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Overview
During his lifetime, Rembrandt's extraordinary skills as a printmaker were the main source of his international fame. Unlike his oil paintings, prints travelled light and were relatively cheap. For this reason, they soon became very popular with collectors not only within, but also beyond the borders of the Netherlands. It also explains why, two or three centuries later, they were affordable for Bishop Ditlev Monrad and Wellington collector Sir John Ilott, both of them benefactors to the forerunners of Te Papa. We have two impressions of this famous print by Rembrandt: one was gifted to the Colonial Museum by Monrad in 1869 (1869-0001-411) and this superior example was gifted to the National Art Gallery by Ilott.
Rembrandt's interest in human expressions extends not just to portraits and figure studies, but also to his grandest religious subjects. Even his harshest critics valued the genuineness and immediacy of the emotions expressed by his figures. The death of the Virgin is a fine example of how he depicted sublime religiosity with humanity.
This distinctly Roman Catholic subject has less to do with religion than with artistic traditions. Many great artists have depicted the death of Mary, and Rembrandt gave the subject his own interpretation. Usually the Virgin is shown surrounded by the Apostles, but Rembrandt's gathering includes women, too. Mary is traditionally shown in the bloom of youth, but thinking through the human implications of the story, he made her appropriately old and sick. For good measure, he invented a physician to check her pulse.
The freedom of his handling of the etching needle is especially evident in the upper register of the image, where the high-timbered chamber is visited by a host of cloud-borne angels. Rembrandt was willing to let the viewer see the how the image evolved, evident in the arcing traces he left after reconfiguring the risers supporting the bed.
This impression is from the second of five states (two by Rembrandt). The chair in the right foreground is heavily shaded in drypoint; it predates the reworking in mezzotint, as in the fourth state print which is also in the collection (1869-0001-411).
References: New Hollstein Dutch 173, 2nd of 5 states; Hollstein Dutch 99, 2nd of 3 states.
See:
Minneapolis Institute of Art, https://collections.artsmia.org/art/7728/the-death-of-the-virgin-rembrandt-harmensz-van-rijn
New Hollstein, Rembrandt I (2013), p. lviii.
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art August 2017