Self-Portrait in a Cloak with a Falling Collar: Bust
Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn (Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam), Self Portrait in a Cloak with a Falling Collar: Bust, 1630-31, etching, [signed RHL and dated 1630 which was altered to 1631 in the plate]. References: Bartsch 15, White/Boon, Hollstein 15; fifth state (of six; see note below). In very good condition, with a 1/4 inch thread margin all around. 2 1/2 x 2 1/8, the sheet 2 5/8 x 2 3/16 inches.
Provenance:
George Hibbert, London (Lugt 2849)
William Esdaile, London (Lugt 2617)
Otto Gerstenberg, Berlin (Lugt 2785; with the “Montag number” M. 180 on the verso, cf. Lugt 1840c)
David Tunick Inc., New York (ca. 1983)
Private collection, USA.
A fine crisp impression of this exceedingly rare print. Nowell-Eusticke rates its rarity as RRRR (“Practically unobtainable, greatest rarity”)
In a note in the Print Quarterly (Vol. 1, no. 2, June 1984, p. 124) Linda Papaharis described an impression of Self-Portrait in a Cloak in the Morgan Library as a sixth state; this impression has a broad area of additional shading to the left center edge of the plate above the shading at the lower left. She noted that this Morgan Library impression was apparently known to Rembrandt expert Arthur Hind for there is a pencil notation indicating this on the mount, but that the Morgan had catalogued the impression as an undescribed state; hence although earlier cataloguers traditionally account for five states of this print we catalogue this impression as a fifth state (of 6).