REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

This is a particularly fine and atmospheric impression of this large and charming landscape. The whole sheet seems to vibrate with air and light, and all the little details that Rembrandt so lovingly describes come to life, including the cat on the thatched roof, to the right of the door.
Landscape with a Cottage and a large Tree is made up of elements which, in other hands, might have been used to comment on the effects of industry and idleness; the dilapidated farmhouse, complete with a broken cartwheel (a common vanitas symbol in Dutch landscapes) by the front door, contrasted with an orderly townscape on the horizon. Indeed, both Jacques de Gheyn II (1565-1629) and Jan van de Velde II (1593-1641) painted and engraved images that sharply contrasted virtue and vice in this way. Rembrandt, however seems more compassionate, and clearly had much sympathy with the older, bucolic way of life. It is intriguing that at a time when Amsterdam was one of the fastest-growing, most mercantile and modern cities in Europe, with many fine buildings and an elegant citizenry, Rembrandt preferred to depict a rustic country life, untouched by money or modernity.