14. Rembrandt Van Rijn
(1606-1669)
Woman Sitting Half-Dressed Beside a Stove

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Rembrandt, Woman Sitting Half-Dressed Beside a Stove

Woman Sitting Half-Dressed Beside a Stove

Etching and drypoint, 1658, B/R/S 197, Boon & White 197 vii/vii, Hind 296 viii/viii, 225 x 186 mm., ex collections: Dr. Daniel Daulby (sale Christie’s, May, 1800); Nathaniel Smith (Lugt 2296-98); Peter Gellatly (L. 1185). Fine, clear impression, with the small scratch on the breast, of this rare and desirable print, on laid paper without discernable watermark, and with partial thread margins on all four sides, elsewhere trimmed on the platemark. On the reverse are extensive hand-written notes in faded brown ink by Nathaniel Smith, who bought the impression at the Daulby sale on May 16, 1800 (lot 228). Such written provenance is rare to find on Rembrandt etchings. The impression later passed to the collection of Gellatly, which was known for its fine Rembrandts as well as for 15th-16th-century prints. Although early states of this plate have their own beauty, Rembrandt had not really worked out his intentions until the penultimate state, when the removal of the woman’s white cap established her upper torso as the true focal point of light in the somber interior. Needless to say, one of Rembrandt’s great masterpieces of etching.