A blind hurdy-gurdy player and family receiving alms, reverse copy.

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 print to the Colonial Museum in 1869, and Sir John Ilott a century later.

Rembrandt's informal depictions of peasants and beggars in episodes from humble, everyday life have been perennially popular with artists and collectors. This cottage scene seems to have been a special favourite, for at least seven different copies exist by various hands. This is an example - a reverse copy of the original. Te Papa also has an original impression of the same print  (1869-0001-424), also presented to the Colonial Museum by Monrad.

In her Te Papa blog, 'Faking Rembrandt', summer research scholar Anna Rigg observed the following about our reverse copy: 

This print is almost identical to an anonymous copy reproduced in the New Hollstein catalogue of Rembrandt's prints (and copies thereof), but not quite. Te Papa' s impression has had numerous subtle changes made to it, some of which are accidental: half a dozen diagonal scratches have appeared at the top of the doorway. Others are deliberate: look for the extra shading in the doorway, in the gutter and on the beggar man's clothes. This is known in printmaking as a new 'state': an altered version of an image printed from the same etched plate. The printmaker might have made changes in order to tweak the composition  to add or remove a detail, alter an expression, or adjust the balance of light and shade (Rembrandt did this frequently in his own prints), or to touch up a worn plate after hundreds of printings. We don't know who made the changes to the later state in Te Papa's collection. Was it the anonymous copyist who first etched the plate, or a later hand? This last question has preoccupied experts for a very long time as far as Rembrandt's own prints are concerned. Many of Rembrandt's original etched copperplates were sold to other artists and dealers, and right up to the present day people have continued to alter them and print new editions (known as 'issuing new states').

As a composition, it is unusual in the figure of the boy with his back to the viewer, which creates a huddle of figures emphasised by the densely shaded shadows on the right side and highlighted by the blank paper to the left. The etching is named after the elderly man. Some Rembrandt scholars, such as Christopher White, suggest that he is receiving alms in exhausted gratitude, but he does not appear to look at the donor, nor at the outstretched hand of the woman beside him. More recently, Dutch art historian K.J. Hellerstedt has argued that he is blind, which is now generally accepted. He is carrying a barely visible hurdy-gurdy musical instrument close to his body, holding the handle in his right hand. This was long overlooked: the former title, which I find more convincing, was Beggars receiving alms at the door of a house.

The etching was inspired by a painting by the popular Dutch genre painter David Vinckboons (1576-1632), who made at least eight paintings of the theme, in this instance Blind hurdy-gurdy man followed by children. Rembrandt himself etched four versions of the hurdy-gurdy player. His early interest in the 'picturesqueness' of these vagrants is also accompanied here by his concern for the dignity of humanity - and the decency of charity.

References: New Hollstein Dutch 243, copy j (later state); Bartsch 176, copy 4 (later state)

 

See:

K.J. Hellerstedt,  'A Traditional Motif in Rembrandt's Etchings: The Hurdy-Gurdy Player', Oud Holland Vol. 95, No. 1 (1981), pp. 16-30.

Anna Rigg, 'Faking Rembrandt: Copies in the collection', http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2016/02/16/faking-rembrandt/

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O151823/beggars-receiving-alms-at-the-print-rembrandt-van-rijn/

 

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art      August 2017