REMBRANDT. CLEMENT DE JONGHE (First State)
Size of the original etching, 8⅛ × 6⅜ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
REMBRANDT. JAN LUTMA (First State)
Size of the original etching, 7⅞ × 5⅞ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Rembrandt Drawing at a Window is one of the most characterful of his portraits. It shows him at the age of forty-two. Years of sorrow have left their mark upon his countenance, but what a strong, resolute face it is! Clement de Jonghe (which should be seen in the first state before the expression of the face was entirely changed) is executed in Rembrandt’s open, linear manner, without strong contrasts of light and dark. For beauty of drawing and subtlety of observation, it is one of his finest plates. Old Haaring, of 1655, is a magnificent dry-point, in which Rembrandt has built up, with many lines, a completely harmonious picture; but for grip of character and straightforward presentation of the personality of his sitter, it must yield precedence to the unsurpassed Jan Lutma, of the following year. This portrait, in the first state, before the introduction of the window in the background, is one of Rembrandt’s most mature works, in that the method is perfectly adapted to the result desired.
In France there is little of significance in portrait engraving during the sixteenth century. Thomas de Leu and Léonard Gaultier based their style upon the miniature portrait engravers of the Northern School, such as the Wierix. Although their graver work is often quite beautiful, it lacks originality, and when, as frequently happened, they endeavored to interpret the wonderful drawings of the Clouets or Dumonstier, they signally failed in capturing the charm of their originals.
Claude Mellan, who was born at Abbeville in 1598, is, in a sense, the fountain-head of French portrait engraving. His work is characteristically French, in that it is the result of a system carefully worked out to its logical conclusion. In his desire to keep strictly within the limits of what he considered to be the proper province of engraving, he carried his insistence upon line to a point which borders on mannerism and which, for over two centuries, has militated against his full recognition.
Mellan’s earliest engravings recall the work of Léonard Gaultier, but his first teacher is not known. Dissatisfied with his instruction in Paris, in 1624 he went to Rome where, while studying engraving under Villamena, he came under the influence of the French painter, Simon Vouet, who not only provided his protégé with drawings to engrave, but persuaded him to base all his training upon a thorough ground-work of drawing. It is this severe training as a draughtsman which lies at the foundation of Mellan’s style. His original drawings were executed in pencil, silver-point, or chalk, and in his engravings he preserves all the delicate and elusive charm of his originals.