Rembrandt. The Three Trees
“With the Three Trees of 1643, we come to the most famous of Rembrandt’s etched landscapes. This plate stands in the same sort of relation to the rest as the Mill to the rest of his landscape paintings. It is the grandest and most typical, most expressive of the master’s temperament.” Laurence Binyon.
Size of the original etching, 8⁵⁄₁₆ × 11 inches
Rembrandt. Six’s Bridge
“To the same year—1645—belongs the well-known Six’s Bridge, a plate in which the pure bitten line, with no close hatching or shadow-effect, is given full play. Of its kind, this is a perfect etching.” Laurence Binyon.
Size of the original etching, 5¹⁄₁₆ × 8¹³⁄₁₆ inches
To the same year—1645—belongs the well-known Six’s Bridge (B. 208), a plate in which the pure bitten line, with no close hatching or shadow-effect, is given full play. Of its kind, this is a perfect etching. Every one knows the story of its being done while Six’s servant went to fetch the mustard. But there is nothing hasty or incomplete about it: the masterly economy of lines is perfectly satisfying in its absolute directness and simplicity. There is great pleasure in contemplating a work like this, so clean, so free from any superfluous element.
But from this time onward Rembrandt seems to grow dissatisfied with pure etching. He grows more and more fond of dry-point, using it very frequently to enrich an etched plate, and in his later years preferring often to dispense with the acid altogether.