413 - Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leiden - Amsterdam 1669), Christ Healing the Sick ('The Hundred Guilder Print').

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leiden - Amsterdam 1669), Christ Healing the Sick ('The Hundred Guilder Print'). Etching, engraving and drypoint, on laid paper, watermark Strasbourg Lily with Initials 4 WR (Hinterding, variant A-c-b), and countermark IHS (Hinterding, variant A.-b.). (c. 1648). 28.6 x 40,4 cm (sheet). Bartsch 74; White/Boon 74 II; Hinterding/Rutgers (The New Hollstein) 239 II (of IV, II D). Provenance: Unidentified collector's stamp ‘OS‘ on the verso (not in Lugt); Private Collection, Demark. A very good, atmospheric lifetime impression of this important print, second state (of four), before Captain Baillie's reworking, printed with rich contrasts, the background slightly over-inked, with margins of 2–3 mm beyond the platemark. Etched around 1648, Christ Healing the Sick, universally known as the Hundred Guilder Print, ranks among the supreme achievements of Rembrandt's graphic oeuvre and enjoyed exceptional acclaim already during the artist's lifetime. Its celebrated title derives from the anecdote that Rembrandt exchanged an impression of the print for a portfolio of engravings by Marcantonio Raimondi valued at one hundred guilders. Only nine impressions of the exceedingly rare first state, all printed on Japanese paper, are known today. Following a few minor alterations to the plate, the second state was printed on laid paper. Impressions bearing the Strasbourg Lily watermark are generally believed to have been pulled between 1650 and 1655, as the same watermark also occurs on early impressions of several other Rembrandt etchings printed during this period. Unlike a number of Rembrandt's copperplates that later entered the Basan collection, the plate for the Hundred Guilder Print followed a different history after the artist's death. It remained for a time in the possession of the publisher Clément de Jonge before being taken to England by Greenwood after 1760. By 1775 it had entered the collection of Captain William Baillie, who extensively reworked the plate and ultimately cut it into several separate sections. – The sheet slightly time-stained, verso with scattered brown spots. A smoothed central vertical fold. Old adhesive remnants in the upper corners; the upper left and both lower corners made up. A minute closed tear in the left margin and a further 2 mm tear in the right margin. Verso with traces of a former mounting along the sheet edges. Otherwise in good condition. Taxation: differenzbesteuert (VAT: Margin Scheme).