The pancake woman.

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, in later centuries, they were affordable for Bishop Ditlev Monrad, who donated this example to the Colonial Museum in 1869, and Sir John Ilott.

 

A fascinating glimpse into everyday Dutch life is shown here with the genre etching The Pancake Woman. Our elderly heroine is hard at work, preparing food for the light-hearted crowd that surrounds her. She appears diligent and tired; her posture and expression are evident of these characteristics, which Rembrandt cleverly translates through his etched detail and shading technique. Children scurry around her feet as onlookers eagerly hover over her shoulders. The pancake woman hunches over, frowning in concentration. Rembrandt clearly highlights her as the subject of this work, adding an immense amount of detail to her appearance so that she appears to pop out from the crowd around her. In the foreground a pancake-loving dog attempts to snatch the pancake from the hands of a toddler, who jealously guards it.

 

A delightful print also in the collection by one of Rembrandt's contemporaries closely relates to this work: Taste, from the series The five senses, by Jan Both (1642-50) (2015-0056-13). The child-dog struggle escalates in this scene, where a young girl cries as her pancake is guzzled by another, greedier, child.

 

This impression is the second of seven states (the first two were by Rembrandt). It was previously catalogued as a posthumous third-state etching.

 

References: New Hollstein Dutch 144, 2nd of 7 states; Hollstein Dutch 124, 2nd of 3 states

 

See: Masterworks Fine Art, https://www.masterworksfineart.com/artist/harmensz-van-rijn-rembrandt/the-pancake-woman-c-1635/

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art     September 2017