"Samuel taught by his Mother," "Christ appearing to Mary," "The
Prophetess Anna," "Jesus blessing Little Children," purchased for the
National Gallery for thirty-five thousand dollars;--"The Bather," in the
National Gallery, of which Landseer says: "It is the most artful thing
ever done in painting, and the most unsophisticated;" a likeness of
Rembrandt's son Titus, now twelve years old, were his next works.
Fifty-seven etchings were made between 1649 and 1655, the most
celebrated being the "Hundred-Guilder Print," or "Jesus healing the
Sick."
"The subject of this etching is taken from the words, 'And Jesus went
about all Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all
manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.' The
serene and calm figure of Jesus stands out from the shadow of the
background, preaching to the people around him. By a superb antithesis,
the Pharisees and Sadducees, the priests and the curious and
unbelieving, are standing on Christ's right hand, bathed in light,
while from the shadows that envelop the left side of the picture are
coming the sick, the possessed, and unfortunates of all kinds. The
composition is full of feeling, drawn and executed with a rare genius,
the details revealing a world of expression and character: the lights
and shadows, disposed in large masses, are of wonderful softness. The
etching, commenced with aqua-fortis, is finished with the dry point, the
silvery neutral tints of Christ's robe and the soft shadows being
produced in this manner."
Frederick Wedmore says in his "Masters of Genre-Painting," "I should be
thankful for the 'Hundred-Guilder Print,' were it only because of the
half-dozen lines in which Rembrandt has etched one figure, to me the
central one, a tall man, old and spare, and a little bent, with drooped
arms, and hands clasped together in gesture of mild awe and gently felt
surprise, as of one from whose slackened vitality the power of _great_
surprise or of _very_ keen interest has forever gone. On his face there
is the record of much pain, of sufferings not only his own, not only of
the body, but of saddening experiences which have left him quelled and
forever grave."
The name arose from the fact that a Roman merchant gave Rembrandt for
one engraving seven Marc Antonio engravings, which were valued at a
hundred guilders, and the artist would never sell any of these pictures
below this price. Only eight impressions of the first plate are in
existence; two are in the British Museum, one is in Paris, one in
Amsterdam, one in Vienna, one in the collection of the Duke of
Buccleuch, one in Mr. Holford's, and one owned by M. Eugene Dutuit of
Rouen, sold in 1867 for about six thousand dollars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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