Cottage and Farm Buildings with a Man sketching

A humble, rather dilapidated farmhouse is a subject that recurs in many of Rembrandt's landscape etchings (see lots 146-7 & 151-3). The level of detail implies that he, like the artist shown drawing in the foreground at right, had oftentimes sketched such places en plein-air. Whilst the little figure of the draughtsman is a reflection figure rather than a self-portrait - the artist depicted here has a beard - Rembrandt has adopted a very similar low viewpoint as him. Whether or not Rembrandt actually drew this plate from life and in situ - the result is full of charming, incidental detail and the print is one the most cheerful and light-hearted of all his landscapes.
In New Hollstein (2013) Hinterding and Rutgers date this print to circa 1641, but this appears to be a mistake and is not in keeping with the paper evidence as presented by Hinterding himself in the catalogue of Rembrandt's watermarks (2006), which suggest a first printing date of circa 1645.