The Three Trees

1643

Rembrandt van Rijn

Artist, Dutch, 1606 - 1669

Printed with deep, black shadows and swirling or straight lines on cream-white paper, three trees stand on a grassy bank alongside a body of water, probably a river or canal, in this horizontal etching, engraving, and drypoint. The grassy bank reaches almost two-thirds of the way across the composition from the right edge. At least two people, a horse-drawn wagon or carriage filled with more people, and a town, all minuscule in scale, are tucked under or beyond the trees. The face of the bank directly opposite us is dark in shadow, and the details of plants and the waterline are hard to make out. The bank tapers down so the distant horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition, stretches across the left half of the print. One person sits and one stands, fishing, by the water in the lower left corner. People work and cows stand or lie in the flat field beyond the water. Buildings and windmills created with a few strokes of the burin or etching needle are tiny in the far distance. The deeply shaded three trees are outlined starkly against the white sky. Dark clouds pour across the top of the sheet and enter along the left edge, and diagonal lines across the top left corner suggests falling rain. The artist signed and dated the print among grasses in the lower left corner of the printed image: “Rembrandt f. 1643.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    etching with drypoint and engraving on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 21.4 x 28 cm (8 7/16 x 11 in.)
    sheet: 21.8 x 28.7 cm (8 9/16 x 11 5/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1943.3.9119

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    White/Boon 1969, no. 212, State only

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Lessing Julius Rosenwald (Lugt 1760b) purchased from Weitenkampt 1928; given to the National Gallery of Art 1943

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1930

  • Prints and Drawings by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) from the Collections of Lessing J. Rosenwald, Pennsylvania Museum of Art, 1930

  • Rembrandt Etchings: Lent by Mr. Lessing J. Rosenwald, Philadelphia Art Alliance, 1930.

1932

  • Etchings by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) from the Collections of Lessing J. Rosenwald, Sears, Roebuck, and Co. Art Galleries, Washington, D.C., 1932.

1947

  • Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Frans Hals and Rembrandt, Los Angeles County Museum, 1947, no. 8.

1956

  • Rembrandt and His Pupils, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 1956, no. 17.

1958

  • Festival of Fine Arts, Barber-Scotia College, Concord, NC, 1958, no cat.

1959

  • Old Master Prints from the Rosenwald Collection, Brown University, Providence, RI, 1959.

1961

  • Rembrandt's Etchings, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1961-1962.

1962

  • Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA, 1962, no cat.

1965

  • Landscape Prints by Rembrandt and other Dutch Artists from the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, no cat.

1968

  • L'Incisione Europea dal XV al XX Secolo, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy, 1968. no. 164, repro.

1988

  • The Pastoral Landscape: The Legacy of Venice, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 60, fig. 124.

2006

  • Strokes of Genius: Rembrandt's Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Bibliography

1923

  • Hind, Arthur M. A Catalogue of Rembrandt's Etchings. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1923.

1969

  • White, Christopher and Karel G. Boon. Rembrandt's Etchings. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Van Gendt & Co., 1969.

1993

  • The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. (Rembrandt, Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers, authors). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1993-, no. 214, state only.

1995

  • Martinez, Benjamin and Jacqueline Block. Visual Forces: An Introduction to Design. 2nd edition, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1995: 37, fig. A.

Inscriptions

recto: in plate, at lower left: Rembrandt f. 1643; verso: at upper left, in graphite, in later hand: 204 / R / 700; at bottom left, in graphite, in later hand: G / 8 [?]; at bottom right, in graphite, in later hand: 212 / EE 698 2/4200

Markings

recto: none; verso: Lessing J. Rosenwald and National Gallery of Art

Watermarks

to be identified?

Wikidata ID

Q65024916

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