item details
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, 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 etching 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 left side and highlighted by the blank paper to the right. The etchings is named for 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 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.
This impression is from the third of five states (only the first was by Rembrandt). This is seen in the regular horizontal hatching on the doorjamb in front of the alms-giver’s face, and diagonal cross-hatching on his left upper arm. It dates from before the rebiting and reworking in Henri Louis Basan’s Parisian workshop (1797-1809), when horizontal hatching was made to the top part of the door jamb, for instance. Te Papa has another impression of this print (1869-0001-425) which is a reverse copy.
References: New Hollstein Dutch 243, 3rd of 5 states; Hollstein Dutch 176, undescribed 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