View of the Diemerdijk with a Milkman and Cottages ('Het Melkboertje')

In the early 1650's Rembrandt increasingly began to use drypoint for integral parts of his compositions, in particular in his landscapes, of which the View of the Diemerdijk with a Milkman and Cottages is a fine example. White describes it as ‘one of the most perfect representations of the scenery around Amsterdam' (White, 1999, p. 236).
While in earlier prints, Rembrandt had only added some accents in drypoint to what were essentially complete, etched compositions, the present print marks a technical development by successfully integrating extensive drypoint work into an etched structure, something he had struggled to achieve hitherto.
Incidentally, the little figure walking with two buckets along the dyke has been identified not as a milkman but a fisherman, returning with a catch of herring, a sight Rembrandt would have encountered on his walks around the city. This view, like several others in a wide horizontal format so perfectly fitted for the flat landscapes of central Holland, is however not depicting any specific location. It is an idealized scenery that combines the wide open river terrain with intimate domestic architecture, and here ‘for the first time in his prints Rembrandt obtains a perfect harmony between the two elements’. (White, ibid.)