Etching, drypoint and engraving, 1633. 166x142 mm; 6 5/8x5 5/8 inches, thread margins. Biörklund's first state (of 2); Usticke's first state (of 3); White and Boon's first state (of 2); New Hollstein's first state (of 3). Foolscap with a 5-pointed collar watermark (similar to Hinterding K.c.2.). A superb, dark, richly-inked, early impression with strong contrasts, with the drypoint touches on the face and with all the details distinct.
Sylvius (1563/64-1638) was a learned Mennonite preacher, related to Rembrandt's (1606-1669) wife Saskia van Uylenburgh, who Rembrandt was courting when this portrait was done (they married in 1634), and was the godfather of their first child, their son Rumbartus (who died just two months after his birth in 1635). Having served as a minister for the Dutch Reformed Church in several Frisian communities, he was called to Sloten near Amsterdam and the Gasthuiskerk in the city itself in 1610, and after 1622 was employed at the Oude Kerk. Rembrandt made another, posthumous portrait etching of Sylvius in 1646 (see Bartsch 280).
Provenance: Christian Gottlieb Crusius, Dresden (Lugt 548, verso). Bartsch 266; Biörklund 33-H; Hollstein (White and Boon) 266; New Hollstein 124.
