REMBRANDT VAN RIJN The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds.
Etching, engraving and drypoint, 1634. 260x216 mm; 10 1/4x8 1/2 inches, narrow to thread margins. Biörklund's third state (of 3); Usticke's first state (of 5); White and Boon's third state (of 3). Foolscap with a 7-pointed collar watermark (Hinterding E.a., page 142; the same watermark is on an early impression of this subject in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Ex-collection H. A. Keuster (Lugt 1593a, verso). A brilliant, richly-inked and luminous impression with very strong contrasts, with the landscape over and to the left of the bridge sharp and clear and with the upper right quadrant black, before significant wear in the black patch beneath the angel's wing and with touches of burr in the clouds of putti, on the goats' faces and on the cow's leg and hind-quarter, consitent with the earliest impressions of this subject. Bartsch 44; Biörklund 34-J; Hollstein (White and Boon) 44.
