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Lot Essay
...'also here is the rarest print published by Rembrandt, in which Christ is healing the sick, and I know that in Holland [it] has been sold various times for 100 guilders and more; and it is as large as this sheet of paper, very fine and lovely, but ought to cost 30 guilders. It is very beautiful and pure.'
So states Jan Meyssens of Antwerp to Carolus van den Bosch, Bishop of Bruges, in a letter dated 9 February 1654. This extract provides the clue as to how this print gained its famous sobriquet: the print was so desirable that only a few years after its creation it was exchanging hands for the exceptionally high price of 100 guilders.
Christ healing the Sick was a significant turning point in Rembrandt's development as an etcher, using every tool at his command, and in a variety of styles. It is his first major work in which light and shadow were used to obtain such expressive power. By depicting four separate strands of the narrative of Matthew 19 in one composition, Rembrandt was embarking on the ambitious task of uniting all elements harmoniously: from left to right, one can find the Pharisees with whom Christ debated the questions of marriage and divorce; the rich young man He advised to sell his possessions to benefit the poor (the camel at right alluding to His observation that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven); the little children He asked to be brought to Him; and the paralytic woman He healed. In the centre Christ visually and logically holds the whole composition together.
The image is almost at the risk of falling into two discrete halves: the left sketchy and bright, the right densely worked and dark. Yet through careful composition and the introduction of a halftone, Rembrandt managed to balance the image and created a continuous tableau, with Christ as the focal point of this highly complex composition. It is his most 'painterly', most ambitious and possibly most sought-after print.
So states Jan Meyssens of Antwerp to Carolus van den Bosch, Bishop of Bruges, in a letter dated 9 February 1654. This extract provides the clue as to how this print gained its famous sobriquet: the print was so desirable that only a few years after its creation it was exchanging hands for the exceptionally high price of 100 guilders.
Christ healing the Sick was a significant turning point in Rembrandt's development as an etcher, using every tool at his command, and in a variety of styles. It is his first major work in which light and shadow were used to obtain such expressive power. By depicting four separate strands of the narrative of Matthew 19 in one composition, Rembrandt was embarking on the ambitious task of uniting all elements harmoniously: from left to right, one can find the Pharisees with whom Christ debated the questions of marriage and divorce; the rich young man He advised to sell his possessions to benefit the poor (the camel at right alluding to His observation that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven); the little children He asked to be brought to Him; and the paralytic woman He healed. In the centre Christ visually and logically holds the whole composition together.
The image is almost at the risk of falling into two discrete halves: the left sketchy and bright, the right densely worked and dark. Yet through careful composition and the introduction of a halftone, Rembrandt managed to balance the image and created a continuous tableau, with Christ as the focal point of this highly complex composition. It is his most 'painterly', most ambitious and possibly most sought-after print.