Live Auction 7644Old Master Prints
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Lot 31

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

A Man in a broad-brimmed Hat (B., Holl. 311; H. 158)

Closed2 December 2008

Price Realised

GBP 3,750

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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
A Man in a broad-brimmed Hat (B., Holl. 311; H. 158)
etching, 1638, without watermark, a good impression, with margins, adhered to the mount in two places on the reverse at the upper sheet edge, otherwise in very good condition, framed
P. 80 x 64 mm., S. 87 x 73 mm.

Chevalier C. Camberlyn (1783-1861), La Haye and Brussels (L. 514).
C. Delanglade (b. 1870), Marseille (L. 660).
With Craddock Barnard, London, 1960, according to an ink inscription on the backboard.
Sir William Hayter (not in L.), according to an ink inscription on the backboard.

Specialist note

This is possibly a portrait of Samuel Smijters (d. 1644), a bookseller and art collector active in Amsterdam auctions in the 1630s. It is likely that they met at an auction, as Rembrandt spent many hours in the salerooms - to such an extent that his purchases contributed to his financial difficulties. At the sale of the estate of Jan Basse, which took place over three weeks in March 1637, fifty lots of prints, drawings and shells were knocked down to him. The following year at the sale of the Russian merchant Gommer Spranger he bought 32 lots, including works by Dürer, Raphael, Goltzius and Lucas van Leyden.