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, 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.
