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Lot Essay
Although the first recorded title for this landscape persists (taken from the inventory of Valerius Röver, 1731) the subject has now been convincingly identified as a view at Ouderkerk on the Amstel river near Amsterdam. The view is taken from the Klein-Kostverloren Estate which in 1645 belonged to Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh, one of Amsterdam's Burgomasters.
Gersaint's apocryphal story that Rembrandt wagered Jan Six that he could make a print in the time it took the servant to fetch a pot of mustard from the nearest village is testament to the extreme economy of the image. The spontaneous sketch-like quality of the line and the simple study of nature bely the careful construction. The result, printed on a wide open sheet to convey the sense of a summer's light, is deceptively simple and beautiful.
Gersaint's apocryphal story that Rembrandt wagered Jan Six that he could make a print in the time it took the servant to fetch a pot of mustard from the nearest village is testament to the extreme economy of the image. The spontaneous sketch-like quality of the line and the simple study of nature bely the careful construction. The result, printed on a wide open sheet to convey the sense of a summer's light, is deceptively simple and beautiful.