Perhaps this would tempt the visitor, as it did Dr. Ephraim Bonus, to have portrait print made. Ultimately, though, the hope must have been for Rembrandt to receive a commission for a painting since, then and now, this seems to have been where “real money” could be made …
C.G. BOERNER
can be reached at:
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