Dry-point is employed in the delightful little plate, the Boat-house (B. 231), to deepen the shadows of the arch over the water; but in ordinary impressions this has worn off and only the groundwork of bitten lines remains. This is the kind of subject which most artists would have drawn in delicate detail; but Rembrandt is always rather remarkably indifferent to the particular beauty and character of vegetation (probably this was one of the reasons why he made so little appeal to Ruskin); and it is surprising that with all the indifference and roughness in the drawing of the plant-forms on the river-bank, the little plate should still have so intimate a character and suggest so much of the beauty of dark, quiet water in which reflections of flower and herbage are asleep.
In one or two of the plates of 1650 and thereabouts, as if tired of level horizons, Rembrandt closes the view with a mountain or range of hills. Such are the Canal and Angler and the Boat in the Canal (B. 235 and 236), which, joined together, form one composition; and one might add the Sportsman with Dogs (B. 211), though Mr. Hind assigns the completion, at any rate, of this etching to a date of a few years later.
Rembrandt. Landscape with a Boat in the Canal
“In one or two of the plates of 1650 and thereabouts, as if tired of level horizons, Rembrandt closes the view with a mountain or range of hills. Such are the Canal and Angler and the Boat in the Canal.” Laurence Binyon.
Size of the original etching, 3¼ × 4¼ inches
Rembrandt. Farm with Trees and a Tower
[Landscape with a Ruined Tower and Clear Foreground]
“... a long, oblong plate, of great beauty for its pattern of light and shade. Part of the sky is shadowed, and the last light, before a shower pours over the trees, illuminates the foliage on one side.” Laurence Binyon.
Size of the original etching, 4⅞ × 12⅝ inches