Lot Essay
This very fine impression is an extremely rare example of the first state, one of only eight recorded, including two counterproofs, and it comes with grand provenance: from the collections of Arthur Pond, Richard Houlditch and John Barnard, whose initials on the reverse can faintly be seen on the front. Aside froma few small changes, Rembrandt polished the plate edges in the second state. Here, we can still the rough edges with their filing marks printing strongly, lending the sheet an almost continuous framing line.
The print is closely related to A nude Man seated before a Curtain (see lot 66), showing the same model in a different position, presumably from another life-drawing session. The present one is the most classical and arguably most elegant of the three etchings Rembrandt made of this young man. There is something touching about the way his head with the tousled hair is turned away from the draftsman, and the viewer. More than in the other two male nude studies, the light plays an important role in composition of the plate, as it falls from the right onto his back, left arm and buttock. The direction of the light and the extended leg balance out the composition, which is heavily weighted to the right and yet does not seem one-sided.
In the other two nude studies, Rembrandt felt inclined to somehow fill the empty space around the figures, but it is his magisterial use of the blank paper which make Nude Man seated on the Ground with one Leg extended one of the most starkly beautiful etchings in his oeuvre.
The print is closely related to A nude Man seated before a Curtain (see lot 66), showing the same model in a different position, presumably from another life-drawing session. The present one is the most classical and arguably most elegant of the three etchings Rembrandt made of this young man. There is something touching about the way his head with the tousled hair is turned away from the draftsman, and the viewer. More than in the other two male nude studies, the light plays an important role in composition of the plate, as it falls from the right onto his back, left arm and buttock. The direction of the light and the extended leg balance out the composition, which is heavily weighted to the right and yet does not seem one-sided.
In the other two nude studies, Rembrandt felt inclined to somehow fill the empty space around the figures, but it is his magisterial use of the blank paper which make Nude Man seated on the Ground with one Leg extended one of the most starkly beautiful etchings in his oeuvre.