Skip to main content

B 95

Peter & John at the gate of the temple: roughly etched

  • French title:
    Pierre et Jean à la porte du temple
  • German title:
    Petrus und Johannes an der Pforte des Tempels; Hochformat
  • Dutch title:
    Petrus en Johannes voor de tempelpoort – schets
  • New Hollstein:
    15
  • Rembrandt in Black & White:
    Not included

Etching. Ca. 1629.
Size: 221 x 169 mm. Surface: 373 cm2.
Not signed, not dated. Dating ranges from 1629/30 (Münz, Hind) to 1655 (Middleton)

NH 15 – Only state

Copper Plate

The copperplate was not part of any of the early collections or sales and is almost certainly not in existence.


Rarity of impressions

  • In auctions (2000-2025): not seen in auctions

  • In collections (New Hollstein 2013): extremely rare                           Early: 5                                          ⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿

  • Catalogue Nowell-Usticke (1967): O, Of the greatest rarity.


Story

Acts of the Apostles (3, verses 1-10)
Peter and John met a lame beggar at the entrance of the temple. When asked for money Peter tells the crippled man that they cannot give him silver or gold, but that they can heal him in the name of Christ.


Picture

Instead of showing the miraculous healing itself Rembrandt portrays the moment they speak to the beggar. Thirty years later Rembrandt would use the same subject in his last etching with a biblical subject (B 94).


Animal Farm

B 95 – Peter and John at the gate of the temple: roughly etched – Detail –Albertina

It seems that a dog is leaning with its legs at the arm of the crippled,who is ready to stroke it.


Related

There is a preparatory drawing in black chalk of St. Peter making the same gesture (in reverse), made in the same year, now in the Kupferstichkabinett in Dresden (Benesch 12).


Attributions and reviews

The plate is not by Rembrandt according to Coppier, Rovinsky and Singer.
According to Blanc, this print is by Lievens.


States

All authors list one state only.


Prints and collections

The five known impressions of this print are in the British Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Bibliothèque Nationale and two in the Albertina, of which one with Peter’s head only. *


Watermarks

Strasbourg lily.


Literature

H 5, BB 29-2, G 94, M 249, Mz 188, RA 303, Cl 98, W 99, Bl 65, Du 98, CD 20
Rembrandt creates Rembrandt, p. 86-87. Hinterding 2006, p. 70;


Rembrandt in Black & White: Not included