Vente aux enchères en direct 22952The Sam Josefowitz Collection: Graphic Masterpieces by Rembrandt van Rijn
REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)
Lot 39

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Small Grey Landscape: a House and Trees beside a Pool

Fermé7 December 2023

Prix réalisé

GBP 30,240

Considering selling a similar item?

Discover its value with a complimentary estimate from our specialists.

Plus d'informations

Conditions de vente
Comment vendre

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)
Small Grey Landscape: a House and Trees beside a Pool
etching
circa 1640
on laid paper, without watermark
a fine impression of this very rare little landscape
printing clearly and strongly
trimmed to or fractionally inside the platemark
some tiny repairs and touches of grey wash
Sheet 37 x 82 mm.

Otto Gerstenberg (1848-1935), Berlin; inscribed by his secretary, Mr Montag, with the deaccession number M-373 in pencil verso (without mark, see Lugt 1840c and 2785); presumably sold to Colnaghi & Co., London, and Harlow & Co., New York, with the majority of his collection.
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole CBE (1884-1941), Auckland, Cambridge and Keswick (without mark and not in Lugt).
With Leicester Galleries, London (on behalf of the above, according to Downe's catalogue).
Richard Dawnay, 10th Viscount Downe (1903-1965), Wykeham Abbey, Yorkshire (Lugt 719a); his posthumous sale, Sotheby's, London, 7 December 1972, lot 160 (£ 2,100; to Ira Gale, presumably for Josefowitz).
Sam Josefowitz (Lugt 6094); presumably acquired from the above; then by descent to the present owners.

Note du spécialiste

This tiny etching is the very first landscape Rembrandt created in the print medium, around 1640. In miniature, we see a house by a pond surrounded by trees and shrubs. A figure stands in the doorway of the house, illuminated from inside, another is leaning over the edge of the water, perhaps to wash or clean something. With a little dash of the needle, Rembrandt added a duck at the lower centre. It is a charming scene, but what an inconspicuous beginning in a genre the artist would excel in! Only three years later he would create a landscape print that to this day is considered a masterpiece of the genre and of printmaking: The Three Trees (lot 17, Old Masters Part I). Perhaps this little print was just an amusement for the artist, etched on a scrap of a plate, but then he discovered he had a taste for landscapes and began to explore the genre further. Rembrandt must have printed it only in small numbers, for it is very rare, and even a very ambitious collector like Otto Gerstenberg deemed this unassuming little print worth having. There's magic in every beginning.