The plate was sold or given to Jan Six I by Rembrandt and has been in the possession of the Six family (Amsterdam) ever since.

We will never know what the exact relationship was between Rembrandt and Jan Six, who was twenty-nine years old when this etching was made. It may well be that they were close friends, despite the difference in age of twelve years. It may explain why the setting seems to be the private quarters of Six, not his office or some other formal location. The way the sitter is portrayed here was unique at the time. It is as if Six was caught by surprise, hardly realising that someone was drawing him. The many artefacts surrounding him, all related to some aspect of Six’s daily routine, make this etching almost a genre-piece rather than a portrait. The fact that Six is reading a book indicates that he owned a library, one of the ‘noble’ things to do according to Castiglione’s Book of the Nobleman. As he did in several of his paintings, Rembrandt uses the light reflecting from the book to illuminate the face. A few years later Rembrandt made an etching (B 112) as a frontispiece for Medea, a play written by Six (1648) and a painted portrait in 1654 (Bredius 276). He also made two drawings for an Album Amicorum in 1652. Both are in the Six Collection in Amsterdam.See: 233 Portrait of Jan Six – 1654 – Collectie Six

Rembrandt made two preliminary drawings (Benesch 767 and 768, both in the Six Collection). In the first one Six is looking at the painter, with a dog leaping to his leg. In the second one Six is in the same position as in the etching, reading a letter. Another quick sketch of a man reading (Benesch 749 verso, now in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum – Fodor Collection) may have served as an intermediary study for the head only. For the lighting of the face Rembrandt used an effect similar to that in his paintings of women reading (in 1631, now at the Rijksmuseum, and in 1655, now in Drumlanrig Castle).

NH lists fourteen copies, of which ten in the same direction, showing the popularity of the plate. Copy A is in the Recueil by Pierre-Francois Basan (285 x 205 mm). Copy B is in mezzotint by Richard Purcell (two states, 330 x 254 mm). Copy C is also in mezzotint, by Richard Houston (three states, 350 x 250 mm). Copy D is by Worlidge, showing the portrait of Edward Astley (1762, 233 x 185 mm). Copy F is by Francesco Novelli (two states, his nr 2, 275 x 195 mm). Copy G is anonymous, signed Rembrandt.in. (249 x 193 mm). Copy I is anonymous, signed Rembrant in and Jean Six (263 x 184 mm). Copy J is anonymous, inscribed Rembrandt 1647, the 6 reversed (239 x 190 mm). Copy M is in mezzotint, published by John Ryall, inscribed Rembrant pinx.t. (two states, 160 x 115 mm). Copy N is a wood engraving by Charles-Jean Baptiste Carbonneau, after a drawing by Louis Marvy (157 x 126).
There are four copies in reverse. Copy E is by Claude-Henri Watelet signed Watelet 1785 (two states, 243 x 190 mm). Copy H is anonymous, signed Rembrant f. (234 x 186). Copy K is anonymous and in mezzotint (285 x 209 mm). Copy L is in mezzotint by John Burnett, signed John Burnett (two states, 240 x 183 mm).

The etching is considered as special by Bartsch, Middleton, Seidlitz, Coppier, Rovinsky, De Claussin, Wilson and Singer.

NH lists five states. White-Boon four. The 3rd state of NH is ‘new’. Most other authors list three states, Nowell-Usticke one trial proof and two states.
In the 1st state (NH/WB/R774/H/NU trial proof A) the signature and date are missing. The upper windows are completely shaded. There seems to be a landscape visible in the window.
In the 2nd state (NH/WB/NU 1st state) date and signature are added, the ‘6’ and ‘4‘ are printed in reverse. The window sill burnished out, the landscape is removed (NU),
In the 3rd state (NH only) fine vertical shading is added to the right part of the upper window.
In the 4th state (NH/3rd state WB) the white highlight in the corner of the table is shaded.
In the 5th state (NH/4th state WB/R775/3rd state NU) the two reversed numbers of the date are corrected and an inscription Jan Six AE 29 is added in the lower left margin.
White-Boon 2nd state seems to be a special version of the 2nd state listed by the other authors.

Only two impressions of the 1st state are known, one on Japanese paper in the Rijksmuseum and one on Chinese paper in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
Of the 2nd state only one impression is known, in the Six Collection (Amsterdam).
At the end of the 18th century approx. 25 impressions were made of the 5^th and final state, showing a greyish tint.

In the 4th state: Cross of Lorraine (c. 1647);
In the 5th state: Countermark Y; Strasbourg lily (3 ed.); Strasbourg lily with cm VA’ (1648);

H 228, BB 47-B, G 265, M 159, Mz 70, RA 774-775, Cl 282, W 287, Bl 184, Du 267, CD 185
Dickey 2004, p. 111ff; Rohde 2005, p. 115; Late Rembrandt p. 177; Rutgers/Standring 2018, p. 106;

NH: 5th and final state/WB: 4th and final state.
A very good, contemporary impression of the final state. The 6 and 4 in the date are corrected.
Sheet 263 x 205 mm, good margins of approx. 10 mm. all around (+15%).
No watermark, horizontal chain lines at approx. 27 mm.

In the collection of the Dukes von Arenberg (Lugt 567, Brussels and Nordkirchen from 1750 till 1820).
In the collection of an unknown collector (his oval collectors stamp verso).
Then acquired in 2005 by Eberhard Walter Kornfeld (Bern, Lugt 913b).

Rembrandt, de fotograaf, Westfries Museum (Hoorn), June 2024 – January 2025;