Rembrandt Drawing at a Window

Artist Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606 - 1669)

Date1648

MediumEtching with drypoint and burin

DimensionsOverall: 6 1/4 × 5 1/8 inches (15.88 × 13.03 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number32-69/31

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, January-February 1938, no cat.

University of Kansas Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS, 1952, no cat.

Opening of Edwin A. Ulrich Museum, Wichita State University, November 21, 1974-January [?] 1975, no cat.

Rembrandt van Rijn: The Graphic Works, Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, September 12-October 30, 1983, no cat.

The Age of Rembrandt, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, August 1-September 27, 1992, no cat.

Portraiture, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 19-November 28, 2010, no cat., as Rembrandt Drawing at a Window.

Portraiture, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 17-July 15, 2018, no cat., as Rembrandt Drawing at a Window

Gallery Label

Rembrandt is the most famous Dutch artist of all time and made many self-portraits. In these he tended to see himself objectively, from brash youth to disillusioned old age. This portrait was made in mid-career, and he looks preoccupied, as if age were beginning to catch up with him. He is shown drawing at a window, where the light was good, but this also implies that his art was based on realistic observation. The subtle shadows are typical of his interest in the gradations of light and shade.

Provenance

Charles Deering (1852–1927), Stiges, Spain, by 1927;

Possibly given to his daughters, Marion McCormick (née Deering, 1886-1965), DuPage County, IL, and Barbara Danielson (née Deering, 1888-1987), Miami, 1924 [1];

The Art Institute of Chicago, by May 30, 1930-April 1, 1932;

Purchased from the Art Institute of Chicago, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1932.

NOTES:

[1] According to the Art Institute of Chicago, Charles Deering gave his art collection to his daughters in 1924. They in turn donated many works to the Art Institute following his death in 1927.

Published References

Arthur Mayger Hind, A Catalogue of Rembrandt’s Etchings, vol. 1, Introduction and Catalogue (London: Methuen, 1923), no. 229 V/V, pp. ix, 23, 27, 38, 100, 104, (repro.), as Rembrandt Drawing at a Window.

Arthur Mayger Hind, A Catalogue of Rembrandt’s Etchings, vol. 2, Etchings (London: Methuen, 1923), no. 229 V/V, (repro.), as Rembrandt Drawing at a Window.

Ludwig Münz, Rembrandt’s Etchings, 2 vols. (London: Phaidon, 1952), no. 26 V/V.

George Biörklund, Rembrandt’s Etchings, True and False: A Summary Catalogue in a Distinctive Chronological Order and Completely Illustrated, 2^nd ed. (Stockholm: 1968), no. BB. 48-A V/V.

Karel G. Boon and Christopher White, Hollstein’s Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, vols. 18, Rembrandt van Rijn: Text (Amsterdam: Van Gendt, 1969), no. 22 V/V.

Karel G. Boon and Christopher White, Hollstein’s Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, vols. 19, Rembrandt van Rijn: Plates (Amsterdam: Van Gendt, 1969), no. 22 V/V.

George L. McKenna, Prints, 1460-1995 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 276, (repro.), as Rembrandt Drawing at a Window.

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