The Plate MarkRembrandt · Bartsch 20

Explore the impression

Nine sheets, one plate

There is no photograph of NP-RMB-001. There are photographs of other impressions of the same plate, released by the institutions that hold them under licences that permit reuse. Put two of them side by side, link the zoom, and the life of a piece of copper becomes visible.

Comparator images are photographs of other impressions, made by the institutions that hold them. They show the print. They do not show this sheet.

103 mm134 mmNo image publishednot yet photographed

Printed at 1:1. The plate mark above measures 134 × 103 mm, height before width, as the plate dimensions are recorded for this composition. Check against a rule before measuring from it; some printers scale to fit.

This sheet has not been photographed. Imaging is sequenced after a conservator has reviewed the current housing, and the project does not publish a stand-in image of an object it has not documented.

The rectangle is the plate mark at 134 × 103 mm, the plate dimensions recorded by the Rijksmuseum for its impression of this composition. This sheet has not been measured.

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Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-portrait in a Velvet Cap with Plume, 1638, etching and drypoint. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RP-P-1961-989. Mr and Mrs De Bruijn-van der Leeuw Bequest, Muri, Switzerland. Public domain (CC PDM 1.0).

State
New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish (Rembrandt) 170-1(4) — state 1 of 4 (Bartsch 20-1(1); Hollstein Dutch 20-1(1))
Licence
Public Domain Mark 1.0
Record
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Served at
1590 × 2000 px, resized from 3988 × 5016

Shown at its own white point on a mount. The project does not tint, invert or brighten a photograph of a seventeenth-century sheet to suit a dark interface.

What this comparison can and cannot show

Worth knowing before drawing a conclusion from a screen.

It shows

  • Composition, and gross differences between states.
  • Broad differences in wear — which passages have gone thin and grey, which still carry weight.
  • Whether a sheet is trimmed, and roughly how much margin survives.
  • Where the signature sits in the plate, and what it looks like when redrawn.

It does not show

  • Inking. How a plate was wiped is decided at the press, and a photograph normalised for a collection database has already flattened some of that out.
  • Paper. Tone, surface, weight and how light sits in the sheet do not survive digitisation.
  • Watermarks. Invisible unless the institution separately photographed the sheet in transmitted light. Almost none have.
  • Drypoint burr reliably. Burr is a three-dimensional property of the ink film and it reads poorly on a screen.

Impressions we link to rather than copy

Not every institution licenses its photographs for reuse. Where the licence does not permit it, this project links to the record instead of republishing the image — including for the three best-documented impressions of this print.

The British Museum’s three impressions are in this list. Their records are the only ones that say what physically distinguishes the states of this plate — and their images are licensed CC BY-NC-SA, which is not a public-domain licence, so they are cited and linked rather than copied. The full census records the rights position on every row.

Imaging planned for NP-RMB-001

16 frames, in this order. 0 made, 16 outstanding.
  1. A1

    Recto, whole sheet, with scale

    The whole sheet square on with a rule in frame. The frame every measurement is taken from and every other frame is registered against.

    AnswersRQ-03

    Imaging is sequenced after conservator review of the current housing. The project does not publish a stand-in image of the sheet.

  2. A2

    Recto, whole sheet

    The same frame without the rule, for reading rather than measuring.

  3. A3

    Verso, whole sheet, with scale

    The back of the sheet with a rule in frame. Collector's marks, dealer codes and inscriptions live here, and this record has established there are none — this is the frame that lets anyone check that.

    AnswersRQ-07RQ-11

    Verso imaging requires the sheet to be handled; it is scheduled with the conservator visit, not before.

  4. A4

    Verso, whole sheet

    The same frame without the rule.

  5. B5

    Base of the feather and the brim above the eyes

    The first of the four passages New Hollstein uses to define state III: cross-hatching added at the base of the feather and along the brim of the cap above the eyes.

    AnswersRQ-02

  6. B6

    The forehead, at the brim

    The second diagnostic passage: whether the curved lines on the forehead are extended over the brim of the cap.

    AnswersRQ-02

  7. B7

    The right ear

    The third diagnostic passage: strong horizontal shading on the right ear.

    AnswersRQ-02

  8. B8

    In front of the left ear, and the beard right of the chin

    The fourth diagnostic passage: short diagonal lines added in front of the left ear and to the beard on the right side of the chin.

    AnswersRQ-02

  9. C9

    Upper left of the image

    Two things the auction cataloguer cited live here: where the signature would be, and the diagonal scratch in the plate. RISD's state III is lettered "Rembrandt" upper left and faint, so what this frame shows — or fails to show — is the whole of that argument.

    AnswersRQ-01RQ-02

  10. C10

    The jaw beneath the left ear

    What separates state I from state II: the jaw delineated. Not in question here, but it costs one frame to close it.

    AnswersRQ-02

  11. D11

    Whole recto, raking light from the left

    Surface and structure: cockling, creases, the impression of the plate in the paper.

    AnswersRQ-05RQ-10

  12. D12

    Whole recto, raking light from above

    The same, lit from the other axis — what one raking angle flattens the other shows.

    AnswersRQ-05RQ-10

  13. D13

    All four edges, close, raking

    Whether a plate mark survives on any edge. The sheet is trimmed; if any edge retains the impressed line, the plate dimension can be measured from this sheet rather than borrowed from a catalogue.

    AnswersRQ-03

  14. D14

    The trimmed left edge

    The roughly trimmed margin the auction catalogue records.

  15. D15

    The dampstain and cockling at lower left

    In normal and raking light. The condition question, and the one a conservator will want to see before agreeing to look at the sheet.

    AnswersRQ-10

  16. E

    Transmitted light, for the watermark

    The sheet lit from behind. This is the frame that could date the impression: a watermark identified against Hinterding's concordance narrows the period in which this sheet was printed, and nothing else available to this project can.

    AnswersRQ-04RQ-05RQ-06

    Only by a method a paper conservator approves in writing. See the conservation page for the methods under consideration and their risks.