Live Auction 7534Old Master Prints
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Lot 236

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Six's Bridge (B., Holl. 208; H. 209)

Closed4 December 2007

Price Realised

GBP 36,500

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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Six's Bridge (B., Holl. 208; H. 209)
etching, 1645, a fine impression of this extremely rare print, third, final state with the shading to both men's hats, on fine laid paper without watermark, trimmed on or just outside the platemark, a small, skilfull repair in the sky above and to the right of the tree, occasional very short tears or nicks at the lower sheet edge, a repair at the extreme tip of the upper right sheet corner, laid on a thin support
P., S. 129 x 223 mm.

Specialist note

Although the first recorded title for this landscape persists (taken from the inventory of Valerius Röver, 1731) the subject has now been convincingly identified as a view at Ouderkerk on the Amstel river near Amsterdam. The view is taken from the Klein-Kostverloren Estate which in 1645 belonged to Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh, one of Amsterdam's Burgomasters.
Gersaint's apocryphal story that Rembrandt wagered Jan Six that he could make a print in the time it took the servant to fetch a pot of mustard from the nearest village is testament to the extreme economy of the image. The spontaneous sketch-like quality of the line and the simple study of nature bely the careful construction. The result, printed on a wide open sheet to convey the sense of a summer's light, is deceptively simple and beautiful.