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Lot Essay
Night scenes, both indoors and outdoors, were a challenge Rembrandt seems to have cherished as a printmaker, and this very fine impression of the Adoration of the Shepherds: a Night Piece demonstrates both the difficulties the genre posed and the extraordinary daring and skill with which he approached it.
It is a very hushed and tender scene: the Virgin is resting, huddled around the sleeping Christ child, while Joseph is awake, reading and quietly watching over them. A group of shepherds, men, women and a child, have entered the stable, but keeping a distance from the Holy Family, as if not to disturb them. The scene is lit by two light sources, a hidden lamp or fire behind Joseph and the lantern held by the foremost shepherd, creating a few highlights: the top of Joseph’s book, the Virgin’s headband and cuff, and the face of the woman peeking from behind the man with the lamp. Everything else, including the Child’s face, is visible in twilight or shrouded in almost complete darkness. As viewers, we are drawn into this intimate scene, our eyes are trying to adapt and see in the darkness, and thereby becoming part of the group of shepherds, the first to see the Son of God.
To achieve the effect of such darkness in etching, large parts of the plate have to be covered with dense cross-hatching, while leaving those areas catching a little light and visible in twilight slightly more open. This poses a number of artistic and technical challenges: not only do these subtle gradations in density require a virtuoso command of the etching needle – which Rembrandt clearly possessed. It is also extremely difficult to ink up and wipe such a densely worked plate before printing, for it to result in an impression that is at once saturated and transparent. Too little ink, and the print would appear uneven and grey; too much ink, and the tiny highlights and middle tones would be drowned out and become illegible. Furthermore, very dense crosshatching quickly shows wear as the tightly spaced lines begin to flatten and merge. Instead of velvety black, the image then starts to look patchy and ill-defined.
Given these difficulties, Rembrandt’s achievement in creating this print is all the more astonishing, and they explain the fact that fine, early impressions such as the present one are extremely rare. He worked through three previous states, printing only a few trial proofs of each, before arriving at the present state. New Hollstein records two impressions of the first state, three of the second and third state respectively, and eight of the present, fourth state, all in public collections. Rembrandt then made further changes before printing the first proper edition: 25 impressions of the fifth state are known. From them on, he struggled against wear to keep the plate printable and took it through three further states. The eighth state is the last by his hand and in his lifetime, and another three campaigns to rework the plate occurred after his death (9th-11th state). This is hence the earliest state, and possibly the last recorded impression of it, to still be obtainable.
It is a very hushed and tender scene: the Virgin is resting, huddled around the sleeping Christ child, while Joseph is awake, reading and quietly watching over them. A group of shepherds, men, women and a child, have entered the stable, but keeping a distance from the Holy Family, as if not to disturb them. The scene is lit by two light sources, a hidden lamp or fire behind Joseph and the lantern held by the foremost shepherd, creating a few highlights: the top of Joseph’s book, the Virgin’s headband and cuff, and the face of the woman peeking from behind the man with the lamp. Everything else, including the Child’s face, is visible in twilight or shrouded in almost complete darkness. As viewers, we are drawn into this intimate scene, our eyes are trying to adapt and see in the darkness, and thereby becoming part of the group of shepherds, the first to see the Son of God.
To achieve the effect of such darkness in etching, large parts of the plate have to be covered with dense cross-hatching, while leaving those areas catching a little light and visible in twilight slightly more open. This poses a number of artistic and technical challenges: not only do these subtle gradations in density require a virtuoso command of the etching needle – which Rembrandt clearly possessed. It is also extremely difficult to ink up and wipe such a densely worked plate before printing, for it to result in an impression that is at once saturated and transparent. Too little ink, and the print would appear uneven and grey; too much ink, and the tiny highlights and middle tones would be drowned out and become illegible. Furthermore, very dense crosshatching quickly shows wear as the tightly spaced lines begin to flatten and merge. Instead of velvety black, the image then starts to look patchy and ill-defined.
Given these difficulties, Rembrandt’s achievement in creating this print is all the more astonishing, and they explain the fact that fine, early impressions such as the present one are extremely rare. He worked through three previous states, printing only a few trial proofs of each, before arriving at the present state. New Hollstein records two impressions of the first state, three of the second and third state respectively, and eight of the present, fourth state, all in public collections. Rembrandt then made further changes before printing the first proper edition: 25 impressions of the fifth state are known. From them on, he struggled against wear to keep the plate printable and took it through three further states. The eighth state is the last by his hand and in his lifetime, and another three campaigns to rework the plate occurred after his death (9th-11th state). This is hence the earliest state, and possibly the last recorded impression of it, to still be obtainable.