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Lot Essay
This is a particularly fine example of the so-called Landscape with the Obelisk, in which the more ephemeral elements of the print, such as the burr, the sulphur tinting, the platetone, and the wiping marks all very effectively bind the composition together and give it texture, air and depth.
The presence of an obelisk in the Dutch countryside is incongruous, but makes this modest-sized etching one of the most interesting of Rembrandt's imaginary landscape prints. It is however not as fictitious as it seems at first glance, for the 'obelisk' is in fact a boundary stone or baanpal, which marked the border between different municipalities and thereby a point along the road which should not be crossed by persons who had been banished from a town for punishment. As Frits Lugt suggested, the one depicted here probably marked the border between Amsterdam and Haarlem. Although being somewhat rooted in reality, this is not an accurate depiction of a specific topography. As in a number of other landscapes of around 1650 (see lots 37, 40, 41 & 42), Rembrandt combined and adapted different pictorial elements to create a scenic whole. In the case of the present print, he altered the baanpal, which ended in a finial still visible as a pentimento just below the platemark, into a much taller and imposing structure resembling an obelisk. If this unusual monument was indeed based on the Haarlem baanpal, then the proximity to some ordinary farmhouses is also an invention, as maps of the period show no settlements anywhere near it (see: Schneider, 1990, no. 21, p. 114). Apart from the atmospheric aspects of the scene, Rembrandt's concern here seems to lie in more formal, compositional aspects, in particular the verticality of the 'obelisk', which is repeated by the four posts of the haystack behind it and, receding into the distance at right, by the chimney, the weathervane, another chimney and finally the figure of the reaper on the horizon. This is all the more interesting for the wide horizontal format of the plate, which is given a certain grandeur by the gentle arch of the upper edge.
The first state, with only six impressions known in public collections, is practically unobtainable. In the present second state, Rembrandt made some seemingly minimal changes, which however resulted in a greater cohesion between the fore-, middle- and background, as Cynthia Schneider found: 'The combined effect of the supplemental linear shading, sulphur tinting, faint scratches and reduced burr transforms the deep shadows and sharp contrasts of the first state into a more balanced and unified composition in the second.' (Schneider, ibid., p.116)
The presence of an obelisk in the Dutch countryside is incongruous, but makes this modest-sized etching one of the most interesting of Rembrandt's imaginary landscape prints. It is however not as fictitious as it seems at first glance, for the 'obelisk' is in fact a boundary stone or baanpal, which marked the border between different municipalities and thereby a point along the road which should not be crossed by persons who had been banished from a town for punishment. As Frits Lugt suggested, the one depicted here probably marked the border between Amsterdam and Haarlem. Although being somewhat rooted in reality, this is not an accurate depiction of a specific topography. As in a number of other landscapes of around 1650 (see lots 37, 40, 41 & 42), Rembrandt combined and adapted different pictorial elements to create a scenic whole. In the case of the present print, he altered the baanpal, which ended in a finial still visible as a pentimento just below the platemark, into a much taller and imposing structure resembling an obelisk. If this unusual monument was indeed based on the Haarlem baanpal, then the proximity to some ordinary farmhouses is also an invention, as maps of the period show no settlements anywhere near it (see: Schneider, 1990, no. 21, p. 114). Apart from the atmospheric aspects of the scene, Rembrandt's concern here seems to lie in more formal, compositional aspects, in particular the verticality of the 'obelisk', which is repeated by the four posts of the haystack behind it and, receding into the distance at right, by the chimney, the weathervane, another chimney and finally the figure of the reaper on the horizon. This is all the more interesting for the wide horizontal format of the plate, which is given a certain grandeur by the gentle arch of the upper edge.
The first state, with only six impressions known in public collections, is practically unobtainable. In the present second state, Rembrandt made some seemingly minimal changes, which however resulted in a greater cohesion between the fore-, middle- and background, as Cynthia Schneider found: 'The combined effect of the supplemental linear shading, sulphur tinting, faint scratches and reduced burr transforms the deep shadows and sharp contrasts of the first state into a more balanced and unified composition in the second.' (Schneider, ibid., p.116)