Original etching, drypoint and burin printed in black ink on laid paper.
Size: 8 5/8 x 6 3/4 inches
c. 1647
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Signed and dated in the plate lower right Rembrandt .f. 16?? (the last two numbers indistinct).
A fine, clear and clean 18th century impression of Bartsch's third and final state, Usticke's third state of six, very skillfully retouched possibly by Charles Henri Watelet circa 1760, printed prior to the addition of the regular crosshatching under the right eyebrow and to the right check, and well prior to the late reworking of the block lettered inscription (by another hand) in the title margin below the image 'JAN ASSELYN [alias] CRABBETJE / Landschap -Schilder'.
Trimmed just outside the platemark all around, otherwise in excellent condition. Rembrandt's etching of the Dutch painter of Italianate landscapes, Jan Asselyn, is the only clearly documented portrait of the relatively short-lived painter. The etching is generally dated, on the basis of its conception and style, at about 1647, after Asselyn returned to Amsterdam from Rome during that year. While their art was radically different, Rembrandt and Asselyn were probably acquainted, for Asselyn's brother-in law was Rembrandt's former pupil Ferdinand Bol.
Rembrandt's portrait of Asselyn is formal and dignified. Asselyn is shown as the gentleman-artist, dressed not for the studio but for the street. The conventional pose, with hand on hip, is reminiscent of portraits earlier designed and etched by Anthony van Dyck. Rembrandt in fact cleverly used the pose to conceal, by means of ruffled cuff and embroidered glove, Asselyn's crippled left hand. In Rome, the members of the rowdy Netherlandish artist's club, the Bentveughels, had, because of this deformity,
given Asselyn the rather cruel nickname of Krabbetje ('little crab').
Bartsch 277 iii/iii; Hind 227; Biorklund-Barnard 47-I; Usticke 277 iii/iv
