Rembrandt the Printmaker

Rembrandt was the most original printmaker of all time. In no fewer than 300 images he covered the full range of styles and subjects for which he is celebrated, including self-portraits, scenes from the Bible, vignettes of everyday life and character studies. The well-known 'Hundred Guilder print', the 'Three Trees' and the 'Three Crosses' are among his most extraordinary creations. He was also famously experimental, often reworking and scratching at his copper plates to improve and extend their expressive power. The results can look startlingly modern, and continue to inspire artists today. This catalogue, compiled by three leading authorities on Rembrandt and printmaking, aims to illustrate a representative selection of his finest prints. Exciting new areas of research have opened up in recent years, making it possible not only to follow the progress of Rembrandt's work on each plate, but also revealing details of his practice of revising the images at various times during his life. The different papers he used will be studied and all the watermarks reproduced. The role played by Rembrandt's preparatory drawings is also now better understood, and all these new insights are presen