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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, and it also explains why, in later centuries they were affordable for Bishop Ditlev Monrad, who presented this print to the Colonial Museum in 1869, and Sir John Ilott.
This etching depicts one of Rembrandt's favourite subjects, which he also addressed in 1633, 1644, 1647 (in a painting) and 1651, in The Flight into Egypt: Crossing a Brook (1654), presented to the National Art Gallery by Ilott (1966-0005-7).
While both our prints are nocturnes, this is particularly obvious here with its densely inked effects. It reflects Rembrandt's famous fascination in depicting the effects of artifical light in the dark, and emphasises viewers' sympathy for the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child, and Joseph as refugees, protecting Jesus's life from the Massacre of the Innocents.
This impression is from the sixth of ten states (six by Rembrandt). This can be established by light cross hatching on the donkey's nose, small vertical lines on the two brightly lit parts of the lantern and diagonal crosshatching on Joseph’s chest. It was made before rebiting and reworking by another hand (e.g. the light beams cast by the lantern have not yet been burnished to make them brighter).
References: New Hollstein Dutch 262, 6th of 10 states; Hollstein Dutch 53, 6th of 6 states
See:
Shelley Perlove and Larry Silver, Rembrandt's Faith: Church and Temple in the Dutch Golden Age (Pennsylvania, 2009), p. 171.
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art August 2017