• Old Master Prints auction at Christies

    Sale 7781

    Old Master Prints

    8 December 2009, London, King Street

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  • Lot 59

    Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

    Saint Jerome beside the Pollard Willow (B., Holl. 103; H. 232)

    Price Realised  

    Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
    Saint Jerome beside the Pollard Willow (B., Holl. 103; H. 232)
    etching with drypoint, 1648, with part of a Strasbourg Lily watermark (probably Hinterding variant D), a very fine, early impression of the second, final state, printing with rich, extensive burr, with small margins, a horizontal central fold faintly visible recto, the fold probably partly broken and thinly backed with paper fibres, with a minor, repaired paper split in the tree at centre, a few tiny touches of pen and ink in the tree, otherwise in very good condition, framed
    P. 178 x 132 mm., S. 183 x 135 mm.


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    'A tree study with Saint Jerome thrown in' is how A.M. Hind described this stunning print. It was common in the Northern European tradition to represent the saint with a dead tree and crucifix, an association made more meaningful here by the flowering branch growing directly over the saint as a symbol of regeneration. In the foreground the rushes and water have been drawn in with drypoint. The enclosed bower, which surrounds the Saint, is given seclusion by the addition of high rocks and a waterfall some distance behind. It is a place of rural peace, undisturbed by the noise of humanity.

    Special Notice

    VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium


    Provenance

    Presumably Ferdinand, King of Portugal (1816-1885) (cf. L. 968, this mark not in Lugt); his sale, J. M. Heberle, Cologne, 29 November 1893.


    Saleroom Notice

    Thomas Rassieur discovered an intermediate state between the first and the present second state, identical with the second state except for some of the additional shading on the saint.