Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

The Mower Collection
Selected Etchings
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
July 15, 1607 – October 4, 1669
By: Azure Green, Yi-Wen Wei, Laura Saladin, Arielle
O’Hara, Annie Booth, & Jasmine Van Weelden
Music by Dirck Scholl (1641-1727)
Rembrandt van Rijn Biography
•  July 15, 1606: Rembrandt
Harmenszoon van Rijn was born
in Leiden, Holland.
•  1619: Rembrandt was apprenticed
to Jacob van Swanenburgh, a
Dutch master painter who had
painted in Italy, studying the
Renaissance masters.
•  Mid 1620s: Rembrandt became an
independent painter.
•  1629: At the age of 23, Rembrandt
began etching.
•  1634: Rembrandt married Saskia
van Uylenburgh. They had four
children together.
Rembrandt Leaning on a Stone Wall
1639
Etching
20.7 x 13.4 cm (8.1 x 5.3 in)
Rembrandt van Rijn Biography
•  1641: Rembrandt’s son, Titus,
was born. He was the only child
that lived until adulthood and
became a model for Rembrandt’s
artwork. Saskia died of
tuberculosis the same year.
•  1643: Rembrandt employed
Geertje Dircks as the nanny for
his son Titus, and Rembrandt
began a relationship with her.
•  1647: Rembrandt hired
Hendrickje Stoffels as a
maidservant. Within a few years,
they began a longtime affair. She
became his model for many of
the female figures in his artwork.
They had a child.
Stoning of St. Stephen
1625
Oil on panel
123.6 x 89.5 cm (48.7 x 35.2 in)
Rembrandt’s earliest recorded painting,
shows a self-portrait, his first of many to
come.
Rembrandt van Rijn Biography
•  Ca. 1649: Geertje Dircks
charged Rembrandt with a
breach of promise.
•  1660: Hendrickje and Titus
transferred the control of
Rembrandt’s affairs to
relieve him of all financial
control, leaving him to
paint freely, and with Titus
as universal heir.
•  October 4, 1669:
Rembrandt died of natural
causes at the age of 63.
Return of the Prodigal Son
1636
Etching
16 x 14 cm (6.3 x 5.5 in)
Rembrandt’s last work before he died was on
the subject of the prodigal son. He painted,
drew and etched this subject a number of times.
Printmaking
•  Prints, unlike one-of-a-kind paintings,
are multiple originals.
•  Each print produced is not considered
a “copy” but rather an “original.”
•  Prints in color require two or more
matrices, which are individual plates
for each color.
Red matrix in multicolored print.
•  One matrix for each color, when
printed sequentially on top of each
other, produces the final work of art.
Numbering Today’s Prints
In contemporary printmaking, artists usually number their
prints.
The number may appear as a
fraction. For example, 55/1000
means this particular print is
number 55 of 1000 prints made.
Numbering Rembrandt’s Prints
•  In Rembrandt’s era, however,
prints were not numbered in this
way.
•  Rembrandt’s etchings are
identified by Bartsch numbers,
named for Johann Adam
Bernhard von Bartsch
(1757-1821) who catalogued
Rembrandt’s prints.
Self-Portrait
Adam Bartsch
1785
Types of Prints
Relief:
ink is applied to
the protruding
surface of the
matrix (the plate
that contains the
design of the
print).
Intaglio:
the image is
incised into a
surface, and the
incised line or
sunken area holds
the ink (opposite
of a relief print).
Planographic:
printing from a flat
surface.
Stencil:
ink or paint is
pressed
through a
prepared
screen.
Etching
•  Technique of the intaglio family
(the image is incised into a surface,
and the incised line or sunken area
holds the ink).
•  Prints are generally linear and often
contain fine detail.
•  Etching is often combined with
other intaglio techniques like
drypoint.
The Raising of Lazarus
1632
Etching with drypoint and burin
38.7 x 26.8 cm (15.2 x 10.5 in)
Drypoint
•  Technique of the intaglio family.
•  Images are incised onto a plate with
a "needle" of sharp metal or
diamond point.
•  Lines produced by drypoint create a
burr or pushed up edge allowing the
incisions to catch more ink
compared to an etched line.
•  Incisions are made by removing
metal to form depressions in the
plate surface which hold ink.
•  Acid is not used in this technique.
Diamond point used to engrave
image into copper plate.
Etching Process
All forms of printmaking are based on the same principle:
copying an image from a matrix onto a surface.
Etching Process
1.  A metal plate is covered with a ground, made up of
wax, resin, and/or other material.
Etching Process
2. An etching needle is used to draw the design into the ground.
Etching Process
3. The plate is placed into an acidic bath, where the acid bites the
exposed lines from the drawing.
Etching Process
4. After the plate is cleaned of its ground and acidic residue,
the matrix is coated with ink. Excess ink is removed, leaving
the ink inside the etched lines.
Etching Process
5. The image is printed by placing the inked matrix
underneath paper or fabric. The ink is transferred using
either a roller or a hand press.
Rembrandt’s Styles and Influences
•  Studied multiple subjects,
including history, rhetorical
gestures, people and their
reality.
•  Often observed his subjects
while creating his artwork.
•  Etching themes: portrait,
genre, landscape, historical,
biblical, mythological, and
nude.
The Pancake Woman
1635
Etching
10.9 x 7.9 cm (4 1/8 x 3 1/8 in)
Rembrandt’s Styles and Influences
•  Never went abroad, but
surveyed works of
Northern artists who had
lived in Italy.
•  Notable artistic influences:
Caravaggio, Peter Paul
Rubens, and Gerrit van
Honthorst.
Descent by Torchlight
1654
Etching and drypoint on laid paper
21 x 16.2 cm (8 1/4 x 6 3/8 in)
Rembrandt’s Styles and Influences
An Elderly Woman (Rembrandt’s Mother,
head and bust)
1628
Etching and drypoint
•  Earliest documented
etching, 1628:
elderly woman
believed to be his
mother.
•  Later etchings: more
spatially open.
•  Mother: Neeltgen
Willemsdochter van
Zuytbrouck, better known
as Cornelia.
•  Close relationship with his
mother and other women
featured in his works.
•  Etching realistically
captures mother’s age and
expression through lines.
The Artist’s Mother
1629 – 1633
Etching on paper
6.8 x 6.7cm (2 11/16 x 2 5/8 in)
•  Blended Catholic and then
contemporary secular
deathbed scenes.
•  Dramatic Baroque style.
•  Possibly influenced by
Caravaggio’s Death of the
Virgin (1604-1606).
•  Virgin shown at death,
rather than Catholic view of
live assumption.
•  Inclusion of celestial realm
above deathbed scene.
Death of the Virgin
1639
Etching and drypoint
49 x 32 cm (16 3/8 x 12 1/2 in)
•  Marriage portraits popular in 16th
and 17th centuries.
•  Only etching in which
Rembrandt portrayed himself
with wife, Saskia.
•  Etching made after two years of
marriage.
•  Put emphasis on light and spatial
quality.
•  Darker lines: closer to viewer.
•  Lighter lines: farther from
viewer.
Self Portrait with Saskia
1636
Etching
10.7 x 9.5 cm (4.2 x 3.7 in)
•  Dutch landscape: popular
theme during Rembrandt’s
lifetime.
•  After 1640, his etchings
influenced by effects of
painting.
Cottage with a White Paling
c. 1648
Etching and drypoint
13 x 15.8 cm (5.1 x 6.2 in)
•  Spatial depth created by
chiaroscuro, contrasting
effects of extreme dark and
light values.
•  Date of print uncertain;
possibly 1648.
•  Printed on Japanese paper. •  Cat on left:
symbolizes laziness.
•  Snake under Virgin’s
foot: symbolizes
defeat of trickery.
•  Glass window creates
halo: signifies
mother’s divinity.
•  Joseph separated by
window: signifies
relationship as
husband rather than
father of child.
Virgin and Child With Cat and Snake
1654
Etching
25.4 x 35.6 cm (10 x 14 in)
•  Etching illustrated
book called The
History of the World
Through the Lens of
Navigation.
•  Eighty Years War
between Dutch and
Spanish occurring
at the time print was
made.
•  Etching displayed
symbols referencing
public’s desire for
peace.
The Ship of Fortune
1633
Etching
12 x 17.3 cm (4.7 x 6.8 in)
Legacy of Rembrandt
•  Works owned by influential
historical leaders across Europe, for
example, Charles I of England and
Cosimo III de’Medici of Italy.
•  Inspired especially 17th to 19th
century artists, such as Giovanni
Battista Tiepolo (1696 – 1770) and
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732 –
1806).
Self-Portrait
1659
Oil on canvas
84.5 x 66 cm (33 3/10 x 26 in)
Legacy of Rembrandt
•  After death, copper plates passed
through many hands.
•  Plates altered and printed
posthumously by numerous owners.
•  Some plates inked and lacquered to
avoid any further changes or prints in
1916.
•  Etchings reside in multiple public
collections, including The
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York City, The National Gallery in
London, and the Rembrandt House
Museum in Amsterdam.
Detail: Self-Portrait
1669
Oil on canvas
86 x 70.5 cm (33.9 x 27.8 in)
Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts
The Mower Collection
Dr. Tobia Mower & Dr. Morton Mower
Selected Etchings