Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Lot 47

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Landscape with a Milkman (B., Holl. 213; H. 242)

Closed7 December 2010

Price Realised

GBP 22,500

More Information

How to sell

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Landscape with a Milkman (B., Holl. 213; H. 242)
etching with drypoint, circa 1650, watermark fragment Foolscap, a very good impression of this rare print, second, final state, still printing with considerable burr, vertical wiping marks and a light plate tone, with paper losses at the edge of the subject, the entire sheet extremely carefully repaired, remargined and very thinly backed
S. 75 x 186 mm.

Charles C. Cunningham Jnr. (not in Lugt).

Specialist note

In the early 1650's Rembrandt increasingly began to use drypoint for integral parts of his compositions, in particular in his landscapes. While in earlier prints, he only had added some accents in drypoint to what were essentially complete, etched compositions, with The Landscape with the Milkman 'Rembrandt first succeeded in thoroughly integrating drypoint and etching in his landscape prints.' (Schneider, no. 23, p. 120) A year he went even further by creating the Landscape with a Road beside a Canal in pure drypoint.
The burr of the drypoint can be overbearing, yet Rembrandt used it with great delicacy and achieved a remarkably subtle and wide range of tone and weight of lines, from deep black shadows to light grey silhouettes in the misty distance.

Recent commentators have identified the little figure with the buckets in The Landscape with the Milkman as being in fact a fisherman returning with his catch and retitled the print accordingly.