A Scholar in his Study ('Faust')

This is one of Rembrandt's most mysterious prints, and has been the subject of debate for over three hundred years. The subject is clearly a scholar, surrounded by the tools of his trade. What is less clear is the significance of the apparition by which he is transfixed. The earliest title given to the print is found in Clement de Jonghe’s inventory of 1679, where it is described simply as Practising Alchemist. In 1731 the inventory of the Dutch collector Valerius Röver identified the print as Doctor Faustus, the name by which it is still commonly known today. Whilst this title was only coined later, it seems fairly safe to assume that Rembrandt based his print on the legendary magician and alchemist: it is known that Christopher Marlowe's Tragical History of Doctor Faustus was performed in Amsterdam about 1650. One possible explanation is that the print is meant to demonstrate that scholars, and mankind in general, no matter how keenly they search after knowledge, can only perceive the truth as if in a glass darkly - in other words indirectly and distorted. Human knowledge is limited, and it is only through Jesus Christ, symbolised by the disc with the Latin acronym INRI, that we can partake of perfect knowledge hereafter.
The impression offered here is coincidentally printed on a sheet with watermark IHS (Name of Jesus), with pendant initials GD. According to Hinterding, the same watermark can be found in the impressions at the Louvre (inv. no. 2477 LR) and in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig (inv. no. 5592). The present first state is the only one of seven considered lifetime. Already the second state shows posthumous changes to the plate in the form of two dots added in the lower right corner, while all other subsequent states were more extensively reworked by other hands.