Cottage with a White Paling

The effects of light on water, and of water as a mirror surface, have always challenged artists. In Rembrandtʼs etching of a cottage along a river, the reflection of the fence and vegetation on the waterʼs surface animates the foreground and elicits the delight at catching this phenomenon on a bright day. Here, this effect is a detail; for the later artists at Fontainebleau, light on water often became a compositionʼs primary subject, one that blurs the line between reality and its reflection. -- Exhibition label for "Into the Woods: French Drawings and Photographs from the Karen B. Cohen Gift"
Date added. (White and Boon)
Margins of 1-2.5 mm at the bottom and the right side; while trimmed within the platemark at the top and the left side.
One of two impressions of state III in the Library (see RvR 328).
Preparatory drawing (168 x 252 mm) in Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam [Christopher White, 1999, no. 317], described by Benesch as a copy after a lost original [see "Burlington Magazine", 1968 (cx) p. 393]. (White and Boon, [modified])
The date (?) has been variously read as 1642 or 1652. For the reading of 1648, see "Burlington Magazine", 1968 (cx) p. 390.
The rising grounds in the distance to the left as well as the paling below the windmill have been shaded.