294 - Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leiden - Amsterdam 1669), Woman Reading.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leiden - Amsterdam 1669), Woman Reading. Etching on laid paper. (1634). 12.2 x 10.1 cm (sheet). Bartsch 345; White/Boon 345 II (of III); Hinterding/Rutgers (The New Hollstein) 137 II (of III). Provenance: Unidentified collector’s mark ‘owl‘, in brown ink verso (not in Lugt). A very fine lifetime impression of New Hollstein’s second state (of three), with the fine horizontal wiping scratches clearly visible, before the addition of a second outline defining the tip of the sitter’s nose and before the slipped stroke across her lips. Nowell-Usticke records this etching as extremely rare (‘RR – A very scarce print’). This intimate etching of a woman reading has the quiet immediacy of a portrait, although the identity of the sitter remains unknown. Completely absorbed in her book, with one hand tucked beneath the fur of her jacket, she is observed with remarkable naturalism. Unlike the many seventeenth-century depictions of saints, prophets or biblical figures reading, Rembrandt presents a woman of his own day engaged in secular reading. Particularly subtle is the light falling from behind at left, creating delicate effects across her face and neck (see Hinterding, 2008, p. 582). With thread margins. – The sheet evenly toned with age. The upper corners skilfully and unobtrusively repaired. Verso with traces of an old mounting. Otherwise in good condition. Taxation: regelbesteuert (VAT: Regular Taxation).