Rembrandt and His Etchings / A Compact Record of the Artist's Life, His Work and his Time. With the complete Chronological List of his Etchings

No. 168. Rembrandt Leaning on a Stone Sill
Rembrandt and His Etchings A Compact Record of the Artist's Life, his Work and his Time. With the Complete Chronological List of his Etchings Compiled by A. M. Hind, of the British Museum
Louis A. Holman


No. 116. Two Tramps.
Strangely apart from all these history-making movements, and from his peers among men, dwelt Rembrandt, the great master, in Amsterdam, serenely happy to-day in painting a portrait of his loved Saskia, to-morrow in etching the features of a wandering Jew. He had given himself, body and soul, to his art, and no man or movement of men could distract him from his work. Year by year his busy brain and dexterous hand produced paintings, etchings, drawings, in slightly varying proportion, but always in amazing quantity. For his forty-one productive years we find to his credit the average annual output of thirteen paintings, nine etchings, and thirty-nine drawings. And these numbers would be materially greater, doubtless, had we a full record of his work.
No. 1. Rembrandt's Mother.
No. 210. Omval.
This etching measures just about two and a half inches square. There are others about the size of a postage-stamp, while the largest one, “The Descent from the Cross” (No. 103), is twenty-two by sixteen and a half inches. The amount of labor on these large plates is overpowering, while the workmanship in the smaller ones is almost unbelievably fine—think of a child's face not over one-eighth of an inch wide, and hands less than a sixteenth of an inch across, yet really eloquent with expression!
No. 290. Jan Lutma, Goldsmith and Sculptor.