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 …; ? purchased by Thomas Bruce (1766-1841), 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine, Broomhall, Fife, at an unknown date;{According to a letter dated 21 January 1933 from Edward James Bruce to Joseph Duveen quoted in Isaac de Bruijn's notes preserved at the Rijksmuseum.} ? by descent to his grandson, Victor Alexander Bruce (1849-1917), 9th Earl of Elgin, 13th Earl of Kincardine, Broomhall, Fife; first mentioned in his collection, 1893;{Hofstede de Groot 1893, p. 223.} his son, Edward James Bruce (1881-1968), 10th Earl of Elgin, 14th Earl of Kincardine, Broomhall, Fife; from whom, £ 7,000, to the dealer Joseph Duveen, Paris and New York, 1926;{Secrest 2004, p. 478.} from whom, $ 35,000, to Isaac de Bruijn (1872-1953), Spiez and Muri, near Bern, December 1932;{Isaac de Bruijn's notes preserved at the Rijksmuseum; Secrest 2004, p. 478, where it is mistakenly stated that Duveen bought the painting back and resold it to an unknown buyer.} donated by Isaäc de Bruijn and his wife, Johanna Geertruida van der Leeuw (1877-1960), Spiez and Muri, near Bern, to the Vereeniging Rembrandt on the 50th anniversary of its founding, for placement in the Rijksmuseum, but kept in usufruct, 1933; transferred to the museum, 1961, measuring depth: 6.5; width: 70.5; height: 65; width: 48; height: 86.8, 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.”
