PRINTS
Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn
Netherlands (1606 - 1669)
Christ healing the Sick: The Hundred Guilder Print
c. 1649
Etching and drypoint on paper
11 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. (29.2 x 41.9 cm) sheet size; 11 x 15 1/2 in. (27.9 x 39.4 cm) plate mark size
Stimson Collection, gift of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt
FA 77.143
Keywords: Religious; Human figures; Human figures (group)

The invention of etching was less than one hundred years old when Rembrandt first took it up. His brilliant drafting skills were perfectly suited to the medium and he devoted as much time to etching as he did to drawing and painting. He was the first great painter to do so. He also gained a new subtlety of surface and psychological portrayal by drawing freely on the copper plate with dye point (a fine needle) and burin (a pointed cutting tool). Rembrandt’s prints have a crystalline, almost transparent quality.

The Hundred Guilder Print is one of Rembrandt’s most famous. The subject is not simply Christ preaching, but rather several incidents from the Bible. At left are the Pharisees, to the right the sick, and at the center the children being blessed by Christ. Tradition has it that this print was so in demand that Rembrandt brought it back for the very high price of one hundred guilders, thus its name. -- Label copy for Unpacking the Collection: Collecting Prints, April 10 to May 15, 1997, and October 16, 1997, to February 28, 1998.