The Gold Weigher Etching By Rembrandt - For Sale

The Gold Weigher Etching By Rembrandt
Price: $1500.00
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 — October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, his later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardship. Yet his drawings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high and for twenty years he taught nearly every important Dutch painter. Rembrandt’s greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. The self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

In both painting and printmaking he exhibited a complete knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt’s knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of the Jewish population of Amsterdam. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called “one of the great prophets of civilization.”




Jan Uytenbogaert (1608–1680) was Holland’s Receiver-General, or chief tax collector. Rembrandt may have met him in Leiden in the early 1630s, when Uytenbogaert was studying law and Rembrandt was studying painting. In Amsterdam, they both enjoyed collecting prints.

Rembrandt may have etched this print as a token of gratitude to Uytenbogaert for his intervention on the artist’s behalf. In 1639, the year of this print, Rembrandt sought to purchase a house in Amsterdam but lacked the necessary down payment, as he was still waiting to receive compensation for the paintings he had completed for Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Uytenbogaert’s overture on the artist’s behalf was successful, and Rembrandt’s purchase of the house followed soon after.

In this portrait, the artist depicts Uytenbogaert exercising his professional duties. He sits at a carpet-covered table topped with gold-weighing scales and bags of gold, and records payments in a ledger. A kneeling servant accepts one of the bags. To the left, a couple carrying bags of gold are about to enter. Light and dark passages animate the space, with dry point used to describe the velvety character of his fur coat and hat. One wonders if Rembrandt consulted with Uytenbogaert before composing this conceptually and technically ambitious etching. The profusion of anecdotal detail recalls Northern graphic traditions of a century earlier, reflecting the collecting tastes of both men.



Rembrandt " Jan Uytenbogaer; The Gold Weigher', 1639 ,The Image trimmed to/on the Plate mark measure 9.25 x 8 inches (repaired margin reattached at the top on the Plate mark otherwise a good strong impression on antique Laid paper .

Art (paintings, prints, frames)
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House of Stow Galleries
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