May 11, 2023 - Sale 2636

Sale 2636 - Lot 116

Price Realized: $ 9,375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN
Old Man Shading his Eyes with his Hand.

Etching and drypoint, circa 1639. 140x113 mm; 5 1/2x4 1/2 inches, narrow margins. Usticke's first state (e) (of 5); New Hollstein's first state (of 3). A superb, early impression of this very scarce print, with little to no wear, even in the sketch-like lines of the figure, with selective wiping of the ink downward from the beard and collar, and crisp, partially inky plate edges, consistent with the earliest impressions of this subject.

According to Hinterding, impressions in the first state, like the current work, were from Rembrandt's lifetime. The copper plate for the subject was subsequently owned by Jean de Bary, the Amsterdam art dealer, during the mid-1700s, and later by J. Treble, a Berlin collector, around 1770, who had the plate reworked by the artist Georg Friedrich Schmidt (1712-1775), adding a complete background to Rembrandt's work. Bartsch 259; Biörklund 38-3; Hollstein (White and Boon) 259; New Hollstein 175.