Louis A. Holman

“ Like a man with no music in his soul attempting to improve upon a sonata by Beethoven, these people not only printed, haphazard, poor impressions having the master's name, but sometimes even undertook to rearrange the composition and often to rework the plate. ”

“ The amount of labor on these large plates is overpowering, while the workmanship in the smaller ones is almost unbelievably fine—think of a child's face not over one-eighth of an inch wide, and hands less than a sixteenth of an inch across, yet really eloquent with expression! ”

“ Nor is this desirable quality lacking in the wonderful series of large portraits of his friends: the doctors, the ministers, the tradesmen of Amsterdam. Perhaps these were pot-boilers, as [pg 17] some students of his work say, but surely never artist before or since produced to order a group of etchings that, taken entirely apart from his other plates would assure their author a high place among the greatest etchers. In the whole lot there are few that some authority on etching or some great artist has not held up as an example of work that even the master himself never surpassed. ”

“ While the Christ here is not so satisfying as the one in “Christ Preaching” (No. 256) which is remarkably strong and noble, it is Rembrandt's typical conception of our Lord—always ministering to real flesh and blood, the poor, suffering, common people. What a striking contrast with the resplendent artificiality which surrounds the Christ of the Italian masters.
No. 290. Jan Lutma, Goldsmith and Sculptor. Rembrandt was his own most frequent model. He painted about sixty portraits of himself, and among his etchings we find about two score more. ”

“ Rembrandt accepted the assistance of his pupils, as who among the old masters did not? He was, however, not practical enough to profit much by them: he could work to much better advantage alone. Among his thirty or forty pupils Ferdinand Bol, who came to his studio when only sixteen and stayed for eight years, gave his master most assistance. Bol's rendering is at times very much like Rembrandt's. Some critics think, for instance, that he etched most of the “Goldweigher” (No. 167) and “Abraham Caressing Isaac” (No. 148) ; both, however, are signed by Rembrandt. ”

“ More than half the subjects of Rembrandt's etchings are portraits and studies of the human figure; about one-quarter are scriptural or religious. There are two dozen landscapes, and the remainder are allegorical and fancy compositions. ”

“ A little plate of less than [pg 23] four square inches, entitled “The Quacksalver,” (No. 139) , strikes me as the masterpiece of this series. Although Van de Velde is supposed to have given Rembrandt the idea for his drawing, his genius made it his own in realism and movement, and in its beauties of line, color and texture. “An Old Woman Sleeping” (No. 129) ) , although scarcely to be included in this series, is another that has wonderful spontaneity. This is no posed model, but one who has actually fallen asleep over her book ”

“ Hercules Seghers etched a large landscape with small figures, after a painting by Adam Elzheimer and an engraving by Count de Goudt, entitled “Tobias and the Angel.” This copper plate came into Rembrandt's possession ”

“ They buried him in the Wester Kerk and, that he might not be confounded with some other old man, they wrote in the “Livre Mortuaire” of the Kerk, “Tuesday, 8th oct., 1669, rembrant van rijn, painter on the rozengraft, opposite the doolhof. leaves two children.” ”