The Good Samaritan

Close inspection of first state-impressions of this print, including the present one, reveal that certain areas of shading, mainly on the forehead of the horse and on the back and legs of the groom, did not etch properly at first and printed weakly. Rembrandt corrected this in the subsequent state by re-etching the plate with additional shading in these and other areas. According to New Hollstein, these changes and darkening of the horse’s tail were done simultaneously in the second state. However, the Cracherode impression in the British Museum, assumed to be of the first state, is in fact an impression of an undescribed intermediate state between the first and the second state: with the additional shading, but before the horse’s tail is filled in. The other early impression in the British Museum, from the collection of Pierre Mariette and the Earl of Aylesford (1848,0911.46), is indeed of the first state before the additional shading. The present impression appears to be a little earlier or more carefully inked, as it prints more strongly in particular on the back of the groom.