because of many uncertainties of attribution and dating. 

 A. M. Hind, op. cit., lists 236 prints before the year 1650, 

 which seems as accurate a count as is possible. 



« According to Hind, op. cit., the 14 landscapes nos. 237-260 

 and 262-264 are attributable to the years 1650-52. Of the 

 27 prints from these three years, 16 are actually signed and 

 dated by Rembrandt. Nine of these 16 are landscapes. 



° E.g., C. J. Holmes, "The Development of Rembrandt as 

 an Etcher," Burlington Magazine (August 1906), vol. 9, no. 41, 

 p. 313. The well-known story of his having drawn "Six's 

 Bridge" (Hind 209) on the plate while the servant went for 

 the mustard is also often cited (e.g.. Hind, op. cit., p. 95), but 

 if true appears to be atypical. 



10 Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, 6 vol., London, 

 1954-57. 



" Benesch no. 1225, Groningen (Netherlands) Museum, inv. 

 no. 210, dated about 16.50, the wash added by another hand. 

 This drawing was formerly in the personal collection of Cornells 

 Hofstede de Groot and was first reproduced and discussed by 

 Otto Hirschmann in "Die Handzcichnungen-Sammlung Dr. 

 Hofstede de Groot im Haag, H," Der Cicerone (Leipzig, 

 January 1917), vol. 9, no. 1/2, pp. 21-22. 



'- Benesch 850, A Clump of Trees, The Hermitage, Leningrad, 

 about 1648-50, and Benesch 1246, Farm Building Among Trees, 

 Albertina, Vienna, inv. no. 8873, Hofstede de Groot 1497 (Die 

 Handzeichnungen Rembrandts . . . , Haarlem, 1906), about 

 1650-51. 



'^ Benesch 1236, Farmstead wilh a Hay Barn, Copenhagen, 

 about 1650. 



" Benesch 1226, Farm Buildings Beside a Road with Distant 

 Farmstead, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Hofstede de Groot 1 1 38, 

 about 1650, with later additions. Ludwig Miinz (Rembrandt's 

 Etchings, 2 vols., London, 1952, no. 159, vol. 2, \.. 84) cites 

 two drawings, one in the Ashmolean, one in the University 

 Gallery, Oxford. Since the two museums are now one and the 

 same, Miinz appears to have confused two listings of the same 

 drawing. Mr. Hugh Macandrew of the Ashmolean Museum 

 has very kindly confirmed, in a letter to the author, that in their 

 collection there is only the one drawing which is similar to 

 this print. There is yet another drawing, Farm with Hay Barn, 

 in the Bonnat collection at the Louvre, Paris, Hofstede de 

 Groot 764, which is cited by Hind as a study sketch. Though 

 very similar to this print, in reverse, it is considered a school 

 piece by both Lugt and Benesch. It is quite possible that one 

 of Rembrandt's pupils accompanied him on his walks and 

 sketched many of the same subjects as the master. The 

 drawing reproduced in Lugt, Mit Rembrandt . . . , op. cit., 

 fig. 87, is also not by Rembrandt. 



'5 Joachim von Sandrart, a former pupil of Rembrandt, 

 writing in 1675, quoted in Hofstede de Groot, Die . . . 

 Urkunden, op. cit., no. 329, p. 392. 



'* The plate for the print under discussion here is not known 

 to have survived. There are, however, still some 79 Rembrandt 

 plates whose present locations are known. Of these, 75 are in 

 the collection of Robert Lee Humber, on deposit at the North 

 Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina. These 

 are discussed at some length by Andre Charles Coppier (Les 

 eaux-jortes de Rembrandt, Paris, 1922, pp. 94—96). He gives the 

 chemical content of the plate for the Presentation in the Temple 

 (Hind 162, about 1640), as 95% copper with impurities of tin, 

 lead, zinc, arsenic, and silver. This may presumably be taken 



as typical. MiJNZ, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 47, gives a listing of the 

 surviving plates, but mistakenly presumes the Humber plates 

 to be in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. As a matter of 

 interest, the plate of the print, The Gold-Weigher (Hind 167), 

 said by Miinz to be in the Rosenwald collection, Philadelphia, 

 is not and never has been in that collection. It is completely 

 unknown to Mr. Lessing J. Rosenwald and his curator. Its 

 present whereabouts is unknown to the author. 



1' The Whole Art of Drawing, Painting, Limning, and Etching. 

 Collected out of the Choicest Italian and German Authors .... Originally 

 invented and written by the famous Italian Painter Odoardo Fialetti, 

 Painter of Boloign. Published for the Benefit of all ingenuous Gentle- 

 men and Artists by Alexander Brown Practitioner. Loruion, Printed 

 for Peter Stint at the Signe of the White Horse in Giltspurre Street, and 

 Simon Miller at the Starre in St. Paul's Churchyard, MDCLX. 

 Page 33. London, 1660. Quoted by MiJNZ, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 

 208, who first discovered the reference. Since Fialetti died in 

 1638, the reference to Rembrandt's ground is likely to be by 

 Blown or an anonymous contemporary editor. 



'^ Abr.ah.\m Bosse, Traicte des manieres de graver en taille douce 

 . . . , Paris, 1645, p. 41. Bosse's soft-ground formula, for 

 comparison's sake, is three parts wax, two parts mastic, and 

 one part asphaltum, which is very close to the cited Rembrandt 

 ground. 



" Numerous similar grounds are given in E. S. Lumsden, 

 The Art of Etching (London: Seeley Service and Co., 1924); 

 reprint (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1962), pp. 35-38. 



-" Loc. cit. (footnote 17). 



-■ Some etchers, however, prefer this effect. Cf. Lumsdf.n, op. 

 cit., p. 42. 



-- MOnz, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 13, quotes this letter without 

 giving the source. Evidently this is the first written reference 

 to white ground. 



-' Op. cit., pp. 46^8. Knowledge of the process seems to 

 have disappeared completely during the 18th and 19th cen- 

 turies. Hubert Herkomer, writing in 1892, believed that he 

 had invented the white ground for the first time (Etching and 

 Mezzotint Engraving, London, 1892, pp. 4 and 25). 



-'The etching is Hind 42. The drawing (Benesch 21, 

 Hofstede de Groot 893) is in the British Museum. The black 

 chalk has been confirmed (sec footnote 25). It is also clear 

 that the backing is not graphite, which would, of course, show 

 up on a black ground as well as a white one. 



25 The etching is Hind 187. The drawing (Benesch 758, 

 Hofstede de Groot 896) is in the British Museum. Some 

 scholarly misinformation has unfortunately been passed on for 

 years. MOnz, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 65, cites Jan Six ("Rem- 

 brandt's Vorbcreiding . . . ," Onze h'wist, 1908, II, p. 53), 

 who in turn cites the personal observation of A. M. Hind of 

 the British Museum, to the effect that this drawing of Anslo was 

 backed with black chalk. The two drawings had apparently 

 not been lifted from their mounts in something like sixty years. 

 In answer to the author's inquiry, Mr. J. K. Rowlands, Assistant 

 Keeper, Department of Prints and Drawings, the British 

 Museum, very kindly wrote: "I can now tell you about the 

 backs of H. 42 and H. 187 [that is, the drawings for these two 

 prints], which have now been lifted. The reverse of The ]Voman 

 Bathing [Diana at the Bath] has the remains of black unrefined 

 chalk upon it and the portrait of Anslo is backed with Ochre 

 tempera. I think this news will interest you." I am most 



106 



BULLETIN 250: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



