On the occasion of the 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich (1774 Greifswald–1840 Dresden), the Hamburger Kunsthalle is presenting the anniversary exhibition CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH from December 15, 2023 to April 1, 2024. Art for a new time . It offers the most comprehensive exhibition of the important Romantic painter's work in many years. The focus of the exhibition is a thematic retrospective with over 60 paintings - including numerous iconic key works - and around 100 drawings. In addition, selected works by Friedrich's artist friends will be presented, including Carl Blechen, Carl Gustav Carus, Johan Christian Dahl, August Heinrich and Georg Friedrich Kersting. The central theme is the novel relationship between people and nature in Friedrich's landscape depictions. In the first third of the 19th century he provided significant impulses to make the landscape genre “art for a new time”. The enduring high level of fascination that his works trigger and the special connection to contemporary issues are demonstrated in a second independent part of the exhibition, which is dedicated to Friedrich's reception in contemporary art. Across genres and media, around 20 artists from home and abroad focus on Romanticism, their understanding of nature and Friedrich's art with their works, including videos, photographs and installations. On display are works by Elina Brotherus, Julian Charrière, David Claerbout, Olafur Eliasson, Alex Grein, Hiroyuki Masuyama, Mariele Neudecker, Ulrike Rosenbach, Susan Schuppli, Santeri Tuori and Kehinde Wiley, among others.
High-quality and extremely rare Friedrich loans such as the paintings Chalk Cliffs on Rügen (1818), The Monk by the Sea (1808–10) and Two Men Contemplating the Moon (1819/20) are in the exhibition alongside the pictures Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (around 1817) and The Sea of Ice (1823/24) from the collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle can be experienced. These works are among the icons of Romanticism. Friedrich painterly explored the ways in which landscape can become a contemporary theme, the potential associated with the reproduction of natural spaces and how this can be conveyed to the viewer. But Friedrich's extensive graphic oeuvre also plays a special role in the show. The conscious stay in the great outdoors with artistic intention is one of the special characteristics of romantic art practice and was essential for Friedrich.
The unique mood expressed in Friedrich's works as well as their memorable motifs and composition have encouraged a large number of artists to enter into dialogue with the romantic - especially against the background of current ecological issues. The tension between advancing environmental destruction and a longing for “untouched nature” forms a continuity from Romanticism to today. However, while the romantic understanding of nature was national in nature during Frederick's lifetime, artists today approach nature and climate change from a global perspective. In this sense, the exhibition also shows current works that are dedicated to the dark sides and voids of Romanticism and its reception. Colonialism and its effects on people and nature are taken into account, as is a Western hegemonic concept of nature and its manifestations in art. The exhibits include, among other things, large-format Friedrich adaptations by the US artist Kehinde Wiley (*1977), which critically reflect the Western, white-dominated art canon
The exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle marks the start of the Caspar David Friedrich Festival . To mark the anniversary year, the Alte Nationalgalerie of the State Museums in Berlin and the Dresden State Art Collections are also devoting a thematically independent show to the artist. The three houses have the most important holdings of Friedrich's works in the world. With extensive mutual loans, they enable unique presentations on different aspects of his work. The anniversary exhibitions marking the 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich are under the patronage of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)Hikers above the sea of fog, around 1817CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)Self-portrait with arm supported, around 1802CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)The Arctic Ocean, 1823/24CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)Chalk cliffs on Rügen, 1818CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)The Feldstein near Rathen, 1828CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)The Watzmann, 1824/25CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)Two men contemplating the moon, 1819/20CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840) Moonrise by the Sea, 1822CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)The Monk by the Sea, 1808–1810CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)Evening, 1824CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840) Eldena ruins in the Giant Mountains, 1830/34CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774–1840)Meadows near Greifswald, 1821/22KEHINDE WILEY (*1977) Prelude (Ibrahima Ndiaye and El Hadji Malick Gueye), 2021ELINA BROTHERUS (*1972)The Wanderer 2, 2004DAVID CLAERBOUT (*1969) Wildfire (meditation on fire), 2019–2020
Fenimore Art Museum has announced that it has acquired eight major works of art including works by Eastman Johnson, William Merritt Chase, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, Joshua Johnson, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Acquisition of these works was generously funded by the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
The acquisitions highlight the museum's effort to expand its already significant collection of American art. This group broadens the scope to include major works created from the 1870s to about 1930, allowing the museum to tell the story of American art and culture as it evolved after the Civil War.
"We are looking forward to sharing these magnificent acquisitions with our audiences," said Dr. Paul S. D'Ambrosio, Fenimore Art Museum President and CEO. "Moving forward, our goal is to create a renowned collection of American art that builds upon the early and mid-nineteenth-century works left to the museum by our original benefactor Stephen C. Clark. Likewise, we continue the legacy of the generous gift of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art given to us in 1995 by the Thaws and housed in a new wing funded by Clark's granddaughter, Jane Forbes Clark."
The new works are currently on view through December 31 and will be on display throughout the 2024 season beginning April 1.
New acquisitions include:
Portrait of Laurence Millet (1887), John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Oil on canvas. Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust N0013.2023. Photograph by Richard Walker.
Brown and Tan Leaves (1928), Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986). Oil on canvas. Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust N0014.2023. Photograph by Richard Walke
Mrs. Hassam in the Garden (1896), Childe Hassam (1859-1935). Oil on canvas. Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust N0017.2023. Photograph by Richard Walker.
St. Germain l’Auxerrois (1897), Childe Hassam (1859-1935). Oil on canvas. Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust N0018.2023. Photograph by Richard Walker.
The Pet Lamb (1873), Eastman Johnson (1824-1906). Oil on canvas. Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust N0016.2023. Photograph by Richard Walker.
The Lady in White (1894), William Merritt Chase (1849-1916). Oil on canvas. Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust N0019.2023. Photograph by Richard Walker.
Seated Girl with Strawberries (ca. 1803-1805), Joshua Johnson (ca. 1763-ca. 1824). Oil on canvas. Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust N0015.2023. Photograph by Richard Walker.
Snowy Day, Boston(ca. 1907-1910), Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1859-1924). Oil on canvas. Collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust N0021.2023. Photograph by Richard Walker.
About Fenimore Art Museum
Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper's "Glimmerglass"—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art, important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, portrait paintings, photography, and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art. Changing exhibitions have featured well-known artists including Keith Haring, Ansel Adams, Andrew Wyeth, M.C. Escher, and others. Museum admission is free for ages 19 and under. Visit FenimoreArt.org.
This fall and winter, visitors to Frick Madison, the temporary home of The Frick Collection, will have an unprecedented opportunity to view two Renaissance masterpieces reunited for the first time in more than four hundred years.
Giorgione’s Three Philosophers, on rare loan from Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, will be shown in dialogue with the Frick’s beloved St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini. The works were owned by the same Venetian collector, Taddeo Contarini (ca. 1466–1540), and were displayed for many decades in his palazzo before their separation centuries ago.
Comments Ian Wardropper, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director of the Frick, “It would be difficult to think of a more fitting conclusion for our temporary residency at Frick Madison than this once-in-a-lifetime installation. ThesetwocomplexRenaissancepaintingshavepromptedanenormousamount of commentary over the years, and we are delighted to present the pair together as an exciting farewell to this fascinating chapter in our institution’s history.”
Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini will examine the joint history ofthetwopaintings.IthasbeenproposedbyscholarsthatGiorgioneconceived The Three Philosophers, most likely commissioned by Contarini himself, as a companion to Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, and they seem to have been at Contarini’s palazzo for most of the sixteenth century before being separated. At Frick Madison, the pair will be displayed—alone—in the iconic room within the Marcel Breuer–designed building where St. Francis has hung in isolated splendor, as if in a secular chapel.
This special presentation is organized by Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, who is authoring an accompanying book about the paintings and their original owner and his collection. Salomon states, “To this day, Taddeo Contarini is best known for his ownership of two masterpieces of Venetian Renaissance painting. Despite the attention that has been lavished on the paintings from his collection, Contarini remains an elusive figure, one we can understand only through some glimmers of information about him. The reunion of these two paintings brings an important part of Contarini’s collection back to life.”
COLLECTION OF TADDEO CONTARINI
In 1525, the scholar Marcantonio Michiel recorded works he had seen in a number of private collections in Venice and the Veneto, including that of Taddeo Contarini, a Venetian noble, in his palazzo in the parish of Santa Fosca. Among the ten paintings Michiel recorded from Contarini’s holdings—most of them now lost—he described two in detail. Regarding Giorgione’s scene, he wrote of “a painting in oil of three philosophers in a landscape, two standing, and one seated who contemplates the rays of the sun, with an admirably rendered rock.” His final entry reads: “The panel of St. Francis in the desert, in oil, was the work of Giovanni Bellini, and it has a landscape nearby, wonderfully composed and detailed.”
The paintings—known ever since asThe Three Philosophers and St. Francis in the Desert—were still at Contarini’s palazzo by 1556, according to an inventory of his collection. They remained there for at least thirty-one years and possibly longer, before being separated by 1589, when the Bellini moved to Palazzo Giustinian through the marriage of Taddeo’s great- granddaughter Elisabetta. They continued to change hands through the centuries, eventually reaching the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Frick, where they are among those collections’ most important paintings.
Cover of Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini
Accompanying Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini will be a book of the same name, authoredbyXavierF.SalomonandpublishedbyTheFrickCollectioninassociationwithDGiles Ltd., London. Alongside beautiful illustrations, Salomon presents new research exploring the origins of the paintings and re-evaluates their places in the collection of Taddeo Contarini
Images
Giorgio da Castelfranco, known as Giorgione (ca. 1477–1510) The Three Philosophers, ca. 1508–9
Oil on canvas
49 7/16 x 57 9/16 in. (125.5 x 146.2 cm) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Photo: KHM-Museumsverband
Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1424/35–1516) St. Francis in the Desert, ca. 1475–80
Oil on panel 49 1/16 x 55 7/8 in. (124.6 x 142 cm) The Frick Collection, New York Photo: Michael Bodycomb
The Robert Indiana Catalogue Raisonné, an ongoing project dedicated to documenting the artistic practice of American artist Robert Indiana (b. 1928, d. 2018), is now available online. Published by RI Catalogue Raisonné LLC using Panopticon software, and authored by Simon Salama-Caro, founder of the Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative, this free digital publication documents the artist’s paintings and sculptures conceived between 1955 and 2007.
"This is a new resource for the continued study and celebration of the work of Robert Indiana, one of America’s most influential artists,” said Simon Salama-Caro, who was entrusted by the artist in 1998 to prepare a catalogue raisonné of his work. “We hope that scholars, educators, arts professionals, and anyone wishing to gain a refined knowledge of the work of Indiana will use this new tool to learn about the breadth and depth of his oeuvre.”
Works included in the publication are paintings and sculptures that have been clearly documented through the artist’s records, gallery records, or fabricators’ records. The catalogue’s digital format allows for updated information to be added as it becomes available. This progressive approach to publishing enables greater and more immediate access to research as it develops.
The Catalogue Raisonné is divided into five sections:
Works, divided into Painting and Sculpture, provides information on all artwork entries along with full-color reproductions
Chronology offers an extensive overview of Indiana’s life and career, detailing the connections between the biography and the artworks
Exhibition History includes information about solo and group exhibitions in which Indiana’s work has been included
Literature includes published references, a selective bibliography, archival sources, artist's statements, and a selection of pages from Indiana's journals and Collections includes an international list of all known public collections that hold paintings and/or sculptures by Indiana.
In the future, RI Catalogue Raisonné LLC intends to add a digital volume on works on paper and an update for prints.
RI Catalogue Raisonné LLC does not authenticate or provide valuations of works of art by Robert Indiana.
Robert Indiana
Robert Indiana (b.1928-d.2018), one of the preeminent figures in American art since the 1960s, played a central role in the development of assemblage art, hard-edge painting, and Pop art. A self-proclaimed “American painter of signs,” Indiana created a highly original body of work that explores American identity, personal history, and the power of abstraction and language, establishing an important legacy that resonates in the work of many contemporary artists who make the written word a central element of their oeuvre.
Indiana’s artwork has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world, and his works are in the permanent collections of important museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the National Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Menil Collection in Houston; the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire; the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany; the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands; the Museum Ludwig in Vienna, Austria; the Art Museum of Ontario in Toronto; and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
A pair of unpublished Venetian masterpieces by the world-renowned titan of vedute painting, Giovanni Antonio Canal, Canaletto will lead Christie’s Old Masters Part I sale on 7 December in London during Classic Week, 2023. Venice: The Mouth of the Grand Canal from the East; and The Molo, with the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace, from the Bacino are in excellent condition and estimated to realise between £8,000,000 and £12,000,000. Depicting two of his most evocative subjects, this exceptional pair of views was painted in about 1734 when Canaletto was at the height of his powers.
Like most of his finest work of the period, the two canvases were almost certainly painted for an English patron for whom Joseph Smith, the merchant, collector and later consul in Venice, acted as agent. Their calibre is comparable to the great sequence of views on the Grand Canal now in the Royal Collection, and the celebrated series at Woburn Abbey. Offered from a private UK collection, they will be on public view in New York from 5 to 11 and also 14 to 18 October; and Paris 11 to 15 November; ahead of returning to London where they will be exhibited ahead of the sale between 1 and 6 December. A rare opportunity not to be missed, everyone is welcome.
Francis Russell, Christie’s UK Deputy Chairman, commented: “Both pictures are of classic views which were inevitably in considerable demand with Canaletto’s patrons. He had a genius for recalibrating his compositions, subtly varying his angles of vision and invariably completely revising both his boats and his figures. Previously unknown to scholars, these masterpieces exemplify Canaletto’s work at the height of his career.”
PROVENANCE
Records survive of the payments John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, made between 1734-6 to Smith’s brother and London agent, John Smith, for the celebrated Canaletto series at Woburn. It has been suggested by Charles Beddington that these pictures were components of the set of four canvases commissioned in 1733 by the Duke of Bedford’s sister, Elizabeth Countess of Essex and despatched by Smith by 18 September the following year. Her husband, William Capel 3rd Earl of Essex, was appointed ambassador at Turin in 1732.
The choice of subjects suggests that Lady Essex may well have seen the two related works already ordered by her brother while these were still in Venice. The impact of the series now at Woburn, once displayed in Bedford House in London, was to lead to further family commissions, from the Duke’s brother-in-law, Charles Spencer 3rd Duke of Marlborough, who commissioned the celebrated series of views formerly at Langley Park. Lady Essex, like her brother, may have ordered further works by the artist after the delivery of her four pictures.
By 1939, the pictures were owned by Douglas Glass (1881-1944), the only son of James George Henry Glass (1843-1911), a distinguished engineer and a director of the Bengal Nagpur Railway Company, whose interest in Italy is reflected in the fact that he died in Naples rather than in his English residence.
KNOWING HIS MARKET: PROVIDING INSIGHT, MEMORIES AND INTERIORS
From the outset of his career as a view-painter, Canaletto knew that his depictions of Venice conditioned the vision of people who hadn’t visited it, as well as memories for those who had as part of their Grand Tour. He was equally aware that many patrons required pictures that could be hung in pairs or as components of longer series and that by supplying pendants with complementary or intersecting viewpoints – as with this pair – he could offer a three-dimensional impression of the relationship between some of the key buildings of Venice. In the case of this pair: the spectator faces the west to experience the full architectural drama of the buildings flanking the Grand Canal as this moves into the Bacino and then can turn to the right to see the Molo and the great monuments of the heart of the city. Both pictures show Venice bathed in filtered morning light, heightening their bond.
COMPOSITIONS AND TECHNICAL DEVICES
The pictures imply viewpoints in the Bacino di San Marco just to the east of the mouth of the Grand Canal. Both were, and remain, among the most evocative of Venetian subjects. Canaletto never repeated his compositions, instead knowing how to vary them, shifting an angle of vision and varying the types and positions of the vessels that contribute so signally to the sense of receding perspective he presents to the viewer.
What some of Canaletto’s patrons may not have realised is that he did not hesitate in altering the relative scale of buildings for compositional effect, most obviously in this case the Basilica. Anyone surveying the scene from a boat would have had a constantly shifting view, the artist varied the level of the waterline in successive compositions. He ensured that the reflections of buildings and boats were true to the light conditions implied by his skies. In the Mouth of the Grand Canal sun penetrates the cloud and there are strong reflections. In the Molo the cloud above must be denser, so the Doge’s Palace is not reflected on the water as in some other variants, the darker light enabling him to emphasise the subtle brick patterning on the palace itself, bringing out the warmth of the brick-front of the palace to spectacular effect.
Popular as the view of the Mouth of the Grand Canal was, views of the Molo were in even greater demand for very obvious topographical reasons. It was here that ambassadors to the Serenissima arrived. Canaletto painted views of it from both the east and the west, but his most successful composition, of which this is one of the finest variants, show it from the Bacino. Canaletto first developed the composition in a drawing circa 1729 at Windsor which shows the Bucintoro. This was followed about 1730 in three very large pictures, the celebrated masterpiece in the Crespi Collection, Milan; that in the Bowes Museum and the canvas in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, which was acquired by Catherine the Great. Canaletto’s fourth, substantially smaller, treatment – which was painted for Smith and now in the Royal Collection – is circa 1733-4 and was etched by Visentini in 1735. There are subtle architectural adjustments in each work and, as was invariably the case, the ships and figures differ in all Canaletto’s variations. Closest in dimension to these exceptional canvases are those at Woburn.
Self-Portrait leaning on a Stone Sill (1639, estimate: £80,000-120,00) and The Shell (1650, estimate: £80,000-120,000)
Following the launch of a series of sales dedicated to The Sam Josefowitz Collection in October, Christie’s is honoured to present 75 Rembrandt prints, which will be offered across two sales on 7 December in Christie's London. Old Masters Part I will include five highly important subjects, representing different aspects of Rembrandt's unrivalled skill as a printmaker. This will be followed by the Evening Sale of The Sam Josefowitz Collection: Graphic Masterpieces by Rembrandt van Rijn. Seen together, the works in the sales will form a survey of the different genres, periods and working methods of Rembrandt's printed oeuvre. Sam Josefowitz was one of the greatest print collectors of the 20th century and the sale represents a rare opportunity to acquire works with esteemed provenance. The prints will be on display at Christie’s Rockefeller Center in New York until 29 October and in Amsterdam from 24 to 27 November. Highlights will be on view in Beijing from 5 to 6 November. All 75 prints will be exhibited in London from 1 to 6 December.
Tim Schmelcher, International Specialist, Prints and Multiples, Christie’s London: “No other collector in the 20th century put together such a comprehensive collection of Rembrandt Prints as Sam Josefowitz did. Sam’s interest in Rembrandt etchings began with a chance encounter on a flight from Paris to Geneva, where he met the prints dealer Ira Gale. Almost on a whim, he bought a couple of prints from him. From then on, Sam was hooked and began, with increasing ardor and knowledge, to acquire many of the finest and rarest Rembrandt prints to come on the market. He was fascinated by the virtuosity, imagination and deep humanity he found expressed in Rembrandt’s etchings. The artist’s unique way of printmaking, especially in his later years, resonated with Sam’s scholarly approach to collecting: Rembrandt frequently printed the same plate in a variety of ways, by making subtle alterations to the composition, inking the plate differently or printing on different types of paper. Over the decades, Sam was able to find exceptional examples, at times in multiple impressions of the same subject, tracing those variations. It is quite simply the greatest ensemble of the artist’s graphic oeuvre still in private hands.”
Monumental Drypoints
Dating from 1653 and 1655, respectively, few prints in European art history are considered of equal importance and are so unanimously admired as Rembrandt’s Christ crucified between the two Thieves, commonly known as The Three Crosses (1653, estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000) and Christ presented to the people (‘Ecce Homo’) (1655, estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000), the two largest prints of his oeuvre. Executed entirely in drypoint, these two prints show the artist at his most ambitious, radical and experimental, combining highly expressive, sketch-like and seemingly unfinished passages with intricately described details. Both subjects are offered here in very rare, early states, before Rembrandt radically altered the compositions on the printing plates.
Saint Jerome in an Italian Landscape
In Rembrandt's Saint Jerome in an Italian Landscape (1653, estimate: £500,000-700,000) we see Saint Jerome as an old man, sitting comfortably reclined in a pastoral landscape beneath a tree. The figure can only be identified as Saint Jerome by the lion standing behind him on a rocky outcrop, overlooking the landscape and guarding the saint's secluded spot. Rembrandt has omitted his other saintly attributes - the skull and the crucifix - and instead of the usual cardinal's hat, has given him a broad-brimmed sun hat. The scenery with the large farmhouse in the background is reminiscent of Titian’s or Giorgione’s Venetian landscapes. The brilliant, early example in this collection, printed on yellowish-brown Japan paper, seems bathed in the warm light of an Italian sunset.
Self-portraits
Few artists depicted themselves as regularly as Rembrandt. Possibly unique in European art, he painted himself at least 40 times, and etched no fewer than 31 self-portraits. In 1639, aged 34, Rembrandt created the largest, and grandest of his self-portraits in print, Self-Portrait leaning on a Stone Sill (estimate: £80,000-120,000). It is offered here in a magnificent example of the second state. Self-Portrait with Saskia (1636, estimate: £50,000-70,000) is a double-portrait of Rembrandt and his wife Saskia. An impression of the first state, before Rembrandt removed the little accidental curved line on her forehead, it printed with exceptional sharpness and clarity, and a beautifully atmospheric plate tone.
Nocturnal Prints on the Passion of Christ
More than any other plate in Rembrandt’s oeuvre, The Entombment (circa 1654, estimate: £120,000-200,000) had been the object of his experimental approach to printmaking in the later years. Not only did he alter the plate drastically between the first and the second state, he also tried out different supports – from European paper to Chinese and Japanese papers to vellum. From one impression to another, Rembrandt manipulated each pull by leaving varying degrees of plate tone and wiping the tone selectively to modify the illumination and pick out different highlights. Of the later states, virtually no two impressions look the same.
Still life
The Shell (1650, estimate: £80,000-120,000) is Rembrandt’s only etched still life. The shell is depicted approximately life-size, and Rembrandt beautifully captured the structure and the sheen of its surface. With its undefined surroundings, theatrical lighting, and marked foreshortening, it attains a strange monumentality and an otherworldly, mysterious quality.
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