?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN Abraham Francen, Apothecary.
Etching, circa 1657. 156x208 mm; 6 1/4x8 1/4 inches, thread margins. Biörklund's tenth state (of 10), with the horizontal parallel shading lines on the treetops through the window, however with the slipped stroke on the left cheek from the eighth state still distinct; Usticke's seventh state (of 9); White and Boon's tenth state (of 10); New Hollstein's tenth state (of 12). Small shield (?) watermark (Ash/Fletcher 39, which they tie to early impressions from the Pierre François Basan receuil; Hinterding pages 498-503, which he dates to the late 1600s). A very good, dark and richly-inked impression, with the landscape through the window distinct and with touches of burr on the face, hands, objects on the table, window frame and chair back.
Francen (1612-after 1678) was a close friend of Rembrandt (1606-1669) and a lifelong resident of Amsterdam (though records of the various addresses in the city where he lived indicate that he was not a particularly well-to-do collector). He was a passionate connoisseur of art, which Rembrandt alludes to with the Crucifixion triptych and the landscape painting on the wall of Francen's study, as well as the Taoist sculpture on the table, and in this collecting eclecticism he and Rembrandt surely had a kinship.
Francen testified for Rembrandt and helped support him through his financial difficulties in the 1650s and 1660s; he also acted as a sort of guardian for Rembrandt's only child (of four) to survive into adulthood, Titus (1641-1668). Rembrandt likely made this etched portrait of Francen out of friendship rather than as a paid commission. Bartsch 273; Biörklund 57-2; Hollstein (White and Boon) 273; New Hollstein 301.
