Rembrandt evidently had an excellent idea of his design before he ever touched the needle to the plate. Though he is often admired for his spontaneity, particularly in his landscapes,[9] this is a misconception. Benesch lists no fewer than 78 landscape drawings by Rembrandt in the years 1648-1650,[10] and there were perhaps many more, now lost or unidentified. For this etching alone, there are at least five likely preparatory drawings, each giving certain essential features of the final print. The most interesting is the Landscape with a Rolling Horse.[11] Here we see that the horse, apparently the happiest of impulsive inspirations, is instead a carefully considered part of the final design, copied from the drawing previously done on the spot. As the horse in the drawing is the mirror image of that in the print, we can feel certain that the drawing came first and not the etching. Two other drawings[12] (figures 4 and 5) delineate the clump of trees, in form and placement very similar to the print. A fourth[13] (figure 6) is a sketch of a hay barn of the type shown in the print, evidently quite common in the Dutch countryside, and a fifth[14] (figure 7) foreshadows the scheme of composition used in the print, principally the relationship of the road and the dark central mass. All these drawings are the mirror reversal of the print.
FIGURE 3
Landscape with a rolling horse. Drawing by Rembrandt. After Benesch, vol. 6, fig. 1444.
(Smithsonian photo 59391, with the permission of Phaidon Press, Ltd., and the Groningen Museum.)
FIGURE 4
A clump of trees. Drawing by Rembrandt. After Benesch, vol. 4, fig. 1001.
(Smithsonian photo 59392, with the permission of Phaidon Press, Ltd.)]
