Etching and drypoint, 1642. 115x143 mm; 4 1/2x5 5/8 inches. Biörklund's fifth state (of 5); Usticke's fourth state (of 5); White and Boon's fifth state (of 5). The upper, fleur-de-lys portion of a Basel Crozier watermark (Ash/Fletcher 11; they note similar watermarks on several impressions of this subject in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Trimmed on the plate mark 3 sides, with narrow lower margin. A very good, well-inked impression.
According to Usticke, "A scarce plate (R+)." We have found fewer than 30 impressions at auction in the past 30 years.
The figure of the lascivious male flute player, a popular folk-tale character from the early 16th century onward, was well-known to Dutch art connoisseurs in Rembrandt's time as the Eulenspiegel (Owl-glass), and Rembrandt has conspicuously placed a tame owl on the shepherd's shoulder in this etching to further the point. The figure of the Eulenspiegel was known to be a wily, shifty character, whom Rembrandt has represented here with a flute suggestively directed at the seated shepherdess while he steals a glance beneath the hem of her dress. Bartsch 188; Biörklund 32-D; Hollstein (White and Boon) 188.
