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Original etching, engraving and drypoint printed in black ink on laid paper bearing a Strasbourg Lily with initials BA watermark (Hinterding A.a).
Signed and dated in the plate lower left (in reverse) R / 1635.
A superb 17th century/lifetime impression of Bartsch and New Hollstein’s fifth and final state, Usticke’s third state of three (characterized by G.W. Nowell-Usticke in his 1967 catalogue Rembrandt’s Etchings: States and Values as “A rather uncommon portrait, desirable”), printed after the addition of horizontal lines upper right indicating stonework.
Catalog: Bartsch 340 v/v; Hind 127; Biorklund-Barnard 35-C; Usticke 340 iii/iii; New Hollstein 154 v/v
Sheet Size: 8 5/8 x 6 11/16 inches
The title of this etching is a traditional one, based on an eighteenth-century identification of the subject as the daughter of the physician Ephraim Bonus (see Bartsch 278). In fact, the woman bears a general resemblance to Rembrandt’s wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh, to whom he was betrothed in 1633 and whom he married in the following year. From 1633, her physiognomy provided him with a model of a female type that came to dominate his portrayal of women. This portrayal shows the woman in rich costume, seated in an armchair before a table or shelf laden with books. She holds a scroll, and her expression is composed, even steadfast. The architectural background enhances the monumentality of the composition.
