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Lot Essay
The title for this print A Negress lying down or La négresse couchée, was coined by Adam Bartsch in the early 19th century, and is almost certainly erroneous. Neither de Jonghe in 1679 nor Röver in 1731 identified the subject as anything other than a sleeping nude woman. However, this title has remained in use although it is nowadays agreed that it is quite simply a woman lying in the dark. It may in fact be the same woman depicted in two other studies of female nudes created in the same year 1658 and in a very similar mood and style: The Woman sitting half-dressed beside a Stove (B. 197) an The Woman bathing her Feet at a Brook (B. 200).
No preliminary drawing is known of this composition. Münz observed the influence of Giulio Campagnola's Venus reclining in a Landscape, whereas Christopher White found similarity to the nude in Hans Sebald Beham's Saint John Chrsysostom. More recently Tom Rassieur thought of Jacob Matham's Nox after Karel van Mander as a source for Rembrandt's etching and suggested that it might have a similar allegorical meaning. (E. Hinterding, Rembrandt Etchings from the Frits Lugt Collection, 2008, p. 373-5)
The print is known in three states. Of the first state only one impression is known. In the present second state, Rembrandt darkened the pillow on the right with additional lines. In the third, probably posthumous state the heavily etched lines start to wear out and blank areas at the upper plate edge are filled in with burin.
The present impression is a fine example of the second state.
No preliminary drawing is known of this composition. Münz observed the influence of Giulio Campagnola's Venus reclining in a Landscape, whereas Christopher White found similarity to the nude in Hans Sebald Beham's Saint John Chrsysostom. More recently Tom Rassieur thought of Jacob Matham's Nox after Karel van Mander as a source for Rembrandt's etching and suggested that it might have a similar allegorical meaning. (E. Hinterding, Rembrandt Etchings from the Frits Lugt Collection, 2008, p. 373-5)
The print is known in three states. Of the first state only one impression is known. In the present second state, Rembrandt darkened the pillow on the right with additional lines. In the third, probably posthumous state the heavily etched lines start to wear out and blank areas at the upper plate edge are filled in with burin.
The present impression is a fine example of the second state.