Etching and drypoint, 141 x 207 mm. Bartsch 228; Biörklund and Barnard 45-1;
New Hollstein 202.
Rare.
Fine impression
of the unique state, the sulphur tint still visible in the sky, but the details
in the far right slightly beginning to wear.
Thread margins
all around the platemark. Sheet: 145 x 215 mm. Julian Marshall’s collection
stamp printed verso (Lugt 1494)
Provenance: Julian Marshall (Lugt 1494); Paul Prouté S.A., Catalogue
“Centenaire” 1re partie Estampes, 1978, n°39: « Très belle
épreuve, filet de marge. » (‘Very fine impression, thread margins’).
In very good
condition. Light stains in the upper corners. Minimal retouching in grey ink on
the mast of the sailboat, as well as touches along the platemark, to the left
and to the right. Because the light strokes in drypoint wore out quickly, a
number of good impressions were retouched in ink, as Erik Hinterding observes
about the impression in the Frits Lugt collection, acquired in 1919 from P. and
D. Colnaghi & Obach: “The print was lightly etched and impressions are
almost always a little faint and misty (…) Like some other impressions of this
print, this sheet has been retouched with grey ink, including on the post on
the left beside the road.” (Erik Hinterding, 2008, vol. I, pp. 430-433).
Hinterding mentions specifically the impression in the Teylers Museum in
Harleem. The New Hollstein volume also mentions retouched impressions in the
collections of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (brush and grey ink, and pen and
black ink), of the Staatliche Museum, Berlin (foliage added with pen and brown
ink), of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden (framing lines in pen and black ink), of the British Museum (two
impressions retouched in pen and grey ink), in the Rothschild collection in the
Louvre (brush and grey ink), in the State Hermitage in St Petersburg (framing lines in pen and black ink),
among others (New Hollstein, Rembrandt, Text II, p. 90).
The landscape
drawn by Rembrandt has not been clearly identified and the etching received
different titles in different catalogues: La barque à voile [Barge with a sail] (Bartsch),
Cottages beside a canal, with a church & sailing boat
(Nowell-Usticke), Cottage beside a canal, a view of Diemen (Boon and
White). Its date is likewise uncertain: Bartsch thinks that Rembrandt etched it
around 1645, Hinterding around 1641. We go with the date given in the New
Hollstein by Erik Hinterding; like Frits Lugt, he places the landscape near
Ouderkerk on the banks of the Amstel, south of Amsterdam.
The lightness
of the strokes on the right of the impression, the grounds which have been left
almost blank and the streaks of sulphur tint sweeping across the grey sky give
this landscape a wintery feel that is quite rare in Rembrandt’s etched oeuvre.
References: Erik Hinterding, Rembrandt Etchings from the Frits Lugt Collection, 2008, vol. I, no. 180, pp. 430-433; New Hollstein, Rembrandt, text II, compiled by Erik Hinterding and Jacob Rutgers; Paul Prouté S.A., Catalogue “Centenaire” 1978, 1re partie Estampes.
Price: 35 000 EUR // 41 000 USD
