420 - Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leiden - Amsterdam 1669), The Angel Departing from the Family of Tobias.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leiden - Amsterdam 1669), The Angel Departing from the Family of Tobias. Etching with drypoint, printed in red ink on laid paper. (1641). 10.5 x 15.5 cm (sheet). Bartsch 43; White/Boon 43 II (of IV); Hinterding/Rutgers (The New Hollstein) 189 IV (of IX). Literature: P. van der Coelen and E. Hinterding, ‘Rembrandts grafiek in de achttiende eeuw’, 'Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis', 2016, pp. 51–85. A fine, delicate impression of New Hollstein’s fourth state (of nine), with the two dots added in the upper right corner and the additional shading on and around the chest. Impressions of Rembrandt’s etchings printed in red ink are exceptionally rare. Only 23 of his etchings are currently known in impressions printed in red. According to current scholarship, these were not printed during Rembrandt’s lifetime, but are posthumous impressions, apparently taken from the surviving original copperplates in the early 18th century. An important contemporary source is the manuscript compiled circa 1756–59 by the Rotterdam collector Michiel van den Bergh. He recorded having seen newly printed impressions from Rembrandt’s surviving plates, many of which were printed ‘very beautifully’ in red. Significantly, all surviving red impressions known today were taken from plates that subsequently belonged to Pieter de Haan, whose collection of Rembrandt plates was sold in 1767. No red impressions are known from the plates formerly owned by Jean de Bary. The Florentine writer and collector Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri, who died in 1742, had already referred to Rembrandt impressions printed in red, thus providing a 'terminus ante quem' for their production. The use of red ink may have been intended to lend these posthumous impressions a distinctive and exclusive character, and was consistent with the growing taste for prints in red during the 18th century. – The paper with some foxing. A backed paper loss at the lower edge. Verso with traces of a former mounting along the edges. Otherwise in good condition. The present impression belongs to this exceptionally rare group of posthumous impressions printed in red from Rembrandt’s original copperplates. Taxation: differenzbesteuert (VAT: Margin Scheme).