The Story
The Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt was a prolific printmaker throughout his career, and is universally regarded as one of the greatest creators of old master prints. Though, like other prints, his are often loosely described as "engravings", the main technique he used was etching, with some prints entirely in true engraving or in drypoint. Many prints used a mixture of techniques, as was common at the time. In all he produced about 300 prints.
He is famous for revising prints, sometimes over a period of several years, producing an unusually large number of states, which have provided specialist scholars with a good deal of work. For some of his career Rembrandt had an etching press in his house; this is now recreated in the original room in the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam. He produced prints on a wide range of subjects: self-portraits and portraits, biblical and mythological subjects, genre scenes, landscapes, and other subjects.
Executed in etching, engraving, and drypoint, measuring Sheet: 26 x 21.1 cm (10 1/4 x 8 5/16 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Rembrandt van Rijn builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
