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B 234

Panorama near Bloemendaal (The goldweigher’s field)           

  • French title:
    Le campagne du peseur d’or
  • German title:
    Das Landgut des Goldwagers
  • Dutch title:
    Gezicht op Haarlem en Bloemendaal
  • New Hollstein:
    257

Etching and drypoint. 1651.
Size: 120 x 319 mm. Surface: 383 cm2.
Signed and dated, in the bottom left corner: Rembrandt 1651

Copper Plate

The copperplate was not in any of the major collections and is probably not in existence.


Rarity of impressions

  • In auctions (2000-2025): very rare                                        Early: 6                                          ⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⊙

  • In collections (New Hollstein – 2013): common                    Early: 57                                       ⦿⦿⦿⊙⊙⊙

  • Catalogue Nowell-Usticke (1967): RR+ a rare long landscape, executed in drypoint         ⦿⦿⦿⦿⊙⊙


Description

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.


Animal Farm

Although very small, a flock of cattle is shown, lower left of the estate.


Related

There is a drawing in the Boymans van Beuningen Museum (Benesch 1259) with a similar view.
The ‘wide-angle’ view of this etching is very similar to those used by Hercules Seeghers in his landscapes, like the broad view he made of Amersfoort.


Attributions and reviews

The etching is considered as special by Seidlitz, Coppier, Rovinsky and Wilson.


States

All authors list one state only. Early impressions show much burr and many vertical lines in the sky. The bottom plate edge is very irregular


Prints and collections

There are impressions on Japanese paper in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), in the Kupferstichkabinett (Berlin) and The Art Institute (Chicago), the latter two with light surface tone.
There at least eight counterproofs known. Usually these were made to try-out changes for later states. But since the original print shows the landscape in reverse, the larger that usual number may be explained by the fact that for spectators it is more pleasant to look at the scenery as they see it everyday.


Watermarks

Paschal lamb (2 ed. both c. 1651); Strasbourg lily with 4WR (2 ed., one 1651); Strasbourg bend; HIS; Arms of Amsterdam;


Literature

H 249, BB 51-A, G 226, M 326, Mz 167, RA 624, Cl 231, W 231, Bl 334, Du 231, CD 211, S107-108. Lugt 1920, p. 157;
Van Regteren Altena, Oud Holland 1954 (lxix) p. 1; Hinterding 2008, p. 440-443;