?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN Beggar Seated on a Bank.
Etching and drypoint, 1630. 118x71 mm; 4 3/4x2 3/4 inches, thread margins. Usticke's first state (e) (of 2), with the fine vertical lines printing above the figure and with uncleaned, partially inky plate edges. Partial foolscap watermark (Ash/Fletcher 19). Ex-collection Pierre Mariette, dated 1648 in ink (Lugt 1790, verso). A superb, early and richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce, early etching.
Possibly an early self portrait in the guise of a beggar. There is a strong resemblance in this beggar's face to Rembrandt's Self Portrait, Open-Mouthed, also from 1630 (Bartsch 13).
Pierre Mariette (circa 1603-1658) was a collector of prints and drawings and among the leading Parisian art dealers of his day. As his art business prospered during the 1630s/1640s, Mariette turned to publishing prints, notably works by Jacques Callot, Stefano della Bella and Abraham Bosse. Mariette bought etchings, very likely this particular impression as well, directly from Rembrandt.
At the time of his death in 1658, when his collection and business were transferred to his son, Pierre Mariette II (1634-1716), he had assembled one of the largest and most renowned groups of Rembrandt etchings and drawings in the world. Bartsch 174; Biörklund 30-B; Hollstein (White and Boon) 174.
