Rembrandt as an Etcher: A Study of the Artist at Work. (Revised, Single Volume, Second Edition).

Christopher White

ISBN 10: 0300079532 / ISBN 13: 9780300079531

Published by Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1999

About this Item

hardcover in dust jacket., has some faint toning to margins and waviness at top edge. no other flaws or wear.no writing or markings, tight binding.; 1999 revised second edition, with previous 2 volumes combined in one.; first edition thus.; 284pp., 349 illustrations.; still an outstanding work 30 years after the first edition. explores rembrandt's pioneering use of etching as a means to further his larger enterprise, and provides some very helpful context. Size: Folio - over 12" - 15" tall.

Seller Inventory # 24908

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rembrandt as an Etcher: A Study of the Artist at Work. (Revised, Single Volume, Second Edition).
• Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven, CT
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300079532
• ISBN 13: 9780300079531
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: Second Edition, Revised.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Art History, Netherlands

About this title

Synopsis

A survey of Rembrandt's etchings. It discusses them both individually and generally, thematically and in relation to his paintings and drawings. This new edition is revised to take account of recent research, and contains information on Rembrandt's working methods and techniques.

Review

It is timely that Christopher White chose to revise his study of Rembrandt's etching, 30 years on from when it was first published. This second edition, of what quickly became an authoritative text, incorporates critical reaction to its predecessor as well as the continuing scholarship of the Rembrandt Research Project among others. There have been 16 catalogues raisonnés of the artist's prints and innumerable exhibition publications, making his etchings the most catalogued works of art in the world. However, few other works have considered the "how", as well as the "what", and set the works in a historical and personal context. Christopher White, a leading authority on Dutch and Flemish Art of the 17th century who edited the accompanying catalogue to the National Gallery exhibition Rembrandt By Himself, is the ideal man for the job. The line "Would you like to see my etchings?" has never sounded so appealing.

White divides his attention into six considerable chapters: Technique, History, Portraiture, Genre, Nudes and Landscape. The most valuable and ground-breaking is the first, where his explanations of Rembrandt's working methods and techniques give the illusion of peering over the artist's shoulder, such is the vividness with which details of biting, dry point and choice of papers come alive in his accessibly learned prose. The patient care invested in not just assembling, but attractively presenting, mirrors the attentions of the etcher who undertakes a painstaking process with a slow-burning excitement, always with the uncertainty of the end product. This is something for which Rembrandt's temperament seemed entirely suited. In his later life he abandoned his habit of careful pre-planning and allowed the means to influence the ends, a flexibility which was entirely characteristic of him as an artist across the board. He was never afraid to experiment, his reasons for working were as pragmatic as they were visionary and prints were the most successful reproductive propagandists for their maker's art. White's book, as luxurious to handle as to study or peruse, is still the definitive standard by which evaluation of Rembrandt's etchings and their relationship with his drawings and paintings must be judged. It is definitively art history, at its most rewarding and enthralling. --David Vincent