Rembrandt's Etching Research Articles

Rembrandt print connoisseurship,

Sir Francis Seymour Haden was a physician, etcher, and a collector and connoisseur of Rembrandt etchings. He was also one of the leading British proponents of the etching revival of the nineteenth century. His own aesthetic preferences for etching were consonant with what he understood to be the best Rembrandt etchings, with an emphasis on seeming spontaneity, quick execution, and the promotion of richly individuated impressions through drypoint and plate tone. In an 1877 exhibition, and in writings into the 1890s, he applied this standard to the study of the etchings then attributed to Rembrandt, and made controversial decisions about attributions, challenging some long-held beliefs of Rembrandt print connoisseurs. While Haden’s insistence on studying the etchings in a chronological sequence would prove influential, his status as an amateur rather than an academic or museum professional, and his intemperate language directed towards other scholars, undermined the acceptance of his ideas.

Begging for Attention: The Artful Context of Rembrandt’s Etching Beggar Seated on a Bank

Two figural motifs recur frequently in Rembrandt's etchings of 1630s: ragged peasants and artist’s own startlingly expressive face. On a copperplate that he treated like a page from a sketchbook, these disparate subjects are juxtaposed.1 And in an etching of 1630, they merge, as Rembrandt himself takes on role of a hunched figure seated on a rocky hillock (fig. 1). Early cataloguers such as Edme-Francois Gersaint (1751) and Adam Bartsch (1797) failed to notice resemblance and classified print with other studies of beggars rather than with self-portraits.2 Ignace-Joseph de Claussin (1824) was apparently first to observe that the physiognomy has a great deal of resemblance to Rembrandt.3 This discovery was overlooked by later cataloguers more concerned with distinguishing states of print and separating it from deceptive copies.4 It was taken up again by Arthur Hind (1912), who drew a convincing connection to Rembrandt's Self-Portrait Open-Mouthed as if Shouting, also dated 1630 (fig. 2).5 Nevertheless, in most modern sources it has retained title Beggar Seated on a Bank.6 Gersaint described beggar's frizzled hair and ruined garments, but Daniel Daulby (1796) was first to remark on emotional intensity of this figure asking alms with a countenance full of distress. Bartsch described him as groaning in misery.7

Reading Light: Vision as a Hermeneutic Mechanism in Rembrandt's Etching Joseph Telling his Dreams (1638)

Rembrandt produced some seventy biblical etchings over the course of his artistic career, a testimony to his sustained interest in investigating subjects dealing with human failings, faith, and salvation in the print medium. Beyond distilling the essential elements of the scriptural narratives, Rembrandt's prints convey the raw emotive and psychological states of humankind as a means to evoke the existential impact of image on the beholder. One of his most familiar and accomplished Old Testament etchings, Joseph Telling his Dreams from 1638, is a work that articulates nuanced portrayals of facial expression and gesture with a deftness of line and shading few artists could match. Credited with an extraordinary talent for visual storytelling, Rembrandt incorporates into this etching a number of meticulous and enigmatic details which, upon closer inspection, do not actually derive from the biblical text. These unexpected details call into question the traditional art historical understanding of Rembrandt's complex visualization process, shifting us from seeking what the image means to how it constructs meaning. Through descriptive analysis of the artist's manipulation of light and shadow, the etching Joseph Telling his Dreams is here revealed as a masterful work of visual exegesis in which the artist explores the contiguities between artistic and religious experience through their shared claims on vision.

The wanderings of Rembrandt's Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh

The wanderings of Rembrandt's Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh

Rembrandt’s ‘Beggar with a wooden leg’ and other comparable prints

Rembrandt's etching of a beggar with a wooden leg is notable because the two lower limbs of the presumed beggar are present and not deformed. Using the facilities of four specialised Dutch art institutes, we carried out a systematic investigation to find other etchings and engravings of subjects with artificial legs supporting non-amputated limbs, from the period 1500 to 1700 AD. We discovered 28 prints produced by at least 18 artists. Several offered clues to a disorder of a knee, the lower leg or the foot. All individuals were adult males, suggesting the probability of traumatic lesions. We conclude that in this period artificial legs were not only used in the case of absence of part of a lower limb, but also for other reasons, notably disorders of the knee, lower leg or foot. They may also have been used to attract compassion.

Then Melancholy, Now Depression

The authors identify two Rembrandt etchings of 1642, Saint Jerome in a Dark Chamber and A Scholar at a Table by Candlelight, as self-portraits. Considered with biographical data, the prints suggest that Rembrandt suffered from a bipolar personality disorder, manifest in exuberance and lavish spending in the 1630s, and then, after the death of the artist's wife, in clinical depression in the early 1640s. Depression is depicted in the prints by their dark ambiance, and the figure's pose is traditional in art to represent melancholia, one of the four classical humors conventionally ascribed to artistic genius. In addition, the authors identify as a portrait of his wife the object at which the "scholar" is looking. Although the panel is turned away from the viewer of the etching, its size, shape, and material suggest that it is a painting that survives in Kassel, Germany.

Rembrandt's metaphysical wit: The Three Trees and The Omval

Rembrandt's etching The Three Trees of 1643 has a fair claim to being the single most celebrated and familiar landscape in Dutch art. Most of the attention it has received has dwelt on its sheer power and richness as an image, which are unparalleled in the master's graphic work in the genre. But The Three Trees also marks a critical nexus in Rembrandt's art between the languages of painting and printmaking, which in landscape at least entails a further distinction between 'poetic' and realistic modes of representation. As a subject in its own right, landscape had not drawn his interest until the second half of the 1630s, and it was only in 1640 that he began making landscape etchings. Unlike his painted landscapes, which began earlier and are mainly rather fanciful and romantic, the prints focus on the prosaic realities or the countryside around Amsterdam. Moreover, these etched landscapes belong to a broader trend toward 'prose realism' in Rembrandt's art during the 1640s, as baroque torsion and dynamism give way to quieter formal Structures, where the unities are generally less fluid, more complex, and carry a more direct sense of encounter with everyday reality.

A Brief History of Urology at Baylor University Medical Center

A Brief History of Urology at Baylor University Medical Center

Gersaint on Rembrandt: À Son Seul Génie

The art dealer Edmé-François Gersaint made a significant contribution to Rembrandt connoisseurship in the eighteenth century. The many paintings that passed through the Parisian art market provided him with a broad knowledge of the artist's work, and enabled him to write with understanding of Rembrandt's achievement.Gersaint was an innovative writer of auction sale catalogues, who introduced new principles of organization and enhanced descriptions of the objects. He brought this same reasoned approach to his catalogue of Rembrandt's etchings: the first catalogue raisonné devoted to the work of a single artist.Gersaint composed two notable biographies of Rembrandt, one in 1744, the other in 1751. His eloquent descriptions of the artist's painterly style, though influenced by literary tradition, owe much to his own experience, especially in his choice of exemplary paintings. Gersaint was a skilled yet practical connoisseur, who recognized all the difficulties posed by questions of attribution. He advocated emphasizing the merits of a painting, rather than the name of its artist. He also recognized the value of reproductive prints for making paintings available to a wider audience.

:Rembrandt as an Etcher: A Study of the Artist at Work

In this updated edition of his highly praised book, Christopher White provides the definitive account of Rembrandt's etchings and their significance within the larger body of the artist's work. With eloquence and deep insight, White analyzes the technical, stylistic, and iconographic features of selected etchings, traces their close relationship with the artist's drawings, and reveals how Rembrandt made the medium his own.Rembrandt was one of the first artists to experiment with the media of etching and drypoint, submitting his plates to numerous reworkings, drawing on impressions, and varying the inking of his plates and his papers. In a detailed discussion of Rembrandt's methods, White shows that the changes and variations Rembrandt introduced often provide a unique opportunity -- not afforded by paintings and drawings -- to observe the artist at work.

Het werkelijke onderwerp van Aert de Gelders 'Heilige Familie' te Berlijn

Het werkelijke onderwerp van Aert de Gelders 'Heilige Familie' te Berlijn

Rembrandt the Etcher: Mission and Commission as Factors in New Testament Interpretation

AbstractThis study examines the content and context of production of Rembrandt's etching Christ Preaching. After an exposition of the etching's key features, consideration is given to the place of the etching in Rembrandt's life and work. Particular attention is paid to Rembrandt's own religious outlook, to the level of his awareness as to the artistic and theological traditions within which he stood, and to the impact upon his work of the dynamics of commissioning and selling the results of his efforts. The study suggests a possible religious dimension to his choice of an etching for this particular image. The significance of the exploration of this "biblical" etching by Rembrandt for the contemporary task of the interpretation of the Gospels is then drawn out in a series of nine points: the relationship between single texts and the "big picture" of Jesus which an interpreter carries; the impact of a variety of interpretative frameworks within which interpreters work; acknowledgement of the inevitability of working with a "canon within the canon"; attention to the specific communities within which one interprets; recognition of a present interest at work; respect for the rhetorical strategies which are operative in the interpretation (as well as the text being interpreted); the need to examine the reasons for the choice of medium through which an interpretation of a text is conveyed; acknowledgement that interpretations are sometimes affected by factors beyond the control of those who fashion them; and consideration of the place of fiction in biblical interpretation.

Interpretations of the Old Testament in Modern Fiction

Abstract In what way do artists and novelists who have re‐presented Old Testament narratives differ from biblical critics who seek to explain the texts of Scripture? This paper begins with a brief examination of a Rembrandt etching and the way in which it diverges from the text upon which it is based. Why does the artist change the narrative shape of the Bible? I then proceed to discuss the work of a critic, Robert Alter, who has read the text of the Old Testament as “literature”, and compare him with writers of fiction who have dealt with the same texts — in the first instance considering Thomas Mann and his great work Joseph and His Brothers. The second part of the paper examines a number of novelists who have taken biblical themes — Julian Barnes, Joseph Heller, Torgny Lindgren and Moelwyn Merchant. I will suggest that what they offer is a tragic element which is lost in the biblical texts insofar as they are configured by the history of salvation and its theology. Even for great kings like David, “the...

Interpretations of the old testament in modern fiction

Abstract In what way do artists and novelists who have re‐presented Old Testament narratives differ from biblical critics who seek to explain the texts of Scripture? This paper begins with a brief examination of a Rembrandt etching and the way in which it diverges from the text upon which it is based. Why does the artist change the narrative shape of the Bible? I then proceed to discuss the work of a critic, Robert Alter, who has read the text of the Old Testament as “literature”, and compare him with writers of fiction who have dealt with the same texts — in the first instance considering Thomas Mann and his great work Joseph and His Brothers. The second part of the paper examines a number of novelists who have taken biblical themes — Julian Barnes, Joseph Heller, Torgny Lindgren and Moelwyn Merchant. I will suggest that what they offer is a tragic element which is lost in the biblical texts insofar as they are configured by the history of salvation and its theology. Even for great kings like David, “the...

The Darrieus wind turbine for electrical power generation

Wind energy has long been recognised as a potentially abundant source of clean and renewable mechanical and electrical power. History records that wind energy has been harnessed by man since about the year 2000 BC when windmills were used for energy production in Babylon and China. An ancient Persian vertical-axis windmill of about 7th century vintage is shown in Fig. 1. Windmills appeared in Europe in the 12th century and flourished until the 19th century as one of the few forms of rotary mechanical power. The Dutch windmill achieved lasting fame as the subject of paintings and etchings by the Dutch Masters including Rembrandt and van Ruisdael. Rembrandt's etching ‘The Windmill’ shows the fine detail of a 17th century windmill in Amsterdam.The final versions of Dutch and English windmills were relatively sophisticated machines, well suited to the tasks of grinding grain and other materials, pumping water and sawing wood. Steam power came to displace wind power in the 18th century, and windmill numbers diminished rapidly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nevertheless, working examples of traditional windmills can still be seen in Holland, England and on the Greek islands.

A Traditional Motif in Rembrandt's Etchings: The Hurdy-Gurdy Player

A Traditional Motif in Rembrandt's Etchings: The Hurdy-Gurdy Player

A Rabbi with Wings: Remarks on Rembrandt's Etching "Abraham Entertaining the Angels"

Previous articleNext article No AccessA Rabbi with Wings: Remarks on Rembrandt's Etching "Abraham Entertaining the Angels"Emanuel WinternitzEmanuel Winternitz Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Metropolitan Museum Journal Volume 121977 Sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/1512725 Views: 1Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Rembrandt's Tree Stump: An Iconographic Attribute of St. Jerome

In discussing Rembrandt's etching of St. Jerome beneath a Pollard Willow (Fig. 1), dated 1648, Arthur Hind convincingly described the composition as a study of a tree stump “with St. Jerome thrown in.”1 In this well-known print, which dates from Rembrandt's most intense period of landscape production, the gigantic tree stump is indeed the dominant element in the scene. Split at the top into two sections that curve toward each other like cupped hands, the tree still puts forth two leafy branches – one etched and the other in drypoint – which extend toward the right. Beneath these sparse living branches appears the small, more lightly etched figure of the old hermit, bent intently over his pen and paper. As St. Jerome, he is clearly identified by his traditional attributes: the lion at the far left and the cardinal's hat at his side. In addition, Jerome's writing desk, ingeniously attached to the trunk of the tree, displays a pile of books topped by a skull and a barely visible crucifix at the left.

Caft. William Baillie: Imitations of Rembrandt's etchings

Caft. William Baillie: Imitations of Rembrandt's etchings Get access Alfred Sydney Lewis Alfred Sydney Lewis Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume 151, Issue 18, 30 October 1926, Pages 322–323, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/151.18.322g Published: 30 October 1926