.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present sheet is a very fine example of this rare print, depicting the calligrapher Lieven Willemsz. van Coppenol (1598-after 1667). It once belonged to Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846), King of Holland between 1806-1810, before being transferred to The Royal Library in The Hague and later the Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam, in the early 19th century. The portrait is one of the few prints by Rembrandt for which a preparatory drawing has survived, in brown ink and wash, which is today at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (inv. no. 1570).
Rembrandt’s etched portraits depict a wide array of fascinating characters that occupied the same creative sphere as the artist, such as collectors, fellow artists, craftsmen and publishers. Coppenol, described by Nicholas Stogdon as ‘clearly a very peculiar man’, is one of the most intriguing of Rembrandt’s sitters (Stogdon, p. 226). Executed in 1658, the print portrays Coppenol at a time when he was suffering from mental illness that had forced him to retire from his previous position as the head of the French school in Amsterdam, leading him to become a professional calligrapher instead. In the present composition, Rembrandt places the writing master within his working environment, seated at the desk with a quill poised in his right hand and the tools of his craft - a pair of compasses, a ruler and a set square - on display.
Widely acknowledged to be commissioned by the sitter, the references to Coppenol’s profession are unsurprising. Yet, as Stogdon also reflects, ‘Rembrandt's genius, perhaps in this case a somewhat vengeful one, is to tell us a lot about the sitter without denting his vanity’ (ibid.). Indeed, one might interpret the presence of Coppenol’s grandson, Antonius, who is inquisitively and demurely peering over his grandfather’s shoulder, in addition to the beginnings of ‘schoonschrift’ just visible on the parchment before the writing master, as subtle references to the excessive pride the sitter took in his work. His notoriety for being vain sprang from Coppenol’s habit of sending examples of his calligraphy to poets such as Joost van Vondel and Constantijn Huygens, and demanding that in return they write panegyrics of his calligraphy.
Not only is this print a masterful character study, but also a beautiful example of Rembrandt's consummate skill in depicting light and shade within an interior and evoking the atmosphere of the place by using a vast variety of graphic marks and methods of manipulating the printed image to the desired effect.
Rembrandt’s etched portraits depict a wide array of fascinating characters that occupied the same creative sphere as the artist, such as collectors, fellow artists, craftsmen and publishers. Coppenol, described by Nicholas Stogdon as ‘clearly a very peculiar man’, is one of the most intriguing of Rembrandt’s sitters (Stogdon, p. 226). Executed in 1658, the print portrays Coppenol at a time when he was suffering from mental illness that had forced him to retire from his previous position as the head of the French school in Amsterdam, leading him to become a professional calligrapher instead. In the present composition, Rembrandt places the writing master within his working environment, seated at the desk with a quill poised in his right hand and the tools of his craft - a pair of compasses, a ruler and a set square - on display.
Widely acknowledged to be commissioned by the sitter, the references to Coppenol’s profession are unsurprising. Yet, as Stogdon also reflects, ‘Rembrandt's genius, perhaps in this case a somewhat vengeful one, is to tell us a lot about the sitter without denting his vanity’ (ibid.). Indeed, one might interpret the presence of Coppenol’s grandson, Antonius, who is inquisitively and demurely peering over his grandfather’s shoulder, in addition to the beginnings of ‘schoonschrift’ just visible on the parchment before the writing master, as subtle references to the excessive pride the sitter took in his work. His notoriety for being vain sprang from Coppenol’s habit of sending examples of his calligraphy to poets such as Joost van Vondel and Constantijn Huygens, and demanding that in return they write panegyrics of his calligraphy.
Not only is this print a masterful character study, but also a beautiful example of Rembrandt's consummate skill in depicting light and shade within an interior and evoking the atmosphere of the place by using a vast variety of graphic marks and methods of manipulating the printed image to the desired effect.