Auction 320: Prints | 17 November 2023
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

The Return of the Prodigal Son

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Auction 320
Lot 315
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1606 Leiden – Amsterdam 1669
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Etching on laid paper with watermark “miscellaneous” (cf. Erik Hinterding. Rembrandt as an etcher. Catalogue of watermarks (words), vol. II, p. 274). (1636). 15.8 x 13.5 cm (sheet size).

Result: € 19,050*

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Details

Bartsch 91; White/Boon 91; Hinterding/Rutgers (The New Hollstein) 159 I (from III).

Description

Fine, slightly later impression of the first state. Before the addition of the lines on the step. The faintly etched landscape in the background still visible. The light vertical scratches to the father’s left have already disappeared. Top and bottom with a fine margin around the edge of the plate, cut just inside it on the left and right. The faces of Rembrandt’s figures reflect paradigmatically the emotions of remorse and forgiveness in their features. The young man who had his inheritance paid out early and wasted it abroad has humbly fallen to his knees. Repentant and impoverished, he has decided to return home. His father forgives him and bows down to him tenderly. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the artist’s most beautiful narrative works. – With an abrasion in the lower left corner on the reverse. A tiny hole at the bottom left. The lower right corner thinned out on the reverse. The left edge yellowed and a brown spot on the step in the bottom left, otherwise in good condition.

Period

15th-18th Century

Technique

Prints

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