REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN

Six's Bridge (B., Holl. 208; H. 209; BB. 45-A)

Details
REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN
Six's Bridge (B., Holl. 208; H. 209; BB. 45-A)
etching, 1645, on fine laid paper, without watermark, third (final) state, a very fine impression of this rare print, printed with a very delicate tone, with narrow margins, an unobtrusive horizontal fold near the top edge (from old mounting?), a far less obtrusive and barely discernible diagonal fold left of centre, a few tiny defects at the extreme sheet edges, otherwise in very good condition
P. 5 1/8 x 8 7/8in. (130 x 226mm.)
Provenance
J.B. de Graaf (L. 1120)
Duke of Buccleuch (L. 402)
Dr. Otto Schäfer, his stamp verso (not in Lugt)

Lot Essay

The traditional title of this landscape persists but the subject has been convincingly identified as a view at Ouderkerk on the Amstel near Amsterdam taken from the Klein-Kostverloren Estate which in 1645 belonged to Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh, one of the Burgomasters of Amsterdam.

Gersaint's apocryphal story on Rembrandt's wager with Jan Six should really be seen as a reflection on the critical appreciation of the spontaneous sketch-like quality of the etched line, which is here employed by Rembrandt on a wide open sheet to convey the sense of a summer's light.