Signed and dated in the plate lower left Rembrandt 1656.

A fine, richly printed 17th century/lifetime impression of Bartsch and Usticke's only state, showing touches of burr on the angel at the left, the platter, tablecloth, etc., the left and right plate edges inky.

In excellent condition, trimmed just outside the platemark on all foursides. Collections in which impressions of this etching can be found: Rijkspretenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Kupferstichkadinett der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin-Dahlem; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Stadelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt-on-Main; Teylers Stichting, Haarlem; Ermitage Museum, Leningrad; The British Museum, London; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Duthuit Collection, Petit Palais, Paris; Collection Edmond de Rothschild, Musee du Louvre, Paris; Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna. This story of divine visitation and hospitality (Gensis 18:1-15) begins with the 90-year-old patriarch Abraham seated at the entrance to his home. He looks up and sees three men. Abraham rushes to greet them and offers them full hospitality: the washing of their feet, rest in the shade of a tree, a calf slain to provide meat, cakes that he asks his wife Sarah to bake, as well as butter and milk. As the narrative unfolds it becomes evident that one of the mysterious strangers is, in fact, Jehovah. The Lord asks after Sarah an informs Abraham that Sarah will conceive and give birth to a son. In Rembrandt's etching of 1656, the guests are seated on a carpet, on the threshold of Abraham and Sarah's house. Abraham, who holds a pitcher, is serving them. He occupies a conspicuously lower position, and humbly inclines his head while being addressed by the chief of the visitors. Behind them, the 13-year-old Ishmael, the child of Abraham and the maidservant of Hagar, both of whom are soon to be displaced by the birth of Isaac, leans over the parapet to shoot his bow. Within the dark interior, Sarah, smiling to herself, listens behind a half-open door. The most prominent of the three guests, the Lord God Himself, is wingless, and is imparting the news of the coming miraculous birth. The copper plate bearing this subject seems to have left Rembrandt's possession early on, having been created about the time of his bankruptcy proceedings in 1656. It is very likely that this is the only etching plate of Rembrandt's to survive, that was not to one degree or another reworked at the hands of later publishers in order to extend its life. The plate was eventually acquired by the Flemish painter Peeterr Gysels (1621-1692). The smooth, un-worked back of the plate was used as the support for a miniature landscape painting executed in the style of Jan Bruegel. This plate was later acquired in 1997 by the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Bartsch 29; Hind 286; Biorklund-Barnard 56-B; Usticke 29

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