Etching, 1633. 166x142 mm; 6⅝x5⅝ inches, narrow margins. Biörklund's second state (of 2); Usticke's second state (of 3); New Hollstein's second state (of 3). A superb, dark, early impression with very strong contrasts and with all the fine lines distinct.
This is Rembrandt's first etched portrait of the Amsterdam preacher and relative of his wife Saskia, Jan Cornelis Sylvius (he was also the godfather of the couple's first child). Rembrandt (1606-1669) made a second, posthumous portrait etching of Sylvius in 1646 (Bartsch 280). Bartsch 266; Biörklund 33-H; Hollstein (White and Boon) 266; New Hollstein 124.
