Landscape with Cottages and Hay Barn: Oblong

Rembrandt van Rijn

An image of a somewhat dilapidated farmhouse partially hidden by overgrown vegetation. To the left, a cart peeks out from a wagon shed. As two children fish from a small pier along the canal in the foreground, a woman - perhaps their mother - watches from the far right window. Another figure walks away from the cottage to the right, and seen just beyond them are the towers and peaks of a stately building, possibly the now-gone Kostverloren House. One of many scenes of the Amsterdam lowlands that Rembrandt created between 1640 and 1652; this is sometimes considered his finest of the lowlands etchings.

This impression is a restrike printed by artist and noted former director of the Rembrandt House Museum, Theo Beerendonk (Dutch: 1905-1979) from the uncanceled plate in their possession. Prior to his directorship, he was given permission by the museum to reprint a selection of Rembrandt's copperplates in 1960. In order to keep things clear Beerendonk added his pencil signature in the lower left of the image.

It is accompanied by a letter to Mr. B. Kleinman at Shell Oil in Houston, TX from July 26, 1977 from Dr. E.D. Kunst of the Koninklijke/Shell Laboratorium from Amsterdam which reads in part: "I finally got around to choosing and sending to you (separately) the Rembrandt print I promised. It is marked "reproduction" on the package but in reality it is not a reproduction in the usual sense but rather a re-production, a renewed production. It was printed recently by an artist/craftsman from an origial copper plate by Rembrandt himself in 1641. There is a print from this plate byRembrandt himself in Rembrandt's house (now a museum) in Amsterdam and presumably in quite a few other places....."

This impression is much better printed than subsequent printings and might be considered a "pauper's Rembrandt."