Provenance

H. Danby Seymour (Lugt 176)
Christie, Manson & Woods, auction April 4. 1878, no. 144
Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern catalogue XXIV, 1927, no. 157, Tafel XII
Felix Somary (Lugt 4384)
August Laube, Zürich, catalogue >Rembrandt Harmenz van Rijn Radierungen<,
January 1975, no. 20
German private collection

Full Description

Bartsch , Rovinski, Seidlitz and White-Boon 219; Hind 213; Biörklund-Barnard 45-2; New Hollstein 201

Exquisite early impression of rare beauty.
Powerful, with partially quite burr-like effects in the fine lineament. Still with delicate vertical traces of wiping in the sky, conferring a wonderful dense atmosphere to the composition in conjunction with the light platetone, that becomes intensified almost imperceptible along the edges,
With 3 mm margins, edging the composition frame-like. In pristine preservation.
The undated etching… gives us a vivid sense of Rembrandt’s sketching expeditions in the countryside around Amsterdam. An artist with a tall hat is seated on the ground at the right drawing the farmhouse, which has a low living quarters wing and taller attached stable or barn block. He is observed by some rather whimsically drawn goats or sheep. At mid-century, many artists were actively making drawings of similar subjects in the farmlands around Amsterdam, including artists in Rembrandt’s circle working in his style such as Philips Koninck. Executed in a fine wiry etched line, the farmhouses might well have been drawn directly on the plate in front of the subject. (C. S. Ackley)