拍品专文
As Nick Stogdon wrote, this print which came to be know as Six's Bridge 'resembles nothing so much as a rather spontaneous pen drawing' (Stogdon, 2011, no. 88, p. 148). The title goes back to an anecdote recounted by the first cataloguer of Rembrandt's etchings, Edmé-François Gersaint (1694-1750): while having lunch at the country house of his friend Jan Six, Rembrandt made a wager with his host that he could make an etching of the view from the dining room in the time it took a servant to fetch mustard from the nearest village. According to the tale, Rembrandt won the wager, and the sketch-like quality of the print seems to testify to the speed of its execution (see: Schneider, 1990, no. 76, p. 243-244).
In the early 20th century the landscape was identified by Frits Lugt as a view from the Klein-Kostverloren Estate, to the south of Amsterdam, on the west bank of the Amstel; an estate which in 1645 belonged to Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh. Lugt's topographical research rendered the story and the association with Six apocryphal (see: Hinterding, 2008, no. 163, p. 376-379).
However, there is no denying that Rembrandt captured the atmosphere of a wide open landscape on a bright summer day with only a few well-places lines and scribbles. It is a masterful display of Rembrandt's ability to conjuring up an image out of very little. As Martin Sonnabend wrote about this print in his introduction to this catalogue, 'rarely before or after did he employ the effect of the 'unfinished’ with such boldness and such confidence in his ability to influence the mind of the beholder'.
It is quite plausible that Rembrandt may indeed have carried prepared etching plates with him, as is implied by the tale, and that he executed or at least begun some of his landscape etchings en plein air. The first state of the Clump of Trees with a Vista (B. 222; New Holl. 272) or The Bathers (see lot 86) certainly seem to suggest so. Holm Bevers, on the other hand, suggested that all of Rembrandt's prints were created in the studio on the basis of preparatory drawings (see: Bevers et al., 1991-92, no. 20, p. 221-223).
Whether or not Rembrandt executed the print outdoors or in his studio, it is a very elegant composition, with its low view point, directional placement of the bridge leading the eye into the distance, and the carefully positioned spire of the Ouderkerk between the trunks of the two trees. He all but completed the landscape in the first state, making only tiny revisions in the subsequent states. The result is deceptively simple, in many ways the opposite of the elaborate grandeur of Rembrandt's most famous and slightly earlier landscape, The Three Trees (B. 212; New Holl. 214), yet just as enchanting.
In the early 20th century the landscape was identified by Frits Lugt as a view from the Klein-Kostverloren Estate, to the south of Amsterdam, on the west bank of the Amstel; an estate which in 1645 belonged to Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh. Lugt's topographical research rendered the story and the association with Six apocryphal (see: Hinterding, 2008, no. 163, p. 376-379).
However, there is no denying that Rembrandt captured the atmosphere of a wide open landscape on a bright summer day with only a few well-places lines and scribbles. It is a masterful display of Rembrandt's ability to conjuring up an image out of very little. As Martin Sonnabend wrote about this print in his introduction to this catalogue, 'rarely before or after did he employ the effect of the 'unfinished’ with such boldness and such confidence in his ability to influence the mind of the beholder'.
It is quite plausible that Rembrandt may indeed have carried prepared etching plates with him, as is implied by the tale, and that he executed or at least begun some of his landscape etchings en plein air. The first state of the Clump of Trees with a Vista (B. 222; New Holl. 272) or The Bathers (see lot 86) certainly seem to suggest so. Holm Bevers, on the other hand, suggested that all of Rembrandt's prints were created in the studio on the basis of preparatory drawings (see: Bevers et al., 1991-92, no. 20, p. 221-223).
Whether or not Rembrandt executed the print outdoors or in his studio, it is a very elegant composition, with its low view point, directional placement of the bridge leading the eye into the distance, and the carefully positioned spire of the Ouderkerk between the trunks of the two trees. He all but completed the landscape in the first state, making only tiny revisions in the subsequent states. The result is deceptively simple, in many ways the opposite of the elaborate grandeur of Rembrandt's most famous and slightly earlier landscape, The Three Trees (B. 212; New Holl. 214), yet just as enchanting.