Hundred Guilder (Print)

The Hundred Gilder Print from Rembrandt was completed in 1649, at which point the artist was in his early forties. This etching was printed in several series of varying qualities, and several of those still exist today.

This particular etching is believed to have been amongst Rembrandt's most advanced, featuring a good number of different techniques in order to produce the final printed image that we find here. This work took many years to complete, with the artist working on different stages of it across a period of several years, tweaking different elements as he went. He was someone who strove for the highest level of quality possible, often being described as a perfectionist. Rembrandt was known more generally for printing interim works from his etchings in order to judge how they were progressing, rather than waiting right until the end, at which point amendments would be much harder to make. If you browse the piece itself, you will see the amount of detail delivered here, as well as the intricate use of light that was very much a signature element of his style.

Christ appears within Rembrandt's work on multiple occasions and is one of his most frequently visited themes. In the example of this etching, the artist has actually merged several different events from his life together in one composition. Perhaps this explains why it to so long to develop this single design. For example, we find Christ preaching, healing the sick and also he calls children towards him. Each have their place within Matthew 19. Christ himself appears in more than a dozen other artworks from Rembrandt's career, across paintings, drawings and further etchings. The emotive and iconic imagery found across his oeuvre was easily inspired by some of the powerful items found within religious scripture. Members of the Italian Renaissance had already done similar themselves.

It is known that new versions were created even after Rembrandt's death. Several engravers managed to acquire the original engraving and then make their own amendments and create new series of prints from this. Whilst being professional engravers themselves, their work was considered relatively crude relative to the work of the Dutch master and these prints have nothing like the value as those made originally from Rembrandt's own hand. It is hard to think of another medium which offers this opportunity for endless publications, though it must be remembered that each series produced does add a level of deterioration to the original engraved block each time, giving it something of a limited lifecycle. Even those who acquired it from Rembrandt could immediately see areas that needed to be repaired even before they started to add their own ideas.