JAN LUTMA. (B. 276)
(1656)
In 1657, as far as we know, he executed only one etching, "St Francis praying" (B. 107), unfinished, and chiefly notable for the fine study of a tree which it contains. Three figures of nude women, "A Woman preparing to dress after Bathing" (B. 199), "A Woman sitting with her Feet in Water" (B. 200), and a so-called "Negress lying down" (B. 205), are dated 1658, while 1659 was marked by two very diverse subjects, "St Peter and St John at the Gate of the Temple" (B. 94), and "Jupiter disguised as a Satyr discovering the sleeping Antiope" (B. 203).
Throughout 1660 Rembrandt would seem to have left his etching needle to rust in idleness, but he resumed it once more in 1661, and produced a study of the nude, "A Woman with her Back turned sitting cross-legged upon a Bed, holding an Arrow in her right Hand" (B. 202); and with this the list of authentic dated etchings is brought to a close.
There are one hundred and one etchings generally accepted as Rembrandt's to which no date can positively be assigned, but lack of space forbids our considering them at length, and we must be content to review them somewhat hastily, dwelling only on those of special importance. The earlier years, from 1628 or 1629 to about 1635, are chiefly characterised by a number of small portraits of himself, and of various unknown old men and old women, and by a remarkable series of sketches of beggars and peasants. About 1631 we find the first study from the nude, "Diana bathing" (B. 201), altogether excellent as an example of well-directed line, devoted, however, to a coarse and unshapely figure. Of approximately the same date is a masterly portrait of "An Old Lady," in all probability Rembrandt's mother (B. 343), seated at a table, turned in three-quarter face to the right, her hands lightly folded in her lap, which is worthy of remark as showing how rapidly Rembrandt mastered all the available styles of etching, and how subtly and skilfully he combined them.
A little later, the assigned dates ranging between 1633 and 1636, we have the first portrait, outside his family circle, to which we can definitely attach a name, that of the minister "Jan Cornelis Sylvius" (B. 266), with whose family Saskia was staying before her marriage. If, as we may imagine, it was undertaken to ingratiate himself with people so important to him, or later out of gratitude for their good offices, we can only hope that they were not over-critical, for it must be confessed that this exercise in pure dry-point is about as bad an example as could be found. A sheet of sketches (B. 367), dating from 1635 or 1636, is noteworthy for the charming "Head of Saskia" included in it, and a "Portrait of Himself in a flat cap and slashed vest" (B. 26), slightly but beautifully etched, as undoubtedly an admirable presentment of himself as he appeared about 1638. Four scripture subjects are, a sketch of "The Flight into Egypt" (B. 54), dating anywhere between 1630 and 1640; a "Holy Family," known as "The Virgin with the Linen" (B. 62), dating between 1632 and 1640; a beautiful little "Crucifixion" (B. 80), dating from 1634 or 1635; and "An Old Man caressing a Boy," who stands between his knees (B. 33), dating from 1638 or 1639, believed by some authorities to represent "Abraham caressing Isaac."
There are, altogether, forty-eight etchings attributed with every probability of correctness to the years before 1640, many of which deserve more attention than we can spare them; while two, "A Sketch of a Tree" (B. 372), and "The Presentation in the vaulted Temple" (B. 49), are placed by some a year or two earlier, by others a year or two later, than that year. To the year itself probably belongs a landscape "A large Tree by a House" (B. 207), and to it or to the following year "The Virgin mourning the Death of Jesus" (B. 85), "The Flute-Player" (B. 188), and "A View of Amsterdam" (B. 210); while to 1641 are generally assigned two sketches of lion-hunts (B. 115 and 116), more remarkable for energy of action then accuracy of drawing; a vigorous "Battle-Scene" (B. 117); "The Draughtsman" (B. 130), and "A Portrait of a Boy" (B. 310). Other landscapes, of doubtful date, but almost certainly of some year between 1640 and 1650, are, "The Bull" (B. 253), "A Village with a River and Sailing Vessel" (B. 228), the beautiful "Landscape with a Man sketching" (B. 219), and the "Landscape with a ruined Tower" (B. 223). Portraits of known originals are those of "Jan Asselyn" (B. 277), a fellow-artist, a dwarfed, deformed little man, nicknamed by his contemporaries the little Crab, whose personal failings evidently did not weigh on him, for he stands gazing at the spectator with a superb air of ludicrous conceit; and a magnificent one of the same "Jan Sylvius" (B. 280) with whom Rembrandt had so conspicuously failed before, so full of life and movement that it is hard to believe, though an indubitable fact, that it was etched from a study in 1645 or 1646, seven or eight years after the death of the minister. The scripture subjects of this decade include an oval "Crucifixion" (B. 79), and "The Triumph of Mordecai" (B. 40).
In the debatable land between the late forties and the early fifties there are two magnificent works, one, oddly included in the usual classifications among the portraits, "Dr Faustus" (B. 270), the other the famous Hundred Guilder print, "Jesus Christ healing the Sick" (B. 74). There are, all told, twenty-eight etchings dating between 1640 and 1650.
Only eighteen of uncertain date are placed between 1650 and the end of Rembrandt's career as an etcher in 1661, but they are nearly all worthy of more space than can be devoted to them. One is a landscape, "The Sportsman" (B. 211). Five are portraits, one of "A Youth," long known as Rembrandt, but undoubtedly his son Titus (B. 11); the large one of "Coppenol" (B. 283), probably among the last of the etchings, but beautifully and minutely finished in an exquisitely delicate fashion, though the hands are less well expressed than usual with Rembrandt, who, whether in painting or drawing, delighted in bringing out with care the full character revealed by them; a portrait in dry-point of "Dr Arnoldus Tholinx" (B. 284), of which it would be impossible to speak too highly; a less admirable one of "Abraham Francen" (B. 273), whose long and faithful friendship with the painter has been referred to in the Life; and one of Jacob Haring (B. 274), known as "The Old Haring."
There are nine scripture subjects of the period, two from the Old Testament, "King David at Prayer" (B. 41), a strong and unhesitating piece of work, in which, however, the face of the king is somewhat too simply expressed, but was probably not considered by Rembrandt as finished; and "Tobit Blind" (B. 42), scarcely more than a sketch, but full of the sentiment of helpless blindness. Of the seven subjects from the New Testament two are of the first importance, "Christ preaching" (B. 67), known as the little La Tombe, because, it is supposed, the plate came into the possession of the dealer of that name; and the "Three Crosses" (B. 78), the former being an etching heightened by dry-point, the second a work in dry-point throughout. "Jesus Christ entombed" (B. 86) is a powerful and effective etching dating probably from the early fifties, and "The Presentation in the Temple" (B. 50), further identified as being in Rembrandt's dark manner, from about the middle of the decade. "The Nativity" (B. 45), of about the same time, is an exquisite little composition expressed with the utmost simplicity compatible with the desired result. In "Christ in the Garden of Olives" (B. 75), on the other hand, this rapidity of work has been carried too far, and degenerates into sheer carelessness, though, apart from details, the arrangement of the masses of light and shade is good. "Christ and the Samaritan Woman" (B. 70), dating from 1657 or 1658, is drawn with precision and delicacy, but the device of relieving the face of the woman by a dark and impossible shadow on a building in the background, is scarcely a happy or successful one. A figure of "A Nude Woman sitting by a Dutch stove" (B. 197), a portrait of "A Goldsmith at his Work" (B. 123), and "A Sheet of Sketches" (B. 364), of which only three copies are known, bring the tale of etchings to which an approximate date may be assigned to a conclusion.
There remain seventeen, concerning the probable dates of which conjectures vary so widely, that it is safer to admit we do not know, and cannot guess with any prospect of success. Thus the clever little sketch of "Two Beggars walking towards the right" (B. 144), has been dated 1629, 1634, and 1648; another "Beggar leaning upon a Stick" (B. 162), 1631 and 1641, and a pathetic little composition of "Christ's Body carried to the Tomb" (B. 84), 1632 and 1645; while the small "Portrait of Coppenol" (B. 282), has been attributed by one to 1632, but by another to as far away as 1651. Other plates of equally uncertain date are five landscapes—the exquisite "Landscape with a Flock of Sheep" (B. 224), and the no less admirable "Peasant with Milk Pails" (B. 213); "The Cottage with white Pales" (B. 232), "The Canal" (B. 221), the "Landscape with an Obelisque" (B. 227), and the "Landscape with a Cow drinking" (B. 237). Three are scripture subjects—"The Adoration of the Shepherds" (B. 46), a hurriedly executed night effect, dating between 1632 and 1640 according to Vosmaer, from 1652 according to Middleton; a second night effect, "The Repose in Egypt" (B. 57), also assigned by Vosmaer to some date between 1632 and 1640, by M. Michel to 1641 or 1642, and by Middleton to 1647; and a very indifferent "St Peter" (B. 96), with a signature and date which Middleton reads 1645, Vosmaer 1655. Another dated plate is "The Bathers" (B. 195), which, according to M. Michel, was originally dated 1631, the 3 having subsequently been altered by Rembrandt into a 5. As to the why and wherefore of such an incomprehensible error on the artist's part, he offers no conjecture, but that the etching does not, at any rate, belong to the earlier year is indicated by the fact that it is signed Rembrandt in full, while all the certain plates of that year are signed with a monogram, the first to bear the full name being the "St Jerome" (B. 101) of 1632. A third plate bearing a date, concerning the interpretation of which the authorities differ, is the mysterious allegorical one "The Phœnix" (B. 110), Vosmaer and Wilson making it 1648, M. Michel and Middleton 1658; while a fourth, "A Sheet of Sketches with a head of Himself" (B. 370), is dated so indistinctly that it has been read as 1630, 1631, and 1650. As, however, it is signed with a monogram, it certainly belongs to one of the earlier years. "The Star of the Kings" (B. 113), a subject from contemporary life, representing a party of boys carrying a large illuminated star through the streets of a town at Epiphany, dating either from 1641 or 1652, is the last to be mentioned of the undisputed etchings.