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●
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN
The Flute Player
.
Etching and drypoint, 1642. 114x143 mm; 4
1
/
2
x5
5
/
8
inches, narrow to thread margins.
Biörklund’s fourth state (of 5); Usticke’s fourth state (of 5);White and Boon’s fourth state
(of 5). Indiscernible, though possibly the upper part of a foolscap watermark (see
Ash/Fletcher 19; they note a foolscap watermark with a 5-pointed collar on another
fourth state impression of this subject in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
Ex-collection unidentified collector, indiscernible circular ink stamp or ink inscription
verso. A very good, well-inked impression.
According to Usticke, “A scarce plate (R+).”
The figure of the lascivious male flute player, a popular folk-tale character from the early
16th century onward, was well-known to Dutch art connoisseurs in Rembrandt’s time as
the
Eulenspiegel (Owl-glass)
, and Rembrandt has conspicuously placed a tame owl on the
shepherd’s shoulder in this etching to further the point.The figure of the
Eulenspiegel
was
known to be a wily, shifty character, whom Rembrandt has represented here with a flute
suggestively directed at the seated shepherdess while he steals a glance beneath the hem
of her dress. Bartsch 188; Biörklund 32-D; Hollstein (White and Boon) 188.
[10,000/15,000]