Currently not on view
Adoration of the Shepherds with the Lamp,
ca. 1654
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606–1669; born Leiden, Netherlands; died Amsterdam, Netherlands
x1949-236
Rembrandt illustrated biblical texts throughout his career. During the late 1640s and 1650s he began emphasizing dramatic light and dark contrasts in his religious prints, resulting in a number of intimate and expressive nocturnal scenes. This one belongs to a set of six etchings depicting the infancy and childhood of Christ. Here, the shepherds who found the newborn Jesus lying in a stable appear as a huddle of darkly delineated figures, including a bagpipe player. Together with Joseph and the two oxen, the shepherds frame the sleeping infant and his mother Mary, who are mysteriously floodlit by the small hanging oil lamp.
Information
Title
Adoration of the Shepherds with the Lamp
Dates
ca. 1654
Maker
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
plate (sheet trimmed to plate): 10.8 × 13.3 cm (4 1/4 × 5 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Jessie P. Frothingham
Object Number
x1949-236
Place Made
Europe, Netherlands
Inscription
Signed in plate, lower left: Rembrandt f.
Marks/Labels/Seals
Collector's signature, verso: G.A.A [Adolph Theodor Gerstäcker] (Lugt 1077)
Reference Numbers
Bartsch 45; Biörklund and Barnard 54; Hind 273; Hollstein 22; Münz 226; New Hollstein 279
Materials
Techniques
Subject
- 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)., 124
- "Recent Acquisitions," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 8, no. 2 (1949): 11–12., p. 12
- Ludwig Münz, Rembrandt's Etchings: Reproductions of the Whole Original Etched Work (London: Phaidon Press, 1952)., no. 139
- George Biörklund and Osbart H. Barnard, Rembrandt's Etchings, True and False (Stockholm, New York [etc.], 1968)., no. 58
-
F.W.H. Hollstein, “Rembrandt,” Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings, and woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700 (Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1969).
, no. 96 -
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. 319, p. 299 - Arthur Mayger Hind, Rembrandt's etchings: an essay and a catalogue, with some notes on the drawings (New York: Scribner, 1912)., 141
