Was this impression printed during Rembrandt's lifetime, or later?

This is the question everything else feeds. Rembrandt's copper plates survived him and were printed, reworked and reprinted for a very long time afterwards. An impression pulled in the seventeenth century and one pulled in the nineteenth are the same image and are not the same object: they differ in what they record about the plate, in what they can be used to study, and in where they sit in the history of the print's transmission. The honest position today is that the project does not know, and no part of this record assumes an answer.

Substantially answered, and the answer follows from the state rather than from anything observed in the sheet. New Hollstein describes the work visible in state III as “Probably rebitten … Not by Rembrandt.” An impression in that state was pulled after the plate had been reworked by another hand, and therefore after it left Rembrandt's control. The catalogue also lists no watermarks for states III and IV, while listing nine for states I and II — consistent with the later states belonging to a period the catalogue's paper research does not cover. What keeps this at partially resolved rather than resolved is that it rests entirely on the state attribution, which is one cataloguer's reading.

• 3Institutional recordNew Hollstein Dutch & Flemish, Rembrandt, no. 170, pp. 31–32 and plates 84–87 · Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers · 2013on request
• 5Auction catalogueBonhams, Fine Books and Manuscripts, sale 28358, lot 182, New York, 24 April – 4 May 2023 · Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers Corp. · 2023-05

• This is a later impression rather than a lifetime one.

  Probable

  Now supported by the catalogue's own characterisation of state III as not Rembrandt's work, rather than being a prior about the population.

1. 01Resolve the watermark question (RQ-04) — the strongest single line of evidence.
2. 02Resolve the state question (RQ-02) against the catalogue.
3. 03Assess plate wear against securely dated impressions (RQ-09, RQ-12).
4. 04Examine the ink and printing character alongside comparator impressions, with a specialist.

Confirmation or rejection of the state III attribution by a specialist. If state III holds, the sheet is posthumous. If it is a late state II, the question reopens completely.

• Impression census

• RQ-02Is this impression New Hollstein 170, state III?
• RQ-04Does the sheet carry a watermark, and can it narrow the period in which this impression was printed?
• RQ-09Does any drypoint burr survive in this impression, and what does the plate wear indicate?
• RQ-12Which institutional impressions are the right comparators for assessing wear in this one?