Query
In my podcast RM24011 about Rembrandt’s insolvency, I also discussed which assets where incuded in the well-known inventory-list. It was made up during a two-day period, on 25 and 26 July 1656, by Frans Bruijningh, the secretary of the Chamber of Abandoned and Insolvent Estates. In several publicatons the full list can be found. I took a look at the inventory list as published in ‘Rembrandt’s Documents’ (Strauss and Van der Meulen, 1979). I also tossed some queries why certain assets seemed to be missing.
My podcast draw the attention of Desmond Healy, an artist-etcher form the UK. He did send a reaction. Desmond wondered what happened to Rembrandt’s etching press? Was it mentioned in the inventory or was it exempt as a tool of trade?
Desmond’s question guided me back to do some additional research, which led to the following response.
Etching press in Leiden
The etching press, or better: ‘an’ etching press was already a subject of uncertainty in the mid-1620s, in Rembrandt’s Leiden years. In these years Rembrandt produced his first etchings. He developed his own etching technique and in 1628 he started producing his first etchings. I mentioned earlier that the decision to begin etching must have meant taking a significant new direction in his art career. The training for this technique is also different: his early etchings give the impression that he was basically self-taught. See Hinterding and Schatborn (2019), 467. Although being acknowledged as being an etcher, Rembrandt presented himself nevertheless always, as notaries did write this in their deeds, as a painter.
During the Leiden years, Rembrandt became friends and was professionally involved with Jan Lievens (1607-1674), a contemporary artist. Lievens was a year younger than Rembrandt and already working as independent artist since he was around 15 years old. In literature views differ about the sort of relationship they had. Were they full rivals? They were both interested in etching. In this period, did Rembrandt and Lievens, both former pupils of Pieter Lastman, shared a studio together? Van Straten (Van Straten (2006), 39) provides several examples showing that they worked together closely between 1628 and 1631, particularly in etching, with Lievens using Rembrandt’s etching press. In this respect, it is noted that there is no concrete evidence to suggest that they shared a common studio. Lievens, though younger than Rembrandt, had already been professionally active for some four years before Rembrandt started as an entrepreneur. Why would the rather successful Lievens start working with a beginner in the field? Van Straten – on the contrary – suggests that the two artists became embroiled in a fight in the summer of 1631 and that Lievens was no longer allowed to use the etching press!
Etching press to Amsterdam?
Let’s assume that Rembrandt owned this etching press. Nowadays, I understand, a simple etching press is quite manageable, weighing approximately 32 kilos, with a very reasonable print size. Furthermore, such a press is easy to store (in the example I saw: if you unscrew the 4 spokes from the hub). Be that as it may, in Rembrandt’s case the etching press would have had a considerable weight and would have consisted out of one inflexible piece. The question is of course whether in around 1631 Rembrandt transported this Leiden press to Amsterdam, and if so, how. By carriage? Or by inland boat?
The insolvency inventory
Anyway, let’s go to 1656 and to the inventory list. It contains 19 pages, with 363 indented lines, some containing several items. It for instance mentions over sixty paintings by Rembrandt himself. The full inventory is located in around 13 rooms. One of them is the Entrance hall (‘In t Voorhuijs’). It locates twenty-nine paintings, six Spanish chairs with Russian leather (‘juchte’) and a pine step-stool (‘vuyren hout soldertie’). The room to the side (‘Sydelcaemer’) for instance contained forty-three paintings, a mirror and seven Spanish chairs with green velvet seats. And then we come to the room behind this room (‘in de Caemer agter de Sijdelcaemer’). This room contains nineteen paintings, an oak table (‘eeken taefeltie’), an oak press (‘eeken pars’), four bad (‘slechte’) chairs, a copper kettle and a coat rack (‘kapstock’). And the room to the rear (‘Agtercaemer offte Sael’) had twenty-four paintings, a large mirror, an oak table with six chairs with blue seats (‘blaeuwe sitsels’), a bed and bolster (‘bedt en peulue’), a warming pan (‘vuijer iser’), two pillows and two blankets, and …. a cedar press (‘sackeren daenen pars’).
So, from the inventory, it can be taken that Rembrandt had two presses!
I wasn’t aware of that, but it’s an interesting fact. I say Rembrandt ‘had’, because it is not certain whether he owned these presses. Both items were an oak press (‘eeken pars’) and from an other room a palisander press (‘sackeren daenen pars’). Both items were included in the inventory list.
Roscam Abbing (2006) has made a study of the rather unknown word ‘sackeren daene’ press. In the inventory list these are two words, but Roscam Abbing notes that ‘sakerdaan’ is generally spelled in one combined word. He argues that ‘sakerdaan’ should be identified as Rio palisander (or: Dalbergia nigra) from Brazil.
In the second quarter of the 17th century this was the wood of a new world tree known also as jacaranda and later as palisander.
Conclusion: there were two presses, the oak press and the palisander press.
The Etching press in the Museum in Hoorn
It’s a pleasant coincidence that in Hoorn (a place some 40 kilometers north of Amsterdam) over 200 etchings of Rembrandt can be seen until 3 November 2024. The Hoorn Westfries Museum highlights Rembrandt’s photographic eye. These etchings are from the collection of Rembrandt collector Jaap Mulders. In addition to Rembrandt’s masterful technique, the exhibition also highlights his almost photographic compositions. Rembrandt had an eye for the perfect picture like no other artist of his time: like a photographer avant la lettre, the museum says in its description of the exhibition.
The museum also demonstrates an etching press.
The accompanying card reads: Scale model of etching press, as used by Rembrandt. Scale 1:3.
Peter van Honk, Rembrandt Grafisch Atelier, Franeker. Wood, 2023. It seems to present the oak press, but I leave it to experts to further discuss this. Below a picture of the tiny, teeny lines Rembrandt had to scratch to achieve the result below.
Public auction
Following the whereabouts of the etch press we arrive in the year 1658. This is probably the most dramatic year for Rembrandt, because he was then compelled to sell his house, his furniture and a collection of graphic art he personally cherished.
After several public sales, a next sale – the fourth – contained furniture and household goods. On 14 February 1658, the commissioners of the Chambre of Abandoned and Insolvent Estates authorized Thomas Jacobsz Haringh, concierge (‘conchergie’), to take possession of and to sell furniture and household effects comprising the property of Rembrandt van Rijn. Haringh also had to hand over the money received from the sales to their Honours, to comply with legal procedure: ‘Enacted, [14 February 1658,] in the presence of [Dirck Tulp, Michiel Pancras, and Dirck Spiegel, and signed by Frans Bruyningh [secretaris].
Over four months later, on 26 July 1658, Haringh entered into the ledger of payments, for the account of Rembrandt, for the sales of these possessions on 18 April, of 432:5:- guilders and for the sale of some of Rembrandts paintings on 5 July, the amount of 95:15:- guilders.
These auctions were held in the corner (‘hock’, most probably ‘hoek’, i.e. corner) of the municipal lending institution (‘Bank van Lening’). Titus, around seventeen years old of age at the time, was present at this sale and acquired a mirror in a black frame. But I owe you that intriguing story. The description of the first sale is too general to indicate whether it included an etching press (and if so, which one?).
Rembrandt’s passing away 1669
This resolves Desmond Healy’s question. The inventory list contained not one, but two different etching presses. It is unclear, however, whether one or both were sold at the public auction.
More than 10 years later, we still do find something that can contribute to this story. I am talking about the inventory that was drawn up after Rembrandt’s death on 4 October 1669.
In a following podcast I will tell you more about Rembrandt’s financial situation in the last years of his life. For the eching press story the the inventory of Rembrandt’s estate may give a led. From the inventory it follows that he had in his possession, according to the notary’s writing ‘… paintings, drawings, curios, antiques, and other objects (‘… de vordere goederen soo van schilderijen, teyckenen, rariteyten, antiquiteyten en anders’), located in three separate rooms in the house on the Rozengracht. The inventory was drawn up by notary Gerrit Steeman on 5 October 1669, one day after Rembrandt’s death.
In the Entrance hall (‘Int Voorhuijs), there are chairs and paintings and also an ‘eeckenhoute pars met een schabel’, this is a oak press with is a simple sofa with a plank as a backrest. An ‘oak press with a stool’, in the translation of Strauss and Van den Meuelen (1979). It is not known whether the notary also had access to other places, perhaps storage space or some other place where works made by Rembrandt may have been located.
To conclude, it is not certain, but this seems to me to be a different etching press than the two on the inventory list of 1656. And where this last etching press went is unknown.
This etching can also be seen in the museum in Hoorn. The accompanying card has the text:“Jan Antonides van der Linden.
Etching, drypoint and burin, 1665.This is the last etching Rembrandt made, just four years before his death.
The person portrayed is Jan Antonides van der Linden, he was friends with Nicolaas Tulp.”
Jan (Johannes) Antonides van der Linden (1609 – 1664) is best known as a Dutch physician, botanist, author and librarian. As a physician he produced in 1637 the most complete medical bibliography at the time (‘De scriptis medicis, libri duo.’ Amsterdam: J. Blaeu, 1637). He was friends with Nicolaas Tulp, known for Rembrandt’s Anatomy lesson (about that in my podcast RM24005 ‘On Guilds and glamour’). I have explained too that Tulp was a leading pharmacologist and compiled his leading pharmacopoeia at this time. Their fields of expertise overlapped, which may explain their friendship. Van der Linden’s book received a third edition in 1662. He died in 1664. It is not known to me for what reason Rembrandt etched Van der Linden in 1665, a year after Van der Linden’s death.
A final word on etching
Rembrandt made 314 etchings during his lifetime and had originaly (in Amsterdam) two etching presses at home. Thanks to his etchings, Rembrandt became famous in Holland and abroad as early as the 17th century. But how exactly did he work? Yvonne Strang explains it in this 10 minutes video (in Dutch, with English subtitles), https://www.rembrandthuis.nl/nl/te-doen/rembrandt-bij-je-thuis/tutorials/. The heavy etching press you will see (as from 07.36 on the video) is not one of the etching presses mentioned above.
Rembrandt’s paintings by many are seen as typically Dutch. In a way, that makes sense; he has never travelled beyond the borders of present Netherlands. However, what’s outside of the Netherlands comes to him. Cross-border see trade brought many items through the port, from all over the world to Amsterdam. Rembrandt enjoyed collecting these new, inspiring things. From 15 July – 30 October 2024 the Rembrandt House Museum has organised a new exhibition, called ‘Rembrandt & the world’. It will will take you on a journey past more than forty of Rembrandt’s etchings from the Rembrandt House Museum collection. Many of these etchings reflect items from all over the world, coming to Amsterdam, including lions, exotic shells and turbans. In the museum, therefore, a journey of discovery into those things that inspired Rembrandt to make these etchings. I just don’t know with which etching press they were printed.
References
Literature referred to can be found under Sources via www.rembrandtsmoney.com.
Maciesza, Nathalie, and Epco Runia, ‘Rembrandt & de wereld/the World’, Zwolle: WBOOKS, 2024.
Stijnman, Ad, De geschiedenis van de houten etspers, https://www.polymetaal.nl/beguinnl/mape/etspers/geschiedenis_houten_etspers.htm