Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Cottage with a White Paling

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
1606-1669

Cottage with a White Paling

1648
Etching and drypoint on paper.
130 x 158 mm
RvR 327
NHD number
NHD 246, III
Notes
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.
Inscriptions/Markings
Signed and dated, "Rembrandt f 1648".
Watermark: Fragment, indecipherable, possibly similar to RvR 326
Provenance

Karl Eduard von Liphart (1808-1891), Dorpat, Bonn and Florence; Edward Smith, Jr. (2nd half of 19th century), London; Theodore Irwin (1827-1902), Oswego, New York; from whom purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1900.

Associated names
Irwin, Theodore, 1827-1902, former owner.
Liphart, Karl Eduard von, 1808-1891, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Smith, Edward, 19th cent., former owner.
Bibliography

White, Christopher. Rembrandt as an etcher : a study of the artist at work. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 1999, no. 317.

Classification
Department
Century prints
School