Signed in the plate lower left Rembrandt f.

A strong, clear and dark, later 17th century impression of Bartsch's second and final state, Usticke's second state of three, printed after the white strip at the upper border to the right has been worked over and filled in but well before the late reworking of the plate.

In excellent condition, printed on a sheet with thread margins all around. Literature: Clifford S. Ackley, Rembrandt's Journey: Paint-Draftsman-Etcher, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, 2003, no. 161, p. 241 (ill.) Collections in which impressions of this state of this etching can be found: Kepferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin-Dahlem; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge;Stadelesches Kunstinstitus, Frankfurt-on-Main;Teylers Stichting, Haarlem; The British Museum, London; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York;Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Duthuit Collection, Petit Palais, Paris; Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna. In 1654 Rembrandt etched a group of six horizontal etchings on the theme of the Childhood of Christ. Five are fully signed and dated in the plate, and quite similar in size and format (Bartsch 47, 55, 60, 63,64). The sixth one, 'The Adoration of the Shepherds: With the Lamp' is slightly taller and squarer in format and is signed but not dated. It is, however, completely consistent with the five other prints in its style of drawing and the proportion of the figures to the space that they inhabit. The evangelist Luke tells us (Luke 2: 12-20) how the shepherds - after the angel had announced to them that they would find the newborn savior 'wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger' - traveled to Bethlehem to view the child and went away praising God and wondering at what they had been told and had seen, but that 'Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.' Here Joseph extends his arms in a 'behold' gesture while Mary lifts her mantle to reveal the swaddled child to the shepherds who press eagerly forward to view the infant Savior. One shepherd politely doffs his cap while another is equipped with a bagpipe to provide joyful musical accompaniment. This etching is traditionally catalogued as the Adoration 'With the Lamp'. The setting is nocturnal, but unlike the other larger nocturnal 'Adoration of the Shepherds' of the 1650's (B. 46), the manager is flooded with light. Although the literal source of the light is an oil lamp on a bracket, metaphorically we understand the source of the light to be the small child beneath the canopy of his mother's mantle. A blank semicircle of weathered boards subtly suggests a halo without violating the mood of everyday reality.

Bartsch 45 ii/ii; Hind 273; Biorklund-Barnard 54-1; Usticke 45 ii/iii

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