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Lot Essay
In the words of Julia Lloyd Williams, 'this remains one of Rembrandt's most atmospheric etchings of female nudes, as she lies languorously as any Odalisque, stretched out in the intimate dark of her curtained bed.' (Lloyd Williams, 2001, no. 133, p. 229) The print belongs to Rembrandt's final group of etchings of naked or partially dressed women, created between 1658-1661. They are presumably all based on the life study sessions which took place around this time, and of which a number of drawings by Rembrandt and his pupils have survived. It is in fact very likely that the woman seen here is the same person as the one depicted in The Woman at the Bath with a Hat beside her (lot 88), The Woman with the Arrow (lot 89) and the other nudes of this period. The atmosphere of this print is movingly intimate, as the woman is not so much posing as seemingly resting or sleeping, and Rembrandt heightened this sense of quiescence and privacy even further by paring down the composition to the absolute essentials: her body and the bed. 'The effect is one of looking into, almost intruding on, the model's bedroom rather than the public space of a studio: the viewer has the instinct to keep quiet so as not to disturb her sleep.' (Bottinelli, Vanke, 2017, p. 90)
The title for this print, A Negress lying down or La négresse couchée, was coined by Adam Bartsch in the early 19th century, and is almost certainly erroneous. Neither de Jonghe in 1679 nor Röver in 1731 identified the subject as anything other than a sleeping nude woman. However, the exoticizing title has remained in use, although it is nowadays agreed that the plate depicts quite simply a woman lying in the dark.
No preliminary drawing is known of this composition. Münz observed the influence of Giulio Campagnola's Venus reclining in a Landscape, whereas Christopher White found similarity to the nude in Hans Sebald Beham's Saint John Chrsysostom. More recently Tom Rassieur thought of Jacob Matham's Nox after Karel van Mander as a source for Rembrandt's etching and suggested that it might have a similar allegorical meaning (see: Hinterding, 2008, p. 373-5).
The print exists in six states. The first state is known in one impression only, at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, which confirms that the model was indeed a pale-skinned woman. For the second state, Rembrandt revised the composition considerably, and then darkened the entire plate to cover these changes (see: Lloyd Williams, ibid.). This is a fine impression of the second state, on an unusually thin oriental paper, which may suggest a slightly later printing. The subsequent third state is already posthumous.
The title for this print, A Negress lying down or La négresse couchée, was coined by Adam Bartsch in the early 19th century, and is almost certainly erroneous. Neither de Jonghe in 1679 nor Röver in 1731 identified the subject as anything other than a sleeping nude woman. However, the exoticizing title has remained in use, although it is nowadays agreed that the plate depicts quite simply a woman lying in the dark.
No preliminary drawing is known of this composition. Münz observed the influence of Giulio Campagnola's Venus reclining in a Landscape, whereas Christopher White found similarity to the nude in Hans Sebald Beham's Saint John Chrsysostom. More recently Tom Rassieur thought of Jacob Matham's Nox after Karel van Mander as a source for Rembrandt's etching and suggested that it might have a similar allegorical meaning (see: Hinterding, 2008, p. 373-5).
The print exists in six states. The first state is known in one impression only, at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, which confirms that the model was indeed a pale-skinned woman. For the second state, Rembrandt revised the composition considerably, and then darkened the entire plate to cover these changes (see: Lloyd Williams, ibid.). This is a fine impression of the second state, on an unusually thin oriental paper, which may suggest a slightly later printing. The subsequent third state is already posthumous.