Great Masters in Painting: Rembrandt van Rijn Part 9

A remarkable instance of patient and loving care is seen in the "Sh.e.l.l"

(B. 159), an astonishingly truthful and minute study of still life, which is equally attractive in the first state against a plain white background, and in the second against a nearly black one, which, however, may have been added by some other hand. The sixth etching of that year, "Christ appearing to the Disciples" (B. 89), is a sketch in outline with a little tentative shading here and there, and, though handled with freedom and boldness, has little of interest or beauty to recommend it.

During 1651 he devoted himself once and once only to each cla.s.s of work; for there is one subject, "The Flight into Egypt" (B. 53), showing Joseph carrying a lantern, and leading the a.s.s bearing the Virgin and Child through the night; one landscape, "The Goldweigher's Field" (B.

234)--so called from the view including the country-house of his friend Uijtenbogaerd, the treasurer, whose portrait, etched by Rembrandt, is known as "The Goldweigher"; and one portrait, "Clement de Jonghe" (B.

272), one of the best, if not the best, he ever did. Still fewer etchings were produced in 1652, and one of the two, the larger "Christ disputing with the Doctors" (B. 65), is only a sketch--in places, indeed, it degenerates to a mere scrawl--displaying, for Rembrandt, an unwonted amount of indifferent and inexpressive drawing; but the other, a landscape, generally known in England as the "Vista" (B. 222), with the two large trees on the left and the dense wood in the centre, is, perhaps, the finest specimen of work in pure dry-point ever produced.

1653 is, again, a blank as far as dated etchings are concerned, but to 1654 belong eight, seven of which are subjects from the New Testament; a "Circ.u.mcision" (B. 47), known as the one with the cask and net; a sketch of "The Holy Family crossing a Rill during the Flight into Egypt" (B.

55), in which the figures are clumsily and unpleasantly thrown into relief by a band of shadow closely following their outlines in very nave fashion, but which, nevertheless, contains a great deal of bold and expressive drawing; "Jesus and His Parents returning from Jerusalem"

(B. 60), in which we have another instance of an altogether foreign landscape, which might as well be adduced in evidence of his foreign travels as that of four years before. In this case, however, it has evidently been so closely copied from an unknown original that there can be no doubt that there is somewhere, or at any rate was then, a drawing of the subject, and there is, furthermore, a very high degree of probability that the drawing was by t.i.tian. The figures are full of movement, and there is, in especial, much animation in the young Christ, who, led by His father, himself leads His mother, turning half backwards as He walks to speak to her, but the types of the heads, especially that of the Virgin Mary, are disagreeably ugly and vulgar. The Virgin in "The Holy Family with the Serpent" (B. 63), has, on the other hand, an unusual amount of grace, but this, it has to be admitted, is due to the fact that it is borrowed from Mantegna, and the plate is otherwise an indifferent piece of work. "Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus" (B. 87) is, again, no more than a sketch, presenting with much vividness the actions of surprise on the part of the two disciples and of the serving-man descending the stairs in front; but here, as so often elsewhere, Rembrandt has failed to rise to any sense of the sublimity or dignity of Christ, and as, in this example, he sits in full face in the very centre of the picture, the fault cannot well be overlooked or condoned. A far more satisfactory production, indeed the best of the year, is "The Descent from the Cross by Torchlight" (B. 83), with its bold drawing and coa.r.s.e yet effective handling, but, like all the work of 1654, it has serious and obvious defects; while the last to be noted, "The Game of Golf" or Kolf (B. 125), is yet another instance of Rembrandt's contentedly signing a work which would disgrace a man without a t.i.the of his genius, and is one of those plates which, if it be authentic--and no one else that I know of disputes it--renders any test of genuineness by workmanship impossible.

1655 saw Rembrandt employed once more as an ill.u.s.trator, the book being one ent.i.tled "Piedra gloriosa de la estatua de Nebucadnezar," by his friend Mana.s.seh ben Israel, for which he etched four subjects on one plate, afterwards sub-divided--"Jacob's Dream," "The Combat of David and Goliath," "Nebuchadnezzar's Dream," and "The Vision of Ezekiel" (B. 36).

"Abraham's Sacrifice" (B. 35), of the same year, is another of those bold and rapid sketches in which Rembrandt seems to have dashed at his subject and realised it by sheer force of energy, caring little about detail, shading where he wanted shadows, and omitting them where he wanted light, without any regard to where light and shade would have been, yet putting such vitality, such genuine, undeniable, human feeling into it, that even bad drawing pa.s.ses unnoticed. The swirl of the broad-winged angel swooping down from behind on Abraham, grasping his left arm just above he elbow to hold back the knife, while with his right he removes Abraham's right hand from the eyes of the resignedly kneeling Isaac, is marvellous. The startled surprise of Abraham is amazingly true; and, carried away by the vigour of the actions and the sound breadth of the work, we ignore the fact that Abraham is left-handed, and that the angel has no forearm. Another equally bold work in outline is "Christ before Pilate" (B. 76), with its wonderful crowd of figures in the foreground relieved against the platform on which Christ and Pilate stand surrounded by soldiers. The only highly-finished work of the year is the "Portrait of Thomas Jacobsz Haring" (B. 275), known as "The Young Haring," to distinguish it from the etching of his father "The Old Haring."

There are only two etchings dated 1656,--"Abraham entertaining the Angels" (B. 29), in which yet again we have forced upon us the incapacity of Rembrandt's mind to evolve an acceptable supernatural figure, and the splendid "Portrait of Jan Lutma" (B. 276). It is impossible to look on this and doubt that it is an admirable likeness of a delightful old man. With what a shrewd humorous expression he sits in that high-backed arm-chair, surmounted by lions' heads, which figures in so many of Rembrandt's portraits at that time. How broad and easy, yet neither over-laboured nor careless, is the handling. Rembrandt never worked better, and one cannot but feel convinced, in regarding the result, that, to both artist and sitter, the work was a labour of love, and the sittings periods of mutual enjoyment. In this, the last dated portrait we have, he reached the highest pitch of excellence he ever attained.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAN LUTMA. (B. 276)

(1656)]

In 1657, as far as we know, he executed only one etching, "St Francis praying" (B. 107), unfinished, and chiefly notable for the fine study of a tree which it contains. Three figures of nude women, "A Woman preparing to dress after Bathing" (B. 199), "A Woman sitting with her Feet in Water" (B. 200), and a so-called "Negress lying down" (B. 205), are dated 1658, while 1659 was marked by two very diverse subjects, "St Peter and St John at the Gate of the Temple" (B. 94), and "Jupiter disguised as a Satyr discovering the sleeping Antiope" (B. 203).

Throughout 1660 Rembrandt would seem to have left his etching needle to rust in idleness, but he resumed it once more in 1661, and produced a study of the nude, "A Woman with her Back turned sitting cross-legged upon a Bed, holding an Arrow in her right Hand" (B. 202); and with this the list of authentic dated etchings is brought to a close.

There are one hundred and one etchings generally accepted as Rembrandt's to which no date can positively be a.s.signed, but lack of s.p.a.ce forbids our considering them at length, and we must be content to review them somewhat hastily, dwelling only on those of special importance. The earlier years, from 1628 or 1629 to about 1635, are chiefly characterised by a number of small portraits of himself, and of various unknown old men and old women, and by a remarkable series of sketches of beggars and peasants. About 1631 we find the first study from the nude, "Diana bathing" (B. 201), altogether excellent as an example of well-directed line, devoted, however, to a coa.r.s.e and unshapely figure.

Of approximately the same date is a masterly portrait of "An Old Lady,"

in all probability Rembrandt's mother (B. 343), seated at a table, turned in three-quarter face to the right, her hands lightly folded in her lap, which is worthy of remark as showing how rapidly Rembrandt mastered all the available styles of etching, and how subtly and skilfully he combined them.

A little later, the a.s.signed dates ranging between 1633 and 1636, we have the first portrait, outside his family circle, to which we can definitely attach a name, that of the minister "Jan Cornelis Sylvius"

(B. 266), with whose family Saskia was staying before her marriage. If, as we may imagine, it was undertaken to ingratiate himself with people so important to him, or later out of grat.i.tude for their good offices, we can only hope that they were not over-critical, for it must be confessed that this exercise in pure dry-point is about as bad an example as could be found. A sheet of sketches (B. 367), dating from 1635 or 1636, is noteworthy for the charming "Head of Saskia" included in it, and a "Portrait of Himself in a flat cap and slashed vest" (B.

26), slightly but beautifully etched, as undoubtedly an admirable presentment of himself as he appeared about 1638. Four scripture subjects are, a sketch of "The Flight into Egypt" (B. 54), dating anywhere between 1630 and 1640; a "Holy Family," known as "The Virgin with the Linen" (B. 62), dating between 1632 and 1640; a beautiful little "Crucifixion" (B. 80), dating from 1634 or 1635; and "An Old Man caressing a Boy," who stands between his knees (B. 33), dating from 1638 or 1639, believed by some authorities to represent "Abraham caressing Isaac."

There are, altogether, forty-eight etchings attributed with every probability of correctness to the years before 1640, many of which deserve more attention than we can spare them; while two, "A Sketch of a Tree" (B. 372), and "The Presentation in the vaulted Temple" (B. 49), are placed by some a year or two earlier, by others a year or two later, than that year. To the year itself probably belongs a landscape "A large Tree by a House" (B. 207), and to it or to the following year "The Virgin mourning the Death of Jesus" (B. 85), "The Flute-Player" (B.

188), and "A View of Amsterdam" (B. 210); while to 1641 are generally a.s.signed two sketches of lion-hunts (B. 115 and 116), more remarkable for energy of action then accuracy of drawing; a vigorous "Battle-Scene"

(B. 117); "The Draughtsman" (B. 130), and "A Portrait of a Boy" (B.

310). Other landscapes, of doubtful date, but almost certainly of some year between 1640 and 1650, are, "The Bull" (B. 253), "A Village with a River and Sailing Vessel" (B. 228), the beautiful "Landscape with a Man sketching" (B. 219), and the "Landscape with a ruined Tower" (B. 223).

Portraits of known originals are those of "Jan a.s.selyn" (B. 277), a fellow-artist, a dwarfed, deformed little man, nicknamed by his contemporaries the little Crab, whose personal failings evidently did not weigh on him, for he stands gazing at the spectator with a superb air of ludicrous conceit; and a magnificent one of the same "Jan Sylvius" (B. 280) with whom Rembrandt had so conspicuously failed before, so full of life and movement that it is hard to believe, though an indubitable fact, that it was etched from a study in 1645 or 1646, seven or eight years after the death of the minister. The scripture subjects of this decade include an oval "Crucifixion" (B. 79), and "The Triumph of Mordecai" (B. 40).

In the debatable land between the late forties and the early fifties there are two magnificent works, one, oddly included in the usual cla.s.sifications among the portraits, "Dr Faustus" (B. 270), the other the famous Hundred Guilder print, "Jesus Christ healing the Sick" (B.

74). There are, all told, twenty-eight etchings dating between 1640 and 1650.

Only eighteen of uncertain date are placed between 1650 and the end of Rembrandt's career as an etcher in 1661, but they are nearly all worthy of more s.p.a.ce than can be devoted to them. One is a landscape, "The Sportsman" (B. 211). Five are portraits, one of "A Youth," long known as Rembrandt, but undoubtedly his son t.i.tus (B. 11); the large one of "Coppenol" (B. 283), probably among the last of the etchings, but beautifully and minutely finished in an exquisitely delicate fashion, though the hands are less well expressed than usual with Rembrandt, who, whether in painting or drawing, delighted in bringing out with care the full character revealed by them; a portrait in dry-point of "Dr Arnoldus Tholinx" (B. 284), of which it would be impossible to speak too highly; a less admirable one of "Abraham Francen" (B. 273), whose long and faithful friendship with the painter has been referred to in the _Life_; and one of Jacob Haring (B. 274), known as "The Old Haring."

There are nine scripture subjects of the period, two from the Old Testament, "King David at Prayer" (B. 41), a strong and unhesitating piece of work, in which, however, the face of the king is somewhat too simply expressed, but was probably not considered by Rembrandt as finished; and "Tobit Blind" (B. 42), scarcely more than a sketch, but full of the sentiment of helpless blindness. Of the seven subjects from the New Testament two are of the first importance, "Christ preaching"

(B. 67), known as the little La Tombe, because, it is supposed, the plate came into the possession of the dealer of that name; and the "Three Crosses" (B. 78), the former being an etching heightened by dry-point, the second a work in dry-point throughout. "Jesus Christ entombed" (B. 86) is a powerful and effective etching dating probably from the early fifties, and "The Presentation in the Temple" (B. 50), further identified as being in Rembrandt's dark manner, from about the middle of the decade. "The Nativity" (B. 45), of about the same time, is an exquisite little composition expressed with the utmost simplicity compatible with the desired result. In "Christ in the Garden of Olives"

(B. 75), on the other hand, this rapidity of work has been carried too far, and degenerates into sheer carelessness, though, apart from details, the arrangement of the ma.s.ses of light and shade is good.

"Christ and the Samaritan Woman" (B. 70), dating from 1657 or 1658, is drawn with precision and delicacy, but the device of relieving the face of the woman by a dark and impossible shadow on a building in the background, is scarcely a happy or successful one. A figure of "A Nude Woman sitting by a Dutch stove" (B. 197), a portrait of "A Goldsmith at his Work" (B. 123), and "A Sheet of Sketches" (B. 364), of which only three copies are known, bring the tale of etchings to which an approximate date may be a.s.signed to a conclusion.

There remain seventeen, concerning the probable dates of which conjectures vary so widely, that it is safer to admit we do not know, and cannot guess with any prospect of success. Thus the clever little sketch of "Two Beggars walking towards the right" (B. 144), has been dated 1629, 1634, and 1648; another "Beggar leaning upon a Stick" (B.

162), 1631 and 1641, and a pathetic little composition of "Christ's Body carried to the Tomb" (B. 84), 1632 and 1645; while the small "Portrait of Coppenol" (B. 282), has been attributed by one to 1632, but by another to as far away as 1651. Other plates of equally uncertain date are five landscapes--the exquisite "Landscape with a Flock of Sheep" (B.

224), and the no less admirable "Peasant with Milk Pails" (B. 213); "The Cottage with white Pales" (B. 232), "The Ca.n.a.l" (B. 221), the "Landscape with an Obelisque" (B. 227), and the "Landscape with a Cow drinking" (B.

237). Three are scripture subjects--"The Adoration of the Shepherds" (B.

46), a hurriedly executed night effect, dating between 1632 and 1640 according to Vosmaer, from 1652 according to Middleton; a second night effect, "The Repose in Egypt" (B. 57), also a.s.signed by Vosmaer to some date between 1632 and 1640, by M. Michel to 1641 or 1642, and by Middleton to 1647; and a very indifferent "St Peter" (B. 96), with a signature and date which Middleton reads 1645, Vosmaer 1655. Another dated plate is "The Bathers" (B. 195), which, according to M. Michel, was originally dated 1631, the 3 having subsequently been altered by Rembrandt into a 5. As to the why and wherefore of such an incomprehensible error on the artist's part, he offers no conjecture, but that the etching does not, at any rate, belong to the earlier year is indicated by the fact that it is signed Rembrandt in full, while all the certain plates of that year are signed with a monogram, the first to bear the full name being the "St Jerome" (B. 101) of 1632. A third plate bearing a date, concerning the interpretation of which the authorities differ, is the mysterious allegorical one "The Phnix" (B. 110), Vosmaer and Wilson making it 1648, M. Michel and Middleton 1658; while a fourth, "A Sheet of Sketches with a head of Himself" (B. 370), is dated so indistinctly that it has been read as 1630, 1631, and 1650. As, however, it is signed with a monogram, it certainly belongs to one of the earlier years. "The Star of the Kings" (B. 113), a subject from contemporary life, representing a party of boys carrying a large illuminated star through the streets of a town at Epiphany, dating either from 1641 or 1652, is the last to be mentioned of the undisputed etchings.

DISPUTED ETCHINGS AND DRAWINGS

At the question of the disputed etchings we have not s.p.a.ce even to glance. It is a delicate and difficult one, and could only be treated to any advantage at considerable length. It is, furthermore, one of interest to experts and collectors alone, and so directly opposite in many cases are their opinions that it is certain no finality can ever be hoped for. The reader who desires to enter upon this th.o.r.n.y ground must content himself with pinning his faith finally to one or another recognised authority, and abiding by his decision; unless, having first thoroughly studied the undisputed etchings, he is prepared to undertake the trial and judgment of each for himself, in which case he will, without doubt, sooner or later find himself differing on one point or another with every previous writer on the subject.

The less ambitious reader, who wishes only to know and appreciate what Rembrandt beyond question did do, will be wiser to confine himself to a study of the undisputed plates. In them he will find ample justification for the high position to which Rembrandt as an etcher has been elevated by his successors in the art. Beginning with the early etchings of himself or the members of his family, often mere drawings on copper, with little or no appeal to the variety of line and tone obtainable in etching, he may follow the artist's sure and rapid development, until he finds him master of every method the art permits. He may trace the progress of his work, from a first sketch of an idea, dashed off on the copper in one sitting, to the high perfection of such an elaborate portrait as that of "Burgomaster Six." He will further perceive, as was first pointed out by Sir F. Seymour Haden, how during the first ten years he confined himself almost entirely to pure etching, how during the following ten he began more and more to supplement his work with additions in dry-point, and how during the last ten years he to a considerable extent expressed himself by means of the point alone. He will, in especial, discover, if he compares Rembrandt's etched work with that of other masters, and without doing so he can never rightly understand it, that it is not in technique, masterly as that often is, so much as in expressiveness that his pre-eminence lies. It is in the mental qualities more than in the manual, that he so incomparably excels. Drawing often carelessly, blind or indifferent to superficial beauties, he, nevertheless, gets straight to the heart of the matter, grasps the essentials, and feels clearly and records frankly and simply all that speaks to the fundamental humanity in himself, and must therefore strike an answering chord in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of his fellow-men. It is in this perceiving and revealing the true inwardness of the matter, through and apart from the mere accidents of environment, that he is unapproachable, far more than in the strength and direction of line, depth of shadow or brightness of light, application of acid or sc.r.a.ping of copper. In such a plate as the "Blind Tobit" (B. 42) there is not a detail of the technique which other men could not have done as well; but for such another presentment of the hurried, helpless groping for the door by a blind, weak old man not yet inured to the perpetual darkness that has fallen on him, we must wait for a second Rembrandt--and the wait is likely to be long.

Of the drawings I propose to speak very briefly. In the first place, their name is legion, and to treat them properly would take a volume in itself, such a volume as we may hope some day to see written. M. Michel gives a list of nearly nine hundred, which does not pretend to be a full one. The British Museum alone contains ninety authentic drawings and a considerable number of more or less doubtful ones. In the second place, their qualities are such as to appeal almost exclusively to the artist.

Rembrandt's impetuous energy did not lend itself to the production of the minute and elegant drawings characteristic of so many Italian masters. He made the drawing for the sake of what it had to tell him, not for the purpose of creating a thing beautiful in itself. An idea crossed his mind, or an object struck his eye, and straightway he jotted it down with whatever came the handiest in the simplest possible manner consistent with the necessity that the note so made should subsequently recall to his memory the idea or object.

Most attractive, perhaps, to the amateur, are the numberless little sketches of landscapes, just the simple everyday scenes that caught his eye during his daily walks, jotted down on the spot, briefly, but with extraordinary truth and vivacity, and always with a sense of balance and proportion, and an intuition of the salient points, trans.m.u.ted by his own genius into gems of reticent perfection.