Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Saint Jerome beside a Pollard Willow

Details
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Saint Jerome beside a Pollard Willow
etching and drypoint, 1648, on laid paper, watermark Strasbourg Lily (Hinterding E-a-a), a fine impression of New Hollstein's fourth, final state, printing with considerable burr and without any wear in the densely worked areas, with thread margins, in very good condition
Plate & Sheet 181 x 132 mm.
Provenance
Johann Karl Brönner (1738-1812), Frankfurt am Main (Lugt 307).
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, with their de-accession stamp (Lugt 2396); bequeathed by the above; their sale, C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, 5 October 1874, lot 855 (to Drugulin).
Martin Wigand (1846-1891), Leipzig (Lugt 2623).
With Paul Prouté, Paris.
With Colnaghi, London (their stock number C. 30901 in pencil verso); bought from the above, 24 April 1959.
Acquired from the above, 11 June 1959 (£450).
Literature
Bartsch, Hollstein 103; Hind 323; New Hollstein 244 (IV/4).

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Maya Jelbart
Maya Jelbart

Lot Essay

In the course of his printmaking career, Rembrandt created no fewer than seven prints on the subject of Saint Jerome. The present print however, as A.M. Hind described it so poignantly, is ‘a tree study with Saint Jerome thrown in’. The dead tree, often with a sole flowering branch as a symbol of regeneration, is traditionally found in depictions of the Saint in the wilderness. Here however, the tree has become the protagonist, while the saint and his attributes, the skull, his cardinal’s hat and the lion, are pushed into the middle ground and etched quite lightly. Rembrandt’s full attention is lavished onto the depiction of this ancient willow, with its cut and broken branches and its rugged, bulging trunk. In a charming detail, giving the whole image an idyllic lightness, he put a little bird on the top. A few blades of grass and rushes are swiftly added to the foot of the tree, the rest of the landscape is merely hinted at. The whole print has a deliberately ‘unfinished’ feel, densely worked in some areas and only a few sketchy, almost careless lines elsewhere.
 
In its iconography, the print is also a hybrid between two pictorial traditions: Saint Jerome in his Study, depicting the scholar Saint at work; and Saint Jerome penitent in the Wilderness, shown in prayer or beating his chest with a rock. Here, the Saint has chosen a secluded dale to set up a makeshift desk by a brook, to work quietly on his translation of the Bible into Latin. 
 
With the burr of the drypoint in the foreground so characteristic of this print, it has often invited collectors, restorers and dealers to ‘enhance’ impressions a little with some ink or wash – something that thankfully has not happened to this beautifully untouched impression.

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