Category: Landscapes
Canal with an angler and two swans
This is one of the five prints in which Rembrandt combines a flat, typically Dutch countryside with mountains in the background. Gersaint considered this plate and the next one (B236) as being one plate. However, the perspectives of both prints are clearly different, so his assumption was probably incorrect.
Canal with a large boat and bridge
This etching was named Het Schuytje op de Voorgrondt (The boat in the foreground) in Valerius Rover’s catalogue of 1731. It may have been part of a larger work, since it fits very well to the right of Canal with an angler and two swans (B235). It could well be, as suggested by several authors, that both etchings were originally made on one plate. Although part of the scenery (the boat moored in the reeds of the riverbank) looks distinctly Dutch, the hilly background and Romanesque church can certainly not be found in Holland. This combination of local and foreign landscapes is seen regularly in Rembrandts works. It indicates that he has probably not worked from life.
The bull (‘Het stiertje’)
This very rare etching shows a bull tied with a rope, with foliage in the background.
Panorama near Bloemendaal (The goldweigher’s field)
In Valerius Röver’s inventory of 1731 the house was identified as that of Jan Uyttenbogaert, the Receiver General, tax collector and gold merchant (thus the name of the print), who was portrayed by Rembrandt in an etching (B281) ten years earlier. Subsequent authors have copied this title, until first Lugt and later Van Regteren Altena identified the view as taken from Het Kopje, a well-known hill in Bloemendaal near Haarlem. The town on the left is Haarlem, identifiable by the tower of the St.Bavo. On the right the church of Bloemendaal is visible. The house with a spire topping a square tower is Saxenburg, at that time belonging to Christoffel Thijsz., the man from which Rembrandt bought the house in the Breestraat. Rembrandt never fully paid his debt for this house, so this print can be a commission from Thijszn, or a gift or a partial payment in natura. It is the only landscape not showing the surroundings of Amsterdam.
The bridge at Klein Kostverloren (Six bruggetje)
The title of this etching may well be inspired by an old anecdote, described by Gersaint, that this etching was made on the estate of Jan Six at a wager that Rembrandt could not complete the picture before a servant would return from a neighbouring village to fetch some mustard. The title is further supported by an inscription on an impression (in the Rembrandthuis) which reads den heer Six en Brugh (Mr Six and bridge). However, in 1915 Lugt identified the tower as that of Ouderkerk a/d Amstel and the location as the estate Klein Kostverloren, which belonged to Albert Coenraadszn Burgh, then burgomaster of Amsterdam. Since the estate of Six was in Hillegom, it is unlikely that the picture was made there. Given the very precise and minute lines that Rembrandt etched here, it is also unlikely that the plate was made in the open air instead of in his studio. The plate has always been a very popular one, as can be seen from the many copies made of it.