Currently not on view
A Blind Hurdy-Gurdy Player and Family Receiving Alms,
1648
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606–1669; born Leiden, Netherlands; died Amsterdam, Netherlands
x1970-67
Rembrandt’s observations of women and children, made from the 1630s onward, are incorporated into this dignified depiction of beggars. The itinerant family consists of a blind musician, a woman carrying an infant on her back, and a little boy. As in many of Rembrandt’s narrative scenes, the central event is a convergence of gestures—the woman’s open palm and the gentleman’s alms-giving hand. Even the bundled baby seems drawn to the single coin that is solemnly offered to the mother. By comparison with the earlier etching also on view, this is a more elaborate and finished composition, in which the softly modeled figures project an expressive monumentality.
Information
Title
A Blind Hurdy-Gurdy Player and Family Receiving Alms
Dates
1648
Maker
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
plate: 16.5 x 12.8 cm. (6 1/2 x 5 1/16 in.)
sheet: 17.6 x 14.1 cm. (6 15/16 x 5 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Lucille Fenn Stafford
Object Number
x1970-67
Place Made
Europe, Netherlands
Inscription
Signed and dated in plate, lower right: Rembrandt f. 1648
Marks/Labels/Seals
Collector's stamps, verso: Adam Gottlieb Thiermann (Lugt 2434); Kupferstichkabinett, Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Lugt 1606, Lugt 1609)
Collector's stamps that are overstamped with cancellations, verso: Kupferstichkabinett, Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Lugt 2482, Lugt 2922)
Stamp of Colnaghi, London and inventory number in graphite, verso: C23143
Reference Numbers
Bartsch 176; Biörklund and Barnard 48; Hind 233; Hollstein 86; Münz 271; New Hollstein 164.243
Materials
Techniques
- E. F. Gersaint and Adam von Bartsch, Catalogue raisonné de toutes les estampes qui forment l’oeuvre de Rembrandt et ceux de ses principaux imitateurs (Vienne: A Blumauer, 1797)., no. 78
- Ludwig Münz, Rembrandt's Etchings: Reproductions of the Whole Original Etched Work (London: Phaidon Press, 1952)., no. 223
- George Biörklund and Osbart H. Barnard, Rembrandt's Etchings, True and False (Stockholm, New York [etc.], 1968)., no. 63
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F.W.H. Hollstein, “Rembrandt,” Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings, and woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700 (Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1969).
, no. 78 - "Acquisitions 1970", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 30, no. 1 (1971): p. 22-30., p. 27
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Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers, Ger Luijten, ed., "Rembrandt," New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, 1450-1700 (Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel: Sound & Vision Publishers ; Amsterdam: In co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, 2013).
, no. 274, p. 222 - Arthur Mayger Hind, Rembrandt's etchings: an essay and a catalogue, with some notes on the drawings (New York: Scribner, 1912)., no. 270
