Rembrandt van RIJN (1606-1669) Lot n° 183

[Les Cuivres de Rembrandt, Réimpression des Planches Originales] Paper size: 430 x 295 mm. Scarce set of 78 etchings: 76 by Rembrandt, one etching by Ferdinand Bol (Bartsch 295) and one etched copy after Rembrandt. Each with wide (full) margins. Some etchings have light browning. Published by Alvin Beaumont and Michel Bernard, Paris, without the original title page and introduction text. According to Usticke, this 1906 set is the final "recueil" printing from Rembrandt's surviving original copper etching plates, which had been assembled together in Paris during the late 1700s. There were at least three sets issued by the Parisian printmaker/publisher Pierre François Basan and his heirs, from around 1790 to 1810, followed by additional sets issued by Auguste Jean (and possibly his widow) from 1810 into the 1840s. According to Usticke, after the widow Jean died in 1846, Michel Bernard acquired the collection of copper plates and issued his own "recueils" during the late 19th century, culminating with this set which Bernard published in association with Alvin Beaumont. These collections are scarce in any issue; we have found fewer than 20 other complete "recueils" at auction in the past 30 years. Ref. Bartsch 17, 19-20, 22, 26, 33, 34, 37, 39, 41, 43-47, 49, 53, 55, 57, 63, 64, 68-73, 80, 81, 83, 87, 91, 92, 94, 97, 98, 102, 105, 113, 118, 119, 123-126, 128, 130, 131, 133, 136, 151, 152, 164, 168, 170, 176, 179, 192, 194-196, 200, 205, 208, 237, 270, 272, 273, 275-277, 283, 290, 295 (H. Bol), 321, 344, 349, 365 and 368. Half cloth map The story of Rembrandt's etching plates The etching plates by Rembrandt that still survive have passed through numerous hands over the centuries. A large number of them came into the possession of the Amsterdam publisher and printseller Clement de Jonghe (1624-77). No fewer than 74 plates are listed in his estate. Many of these etching plates turn up in the 18th century in the estate of the Amsterdam merchant and collector Pieter de Haan (1723-66). After his death they were sold. Most of them went to engraver and Rembrandt connoisseur Claude-Henri Watelet (1718-86) in Paris. Watelet reworked some of the plates with an etching or engraving technique in order to make new impressions from them. This happened much more often thereafter and people were not always very careful about it. They often added lines and sometimes even changed the composition. After Watelet the plates were reworked and reprinted by their next owner, the printseller and publisher Pierre-François Basan (1723-97). In the 19th century they became the property of the French publisher Auguste Jean and after him of the engraver Auguste Bernard, both of whom brought out new impressions. In 1906 the Paris collector Alvin-Beaumont bought the plates from Auguste Bernard's son. To mark the tercentenary of Rembrandt's birth Alvin-Beaumont made a small number of impressions of each plate, which he presented to various dignitaries and museums. Shortly after 1916 the plates were inked and lacquered in order to make further printing impossible. After abortive negotiations with the Rijksmuseum and the British Museum, Alvin-Beaumont finally sold the etching plates in 1938 to the American collector Robert Lee Humber. He placed them on loan in the Raleigh Art Museum in North Carolina. In 1993 the heirs of Lee Humber, who had died in the meantime, put the etching plates on the art market. The assemblage that had remained intact up to then was broken up, passing into the hands of museums, dealers and private individuals all over the world. The Rembrandt House, the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdams Historisch Museum have acquired some fine examples from this inheritance. Thus after over two hundred years some of Rembrandt's etching plates have finally returned to the Netherlands. (Text Rembrandt Huis Amsterdam) Paris De Beaumont 1906