Rembrandt van Rijn etching print for sale ets te koop dessin a vendre - Jan Lutma Goldsmith, 1656 first state kf
Rembrandt van Rijn etching print for sale ets te koop dessin a vendre - Jan Lutma Goldsmith, 1656 first state
Rembrandt van Rijn etching print for sale ets te koop dessin a vendre - Jan Lutma Goldsmith, 1656 first state frame
Rembrandt van Rijn etching print for sale ets te koop dessin a vendre - Jan Lutma Goldsmith, 1656 first state kf
Rembrandt van Rijn etching print for sale ets te koop dessin a vendre - Jan Lutma Goldsmith, 1656 first state
Rembrandt van Rijn etching print for sale ets te koop dessin a vendre - Jan Lutma Goldsmith, 1656 first state frame
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
(Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam)

“Jan Lutma Goldsmith”, 1656

Etching, engraving and drypoint; 19,9 x 15,1 cm

With good margins on all sides

signed and dated upper centre: ‘Rembrandt | f. 1656’

Notes

Arguably one of the greatest master printers and portrait makers of this period, Rembrandt is able to delve into the very personality and mannerisms of his various subjects.  Jan Lutma, The Goldsmith, 1656 is seen with a slight sliver of a smile, resting comfortably in his goldsmith’s chair with a vaguely humorous, relaxed expression.  Light streams in from the window in the background, allowing our subject to be illuminated from behind giving an illusion of depth and texture.

According to Rembrandt scholar, K.G. Boon:

“Portraits…are undisputed high points in Rembrandt’s graphic work.  With each one Rembrandt so immersed himself in his subject’s pursuits that in addition to a portrait he also created a type of human being.  With regard to Jan Lutma, the old goldsmith, Rembrandt’s typification of the artist is most pronounced in the head with its mild, brooding – and not a little     sardonic – glance.”

Jan Lutma, born in 1584 in Groningen, died in 1669, the same year as Rembrandt, was one of the most famous goldsmiths in Amsterdam. Rembrandt depicts Lutma, already 72 years old in 1656, in a leather-covered armchair, holding a statuette in his right hand, with goldsmith’s tools lying on the table to his right. In the second state, the signature and the date, which are undoubtedly in Rembrandt’s own hand, appear in the upper left window. In the centre right, an inscription identifies the sitter. The characteristic signature and the inscription are in such contrast to each other that it can be assumed that the son Johannes Lutma, who was himself an artist, engraved the inscription on the panel, perhaps after the panel had been given to the family. It was most likely a commissioned work.

This print is excellently preserved with the plate edge visible on all sides, with margins at the sides and bottom. This is undoubtedly an early print, and, as it belonged to Hibbert, from one of the most prominent Rembrandt collections.

Literature

Bartsch 276; White/Boon 276;

The New Hollstein Dutch 293: First state (of V); Nowell-Usticke C2;

plate in existence in a private collection in the United Kingdom.

 

Provenance

  • Collection George Hibbert (1757-1837), London, Lugt 2849
  • Collection Robert Stayner Holford (1808-1892), London and Westonbirt, Lugt 2243, his collection auctioned at
  • Christie’s auction, Manson and Woods, London, 11 July 1893, lot 498
  • Kornfeld auction, Bern, 19 June 2015, lot 106
  • The Eberhard W. Kornfeld Collection, Bern, Lugt 913b
  • Private collection, The Netherlands

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