Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606-1669)

Rembrandt Van Rijn - Self-portrait in cap and scarf - 1633 / Description: Self-portrait of Rembrandt, in a cap and scarf with the face dark, bust directed to left but face to front. Rembrandt's signature and date, in lower margin: "Rembrandt f. 1633. This is an early impression of the third state. The first state was unfinished and known in only one example. In the third state small alterations to the more common second state were made to the lid of the left eye and the shade of the moustache but still generally untouched. Before the later rework by Basan in the fourth state and the heavy rework in the fifth state. / Dimensions: 13,30 x 10,40 cm / Condition: An early third state impression, superb, richly-inked with little to no sign of wear, even in the most densely cross-hatched areas such as the shadow on the face, the beret and the cloak. With full plate borders and small margins on a dense laid paper. Condition is near perfect, former hinges at top corners vaguely visible. An excellent example of maybe the the best self portrait by Rembrandt. / Literature: New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) / The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts 1450-1700 (120.III) --- Hind 1923 / A Catalogue of Rembrandt's Etchings; chronologically arranged and completely illustrated (108.II) --- White & Boon 1969 / Rembrandt's Etchings: An Illustrated Critical Catalogue (17.II) --- Bartsch 17 --- Biörklund 33-G; --------------- Rembrandt (1606-1669) etched some 30 self-portraits, with 27 singular images of himself and several others of himself in different guises or grouped with other portrait studies. This self-portrait, created at the age of 27, two years after he had moved to Amsterdam from Leyden to begin to establish himself as a successful independent artist, and months before he married Saskia van Uylenburgh, is among Rembrandt's most introspective self-renderings. / Medium: Etching /Circa: 1633 6000