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). Basel Crozier watermark (Ash/Fletcher 11 Aa, which Heawood dates to around 1634. The same watermark appears on the impression of this subject in the British Museum, London). A brilliant, richly-inked and luminous impression with strong contrasts, with the landscape over and to the left of the bridge and the house on the bridge sharp and clear and with the upper right quadrant black, before the 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. Bartsch 44; Biörklund 34-J; Hollstein (White and Boon) 44.
