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

This etching is part of the second series of landscapes that Rembrandt made around 1650.
On the right we see several ships in the harbour (het IJ). The house is a langhuistype, typical for this area.

Six was the first (in 1911) to identify the location as the Diemerzeedijk, Lugt confirmed this view a few years later (1915). In the background it shows the point where this dyke joins the Kadijk). At that spot, called de Bocht, several inns are visible. Later, in 1675, the Zeeburg Inn was built there. It still stands at that location. These dykes were very popular for strolling, as can be seen in the background.

The original name Het Melkboertje (The milkman) refers to the figure on the right, carrying a yoke with two buckets. It was later suggested that the stick was in fact used for carrying fish, so White-Boon renamed the plate to *Landscape with a fisherman*. Hinterding argued that the original title is more likely to be the correct one. The nearby village of Houtewael or Oetewael was renowned for its superb quality of milk. Also, a rack of pails can be seen on a drawing of the same cottages (Benesch 1227, now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford).

The only animal visible is a pretty large dog at the side of the milkman.

The farmhouse on the left is also visible, now in an westerly direction, in Cottages and a haybarn on the Diemerdijk (B224).
Rembrandt made at least two drawings from the same perspective, in which elements of this etchings can be recognised. The first is listed above. The other one (Benesch 836) is now in the British Museum. There is also a similarity with a drawing in Providence, Rhode Island (Benesch 831).

There are three copies in the same direction. Copy A is by Richard Byron (65 x 176 mm, WB 1). Copy C is by William Young Ottley (63 x 172 mm, WB 3). Copy E is by Birger John Forsberg (64 x 176 mm).
There are two copies in reverse. Copy B is by Costantino Cumano, inscribed Rt inv and Cumano Sc (two states, 67 x 183 mm, WB 2). Copy D is by Louis Gervais Marvy, inscribed Louis Marvy d’apres Rembrandt (59 x 161 mm).

The etching is considered as special by De Claussin, Singer and Wilson.
Patricia Schneider pointed at the fact that this was the first of the landscapes in which Rembrandt fully integrated the etching technique with extensive use of the drypoint.

NH lists three states, the 2nd state is ‘new’. Most other authors list two states, Münz only one. All contemporary.
In the 1st state (R582) there is no landscape behind the houses at the left margin.
In the 2nd state (NHD) the water inside the dyke reaches the strip of land. Some shading is added to the bank running towards the farm.
In the 3rd state (NHD/2nd state WB final, R583, BB, NU) a hill is added behind the houses in the left background. Diagonal shading is added to the bank right of the canal in the centre foreground.

There are only seven impressions of the 1st state, two of which are on oriental paper.
There is only one impression of the 2nd state, in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Of the 3rd state there are impressions on Japanese paper and counterproofs in the Rijksmuseum and the Statens Museum in Copenhagen.

Arms of Amsterdam; Foolscap with five-pointed collar with cm LB (c. 1650); Strasbourg lily (2 ed. 1651-1652). A total of four editions.

H 242, BB 50-2, G 211, M320, Mz 160, RA 582-583, Cl 210, W 210, Bl 316, Du 210, CD 201
Lugt, Rembrandt’s Amsterdam, in Print Collector’s Quarterly V, 1915, p. 137-8; P. Schneider, Catalogue Washington 1990, nr 22; Wandelingen 1998, p. 219-226; Hinterding 2008, p. 393-396;