Notes

A very fine lifetime impression of the fifth state, with strengthened contours of the man’s lower left leg, yet before the doubled curved stroke on his upper right arm. Indicated by Nowell-Usticke with ‘R+’: ‘A scarce, delicate little print’. Trimmed to the platemarks on three sides, cut 1 mm within on top.

In this etching Rembrandt etched a poor man playing a fiddle with his dog on a lead. It is part of a series of prints Rembrandt made in the 1630s that focused on marginal figures in society, such as beggars and street performers.

The dog leading the man offers a sense of companionship, a gentle counterpoint to the man’s solitary struggle.

Original impressions of this rare etching are held in the collections of major museums worldwide, including the Fitzwilliam Museum, Harvard Art Museums, the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, the Rijksmuseum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Morgan Library & Museum. It is also held at the British Museum.

During his lifetime, Rembrandt’s extraordinary skills as a printmaker were the main source of his international fame. Unlike his oil paintings, prints travelled light and were relatively cheap. For this reason, they soon became very popular with collectors not only within but also beyond the borders of the Netherlands.