Original etching printed in black ink on laid paper bearing the
Basel Crozier watermark (Ash/Fletcher 11 A.b.).
Size; 5 7/8 x 5 1/8 inches
1632
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Signed in the plate with the artist's monogram left center HL.fe.
A superb, dark and richly printed 17th century/lifetime impression of Bartsch's second state of three, Usticke's first state of three, printed after the space just below the hand was fully shaded.
A crack in the sheet running diagonally through the hand, another at the left edge adjacent the leftmost fold of the cloak, both of which are virtually invisible from the recto, the sheet backed with extremely thin Japan tissue for support, otherwise in excellent condition, trimmed down to or outside the platemark all around. Provenance: ex-collection Antonio Ceare Poggi (Italian/English, 18th century). Florence born painter, printemaker and publisher who was active in London Between 1776 and 1781, bearing his collection stamp [Lugt 617] in black ink verso. Literature: Erik Hinterrding/Ger Luijten/Martin Royalton-Kish, Rembrandt the Prtintmaker, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago & London, 2000, no. 15, p. 114 (ill.) Collections in which impressions of this etching can be found: Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin-Dahlen; Leningrad; The British Museum, London; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Bibliotheque Nationale, Pais; Duthuit Collection, Petit Palais, Paris; Graphische Sammlung Albertina , Vienna. In Charles Henry Middleton's 1878 catalogue of Rembrandt's etchings, he observed that this etching seemed to be the pendant of 'The Artist's Mother Seated at a Table' (Bartsch 343). He based this assumption on their similarities in size, technique and signature, and speculated that the man might be Rembrandt's father, adding, however, that the costume was more reminiscent of a rabbi than a 'quiet burgher'. The etching is usually dated around 1632, but as we know that the artist's father died in 1630, the face we see is most likely not his father's (unless, of course, it was posthumously produced portrait). The same model appears in several other prints and paintings but has not been firmly identified.
Bartsch 262 ii/iii; Hind 92; Biorklund-Barnard 32-2; Usticke 262 i/iii
