Great Masters in Painting: Rembrandt van Rijn Part 8

We have seen how Rembrandt the painter, after having risen to the foremost place among his fellow-craftsmen in Holland, fell a victim to the always unaccountable change of fashion that has cast a blight upon many another man. Now, however, that we come to consider his etched work, we have, to some extent, a different tale to tell. From the first the products of his needle seem to have been appreciated and sought after, in certain, though perhaps limited, circles. Houbraken mentions Clement de Jonghe, whose shrewd yet kindly face is found among the gallery of portraits etched by Rembrandt, Jan Pietersen Zoomer, and Pieter de la Tombe, as having made collections of his etchings; and in the inventory of the property left by the first of these at his death, on February 11th, 1679, we find a list of seventy-four plates etched by Rembrandt; but it is not therefore to be hastily concluded that Rembrandt himself ever made any important addition to his income by the sale of them.

Indeed, the chief foundation of the belief can be shown to be frail and untrustworthy. This is the familiar t.i.tle of the etching, "Christ healing the Sick," which has been known for many years as "The Hundred Guilder Print," that having been, according to the story, the sum the artist obtained for a single proof. The amount, even if he had obtained it, was hardly excessive--some nine pounds; but the facts show clearly that he never did. He exchanged a copy, still in existence, with his friend Jan Zoomer, who has left in writing on the back of it, "Given me by my intimate friend Rembrandt in exchange for 'The Pest' of M.

Anthony," to which he may possibly have attached the value of a hundred guilders, though there is not a particle of evidence for even this.

Gersaint, when making the catalogue, published in 1751, after his death, by h.e.l.le and Glomy, was informed that the famous proof was exchanged with a Roman merchant, and the equivalent, like Falstaff s men in buckram, had swelled to seven engravings, which were definitely valued at one hundred guilders; and thence the tradition and the name arose.

What, one wonders, would the gossips, who gasped amazed at such a price, have thought could some seer have succeeded in making them believe that, little more than a hundred years later, in 1858, that very same proof with old Jan Zoomer's writing still upon it would be competed for so fiercely at public auction, that M. Dutuit paid cheerfully for it eleven hundred pounds; while even that was not a record price, since another copy was sold the year before at the Palmer sale for eleven hundred and eighty.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHRIST HEALING THE SICK. (B. 74)

(1649-50)]

Still, though this piece of evidence must be abandoned, there would seem to be no doubt that the etchings were admired even in his lifetime, and, from the fact that Clement de Jonghe and Zoomer were art-dealers, we may fairly conclude that part at least of their collections appertained to their stock-in-trade. It is scarcely probable, indeed, that such highly-finished works as the larger "Raising of Lazarus," "Christ healing the Sick," "Christ preaching," "The Three Crosses," "The Good Samaritan," "The Three Trees," and others, landscapes in especial, were carried out without any subsequent attempts on Rembrandt's part to profit by them; and there is good reason for supposing that the portraits of Jan Uijtenbogaerd and Jan Cornelis Sylvius with their inscriptions and laudatory verses, were intended for sale among the followers and admirers of the two eminent ministers; but the fact remains that we can only a.s.sert with any confidence that two out of all the etchings were expressly made for publication, "The Descent from the Cross," and the "Ecce h.o.m.o," and neither of these, though signed by Rembrandt "c.u.m privilegio," as issuing from his studio, and executed under his directions, according to the custom of the day, was worked upon by him to any great extent.

The numerous other portraits, the four ill.u.s.trations to Mana.s.seh ben Israel's work, _Piedra Gloriosa_, and that to _Der Zeevaerts-Lof_, were doubtless commissions, but the payments were probably not large, since we found in the proposal made by Dirck van Cattenburch, in 1654, that an etched plate "not less finished than that of Six," was estimated at no more than four hundred florins, which, considering the amount of work entailed, was not magnificent.

When we have recalled the partnership formally entered into between Hendrickje and t.i.tus on December 15, 1660, which has already been explained in telling the story of the artist's life, we have come to the end of the reasons for concluding that the artist made money by his etching needle.

Whence, then, it may be asked, the various proofs now in existence, the first and second, third and fourth states for which collectors pay such surprising prices, prices more often regulated by the rarity of the state than by its special artistic merits? Perhaps some of them were put into circulation by the firm of Hendrickje and t.i.tus. There is, certainly, no mention of the plates in the inventory of the sale, and it is therefore possible that this pathetic little a.s.sociation for the support of a broken-down artist may have found it profitable in a small way to issue new impressions of these earlier completed plates, though it is significant in this connection, unless we can accept the theory suggested before, that Rembrandt's eyesight was failing, that at the very time when etchings were most needed he ceased to produce them.

In a very large number of cases, I suspect, they were given as presents to any sympathetic soul who had enough taste to appreciate them for their merits, or intelligence enough to foresee that they might some day prove of value. In the case of a portrait, at any rate, we know that he gave proofs to his sitter as the work went on, for on one of the first portrait of Sylvius, done in 1634, there is a note in Rembrandt's hand showing that it was one of four presented by him to the minister.

Others, again, would be given to fellow-artists, such as Lievensz, who etched also. Many undoubtedly came from the sixty portfolios of leather, which we find recorded in the inventory, where they had lain from the day when Rembrandt, having learnt the lesson or attained the effect he desired, had flung them carelessly aside to go on to some further problem. For, there seems little doubt that he never himself regarded them with any very serious consideration. They were for him only steps in his onward progress. He did them because he wanted to do them, without any thoughts of fame or profit, and he signed and dated them, or left them unsigned and undated, in the most haphazard and capricious way, good and bad alike, with the most complete indifference as to whether they were calculated to enhance his reputation or not. It was, therefore, by the inevitable irony of fate, that for these alone, for many years, was he judged worthy of remark. While Gerard de Lairesse in his _Groote Schilderboek_, published in 1714, was condescendingly a.s.suring a listening public that Rembrandt's paintings were not "absolutely bad," Houbraken was recording the struggles of collectors to get possession of his etchings, and their consequent increase in price--struggles and increasings, which have gone on augmenting without intermission to the present day, until even a small representative collection of them is a luxury for the very rich alone, an absolutely perfect one of all the differing states un.o.btainable by a many times millionaire.

In the eighteenth century there were already famous collections of the etchings: such as those of de Burgy and van Leyden in Holland itself; of Marolles, Coypel, Silvestre, and Mariette in France; of Barnard, Sloane, Cracherode, Fawkener, and Lord Aylesford in England; and it was inevitable that the making of collections could not go on satisfactorily for long, unless there was some sort of general agreement as to what was and what was not to be included in them, so that before long the need for some catalogue to establish at any rate the preliminary basis of an agreement on disputed points became an absolute necessity.

Gersaint was the first to make the attempt, but died before his task was finished. His ma.n.u.script, however, was put up for sale, and bought by les Sieurs h.e.l.le and Glomy, as they call themselves upon the t.i.tle-page of the volume in duodecimo which, after making the "necessary augmentations" of Gersaint's material, they published at Paris in 1751.

An English translation of this was published by T. Jefferys in London the following year, and four years later, in 1756, Pierre Yver, an art-dealer in Amsterdam, published in that city a "Supplement," with additions and corrections. Forty years later these two works, collated and again translated into English, were the foundation of an amended catalogue by Daniel Daulby, published in London and Liverpool in 1796. A year later Adam Bartsch, keeper of the prints in the Library at Vienna, published there a catalogue in two octavo volumes, which to this day remains the chief standard of appeal, though Wilson, Charles Blanc, Vosmaer, Middleton, and others, have rejected some of the etchings which he accepted, and included others which he ignored.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLEMENT DE JONGHE. (B. 272)

(1651)]

There is no doubt that Bartsch was too generous in his admissions, but to what extent he carried his over-generosity is still a matter of dispute. The Chevalier de Claussin, writing in 1824, and borrowing freely, though without acknowledgment, from Bartsch, struck out 10, leaving 365; and Wilson, publishing in London in 1836, under the t.i.tle of "an amateur," while owning his obligations to Bartsch, rejected 6, but added others, making 369. Vosmaer, in 1877, counted 353; Middleton, in the following year, reduced these to 329; Charles Blanc, in the 1880 edition of his work, raised the number again to 353. M. de Seidlitz, in 1890, obtained and collated the opinions of all the best living authorities, and, after an ample discussion of doubtful points, accepted 260; while M. Legros, adopting heroic methods of criticism, will only admit 71 as being certainly by Rembrandt, with an additional 42 which might be, or 113 at the most.

What, it may well be asked by the bewildered amateur, is the reason of these surprising differences? Surely, he may well say, there must be some criterion to hold by. The answer is simple, if unsatisfactory: there is not, there never has been, there never can be. There is no style to judge by; for Rembrandt had half-a-dozen styles at least, and employed them all together or separately as he listed. The signature is no guide, for many beautiful works of his have none, and many that are not his bear forged ones. The subject cannot help us, for he treated alike the most sacred incidents and the grossest improprieties. The merit of the work is no less dubious ground for judgment; for while producing, over and over again, masterpieces of the art that have never been equalled, he at other times, through carelessness, indifference, or perhaps ill-health, turned out and left for future ages stuff which most far inferior men would have obliterated there and then. We can only decide each for ourselves that such or such a plate is in no way worthy of Rembrandt, but, unless we have the courage of M. Legros, we cannot go on to a.s.sert definitely that therefore it is not his.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE THREE TREES. (B. 212)

(1643)]

CHAPTER IX

THE AUTHENTIC ETCHINGS

In the entire absence of any evidence to the contrary, we are reasonably safe in concluding that the two etchings dated 1628 were, if not actually the first, among the very first he ever did; and, regarded in this light, they are truly astonishing. Both are called Rembrandt's mother, though the one in full face (B. 352) seems to represent a woman in a much humbler station of life than the stately old lady in the other (B. 354), while both, furthermore, seem to portray a woman much more advanced in years than his mother was at that time.

In the first the kindly old lady, whoever she may be, wears a large white hood shading her forehead. The right side of her face, with the exception of the prominence of the cheekbone, is in shadow, and the strong light falling on the left side of the head brings into relief the wrinkles by the nose and at the corner of the mouth, and the soft fleshy forms of the cheek and jaw. The seemingly toothless mouth is slightly open above the strong square chin. The work is simple and straightforward, but admirably expressive of the varied forms, and the roundness and solidity of the little head are excellent. The second (B.

354) is slighter and broader in handling, the forms are expressed with greater freedom, the elaboration of the modelling in the one being often replaced by a single significant line, but the shadows are somewhat forced, which results, especially in the hollow of the cheek and on the right temple, in an excessive and unpleasant blackness. Yet the dash and surety of the line-work is very fine, and to the student it is well worth careful study through a lens. The first excels in delicacy, the second in strength.

The only etching actually known to have been executed in 1629 is the first of many portraits of himself (B. 338), very broadly and strongly etched, and worked upon in places with two needles fastened side by side, a useless device, to which he never again resorted. There are fifteen dated etchings of the year 1630. Among these are no less than six portraits or studies of himself, including an excellent "Portrait in a fur cap and light dress" (B. 24), and an admirably etched study of expression known as "Rembrandt with haggard eyes" (B. 320), which is, rather, a humorous sketch of amazed bewilderment. He also, for the first time, attempted a composition with several figures--"The Presentation in the Temple" (B. 51), distinguished as the one with the angel, which, however, was not altogether a success, owing to insufficient biting. A spirited note of "An Old Beggar Man conversing with a Woman" (B. 164), and various small heads, including two profiles of the same "Bald Man"

(B. 292 and 294), which M. Michel has given sound reasons for believing to be Rembrandt's father, make up the number.

He was again his own model twice in 1631--one, with a broad hat and mantle (B. 7), being the most elaborately finished piece of work he had yet attempted. There are also two "Portraits of his Mother" (B. 348 and 349); one said to be "His Father" (B. 263) though made after his death; a brilliant little sketch of a "Blind Fiddler" (B. 138), and others.

There are only three dated etchings of 1632--a little figure called "The Persian" (B. 152), the first of several pictures of "St Jerome" (B.

101), a subject which had a singular fascination for the artist, and the group of "The Rat-killer" (B. 121). Three also bear the date 1633, "An Old Woman" etched no lower than the chin (B. 351), very doubtfully identified as his mother; a badly overbitten "Portrait of Himself" with a scarf round his neck (B. 17); and one subject, "The Descent from the Cross" (B. 81), which came so utterly to grief in the biting, owing apparently to bad grounding, that it was at once abandoned, only three impressions being known, and a second undertaken, though not by himself, the work having been carried out under his supervision by some unknown pupil. Another equally important plate bearing this date, "The Good Samaritan" (B. 90), is included among the disputed etchings.

The year 1634, which brought Saskia into his home, also naturally enough brought her portrait into the list of etchings. One, with pearls in her hair (B. 347), is certainly a likeness of her, and M. Michel believes it to have been the companion plate to one of Rembrandt (B. 2), executed about the same time. Another charming piece of work, "A Young Woman Reading" (B. 345), though not a portrait, was also very possibly studied from Saskia. For subjects both the Old and New Testaments supplied inspiration, the first for a decidedly seventeenth-century Dutch rendering of "Joseph and Potiphar's Wife" (B. 39), the second for the earliest treatment of a favourite subject "Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus" (B. 88). "Christ driving the Money-lenders from the Temple" (B.

69), a crowded and unsatisfactory composition, the central figure of which was borrowed from Durer; the "Martyrdom of St Stephen" (B. 97), with some singularly bad drawing in it; and another, "St Jerome" (B.

102), were the subjects treated in 1635, which is more notable for a vivacious "Portrait of Johannes Uijtenbogaerd" (B. 279); a splendid little study of "A Mountebank" (B. 129), a model of direct etching from nature wherein there is not a superfluous line, though everything that should be is expressed; and a skilful piece of chiaroscuro, "The Pancake Woman" (B. 124).

1636 has only four etchings to show--"The Prodigal Son" (B. 91), a boldly-handled piece of work, superbly executed, full of movement and expression, but marred by the revolting hideousness of the faces; the excellent portrait of "Mana.s.seh ben Israel" (B. 269); a charming little revelation of domestic contentment, "Rembrandt and his Wife" (B. 19); and a sheet of sketches, including a very pleasing head of Saskia (B.

365). 1637 has only one etching of importance, "Abraham dismissing Hagar" (B. 30); but for sheer skill in craftsmanship the "Young Man seated in Meditation" (B. 268) would be difficult to match.

Rembrandt's unfortunate lack of the sense of beauty is nowhere so glaringly made manifest as in the preposterous "Adam and Eve" (B. 28) of 1638; nor are the faces in an etching of that year, rejected, however, by Sir Seymour Haden, of the brothers listening to "Joseph relating His Dreams" (B. 37) much less absurd, though they are to a considerable extent atoned for by the dignified Jacob, the very human interest of Rachel, and the simple earnestness of Joseph himself. The "St Catherine," otherwise known as "The Little Jewish Bride" (B. 342), and a "Portrait of Himself with a Mezetin Cap and Feather" (B. 20), are the only others of the year. In the following year he achieved, with conspicuous success, the most ambitious etching he had yet attempted, the magnificent "Death of the Virgin" (B. 99), which, with the exception of the unfortunate angels hovering above, is admirable alike in conception and execution, attaining by straightforward simplicity the full pathos of the scene. The truthfulness and variety of att.i.tude and expression, the wholly effective yet unforced arrangement of the composition, and the perfection of the chiaroscuro are beyond praise, and justify the somewhat bold a.s.sertion that beyond this the etcher's art cannot go. It is no matter for wonder, therefore, that this splendid plate seems to have absorbed most of the time he could devote to etching that year, for a little sketch of "A Jew in a High Cap" (B. 133), and the fine "Portrait of Himself leaning on a Stone Sill" (B. 21), alone share the date with it. His interest or his leisure would indeed appear to have been exhausted for some time, since only two small etchings, "The Beheading of St John the Baptist" (B. 92), and "An Old Man with a divided Fur Cap" (B. 265), are dated 1640.

A return of energy, however, marked 1641, from which year we have twelve dated plates; among them, the first three, to our certain knowledge, of a long series of landscapes, the elaborate study known as "Rembrandt's Mill" (B. 233), the beautiful "Cottage and Barn" (B. 225), and the "Landscape with a Cottage and Mill Sail" (B. 226). There are four subjects from scripture--a "Virgin and Child in the Clouds" (B. 61), "The Baptism of the Eunuch" (B. 98), one called "Jacob and Laban" (B.

118), and "The Angel departing from Tobit and his Family" (B. 43), in which his inability to perceive the absurd and undignified is once again demonstrated in the inflated petticoat and foreshortened legs which are all that is seen of the angel. A little night-effect, "The Schoolmaster"

(B. 128), and the grand and very rare "Portrait of Anslo" (B. 271), are the most important of the remainder. With the exception of a "Bearded Man seated at a Table in an Arbour" (B. 257), the only etchings of 1642 were three sacred subjects, all small, and two of them, "The Raising of Lazarus" (B. 72) and "The Descent from the Cross" (B. 82), mere sketches. The finished plate represents "St Jerome" (B. 105), distinguished as being in Rembrandt's dark manner, seated reading at a table in a room lighted only by one window high up in front of him, so that the contrasts of light and shade are strong, and the effect very excellent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REMBRANDT'S MILL (B. 233)

(1641)]

1643 has only two signed etchings, but both are masterpieces of out-door work--"The Hog" (B. 157), and the justly-renowned "Three Trees" (B.

212). There is only one etching dated 1644, a landscape with figures, called "The Shepherd and his Family" (B. 220).

A superb combination of pure etching and dry-point dates from 1645--the "View of Omval, near Amsterdam" (B. 209), one of the most entirely satisfactory of the etchings, both for perfection of workmanship and beauty of effect. The transition from the loving care bestowed upon the splendid study of the gnarled and shattered willow-tree in front, through the more broadly yet quite adequately expressed foliage behind it on the left, to the slight yet all-sufficient treatment of the river and landscape beyond it on the right, shows a precise adaptation of the necessary means to the desired end, which, had no other line of Rembrandt's etching come down to us, would have been enough to stamp him as the finest known exponent of the art. A second landscape of that year is a study of a boat-house, known as "The Grotto" (B. 231); and a third, the one known as "Six's Bridge" (B. 208), a masterly little sketch from nature. As an example of the utmost expressiveness with the fewest necessary means, of a thorough grasp of the essentials and rejection of superfluities, and of a profound mastery of technical methods, this etching cannot easily be over-estimated. An outline sketch of the "Repose in Egypt" (B. 58), and a more highly finished "Abraham conversing with Isaac" just previous to the projected sacrifice (B. 34), are the only subject-etchings of that year, which is further remarkable for the absence of any portraits or studies of heads.

The next few years are singularly devoid of dated etchings. There are three from 1646--a small sketch of "An Old Beggar Woman" (B. 170); a subject known as "Ledikant" (B. 186), one of those frank improprieties to the perpetration of which Rembrandt, with the freedom of his time, more than once degraded his talents, from our modern point of view; and a direct study from the nude model, "A Man seated on the Ground" (B.

196). 1647 has only two, both highly-finished endeavours to realise a wholly pictorial effect--an endeavour which, however successful, is always to some extent a mis-application of the art, a deliberate sacrifice of its special advantages, in order to attain an object more easily and efficiently obtainable in other ways. Still, regarded as attempts to express the full tonality, there is much to admire and study in these two portraits of "Six" (B. 285), and "Ephraim Bonus" (B. 278), the Jewish physician, descending a staircase, with his right hand on the banister, as if pausing on his return from visiting a patient, a reversed reproduction of the picture in the Six collection already referred to.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BEGGARS AT THE DOOR OF A HOUSE. (B. 176)

(1648)]

In 1648 he once more undertook a "Portrait of Himself" (B. 22), a very different presentment from the earlier ones, with their feathered caps and embroidered cloaks, their flowing locks and brushed up moustaches.

Time and trouble have told upon him, and it is pathetic to contrast the proud elegance of the Rembrandt of 1639 (B. 21), his fine clothes, rich velvet cap flung carelessly on one side of his long curling hair, and his self-satisfied air, with this grave, soberly-clad, middle-aged man, in his plain, high, square-topped, broad-brimmed hat, and dark working blouse. His cavalier curls are cropped, his once airily upturned moustache trimmed short, the dainty tuft upon his chin is gone. He has grown stout, his throat hangs in puffy folds below his chin, his nose has coa.r.s.ened, and he bears his two-and-forty years but badly; but if his face has aged, it has also strengthened, he has learned as well as suffered, and, if there is no longer in his eyes the look of undoubting self-approval, there is still the same keen, penetrating gaze of observation, and a wiser self-confidence born of trials and labours past and overcome. Among all the portraits of Rembrandt, real or supposed, there is none which makes one feel so strongly that here, indeed, one is face to face with him, as he saw himself when he sat drawing from the mirror in front of him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE Sh.e.l.l (B. 159)

(1650)]

Another splendid example of that year is the "Beggars at the Door of a House" (B. 176), a masterpiece of composition and workmanship. It has all the rich effect of a highly-laboured piece of work, yet a careful study of it shows how simple and direct are the means actually employed; for the elaborately-finished effect, it will be found, is due, not to the multiplication of lines, but to the absolute rightness and appropriateness of the comparatively few that are used. The crispness and firmness of the drawing are quite magnificent, and it is satisfactory to know that this marvellous little plate, simple and unsensational as it is, comes third, according to M. Amand Durand, in popularity with the purchasers of reproductions. Yet another masterpiece of the same year is "The Jews' Synagogue" (B. 126); and a fourth etching is "The Marriage of Jason and Creusa" (B. 112), a composition of many figures, made to ill.u.s.trate his friend Jan Six's tragedy of Medea, published that year, in which, as usual with him, the attempt to convey the cla.s.sical spirit was scarcely successful.

There is no etching which we can definitely a.s.sign to 1649. In 1650, on the other hand, we have six, including four landscapes, to which he again turned his attention after an interval of five years. These are "A Village by the High-Road" (B. 217), with its big tree and high-gabled cottages; the excellent "Village with a Square Tower" (B. 218); the "Ca.n.a.l with Swans" (B. 235); and the sketch of "A Ca.n.a.l with a Large Boat" (B. 236) lying broadside on athwart the foreground, which is, however, chiefly interesting from the background, which has given rise to a question as to whether Rembrandt was about that time on his travels to some place unknown. This hilly distance, with the steep cliff on the left, and the Italian-looking tower in the centre, certainly bears no resemblance to anything in his ordinary surroundings, but there is nothing in it to a.s.sure us that it was done from nature, and as we know that he more than once adapted a landscape from some Italian master, generally t.i.tian, it would be rash to found any conclusion on the resemblance.