Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Considered one of the greatest printmakers of all time, Rembrandt van Rijn created some 300 etchings and drypoints between about 1626 and 1665. He began exploring the graphic medium early in his career and frequently used himself as a model, as seen here with his first wife Saskia van Uylenburgh (1612-1642) in sixteenth-century costumes. Unlike earlier artists, he rarely copied his painted works, instead preferring to explore the expressive properties of the printmaking medium.

After moving to Amsterdam in 1631, Rembrandt produced prints of many different subjects, some of which were small and sketchy, like images in a drawing book. Whether depicting a genre scene, portrait, or a theme from the Bible, Rembrandt imbued his prints with the skilled touch of a master draughtsman and a sense of humanity.