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). Bibliography: 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), featuring 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 to exist as impressions printed in red. According to current scholarship, these were not printed during Rembrandt’s lifetime but are posthumous impressions, apparently made from the surviving original copper plates 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 prints known today were made from plates that subsequently belonged to Pieter de Haan, whose collection of Rembrandt plates was sold in 1767. No red prints 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 prints printed in red, thus providing a “terminus ante quem” for their production. The use of red ink may have been intended to give these posthumous prints a distinctive and exclusive character, and was consistent with the growing taste for prints in red during the 18th century. – The paper shows some foxing. A backed paper loss at the lower edge. On the reverse, traces of a former mounting along the edges. Otherwise in good condition. This print belongs to this exceptionally rare group of posthumous prints printed in red from Rembrandt’s original copper plates. Taxation: subject to differential taxation (VAT: Margin Scheme).