A Man in a broad-brimmed Hat (B., Holl. 311; H. 158)

Details

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
A Man in a broad-brimmed Hat (B., Holl. 311; H. 158)
etching, 1638, a very good impression with little wear in the densely hatched areas, trimmed inside the platemark, touching the subject at the left, right and bottom, cut into the blank area at the top, a pen and ink line around the sheet edges, a minor brown stain at the upper right, minor defects on the reverse at the left sheet edge where previously mounted
S. 73 x 56 mm.

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Lot Essay

This is possibly a portrait of Samuel Smijters (d. 1644), a bookseller and and art collector active in Amsterdam auctions in the 1630's. It is most likely that they met at auction as Rembrandt was an inveterate auction-goer - to the extent that his purchases contributed to his financial difficulties. At the sale of the estate of Jan Basse which took place over three weeks in March 1637 fifty lots of prints, drawings and shells were knocked down to him. The following year at the sale the Russian merchant Gommer Spranger he bought thirty-two lots, including works by Dürer, Raphael, Goltzius and Lucas van Leyden.

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