Rembrandt. The Complete Drawings and Etchings

Rembrandt’s drawings and etchings earned him unparalleled recognition from his contemporaries, capturing elusive expressions and moments in just a few strokes. In commemoration of the 350th anniversary of his death, this XXL monograph is the first-ever collection gathering Rembrandt’s complete works on paper, unveiling all 708 drawings, printed in color for the first time, and 314 etchings in brilliant reproductions.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669) stands as one of the most important painters in Western art, but nowhere else do we encounter his inimitable talent more so than in his drawings and etchings. Hinged upon experimentation and expressive line work, they garnered him unparalleled recognition from his contemporaries.

Each portrait or quotidian scene is elevated by his masterful treatment of light, shadow, and hatching. There is another world to be accessed within Rembrandt’s etchings—one that dwells within the intangibilities of moody midnight contemplation and the twilit countryside, these elusive moments fixed to the page with every stroke. Meanwhile, Rembrandt’s drawings display his emotional state with a candor unseen in other works. Using pen and brush, silverpoint and charcoal as well as colored chalks and ink, he drew on various types of paper which he also sometimes dyed beforehand.

Commemorating the 350th anniversary of the artist’s death, this stunning XXL monograph is the first-ever collection gathering Rembrandt’s complete works on paper. Through the 708 drawings, brilliantly printed in color for the first time, and 314 etchings in pristine reproductions, we discover Rembrandt’s keen eye, deft hand, and boundless depth of feeling like never before; and above all, we witness that he was far more than just a painter.

The authors

Peter Schatborn is emeritus head of the Rijksprentenkabinet at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. He has served as guest scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, and has curated exhibitions at the Fondation Custodia, Paris and The Frick Collection, New York. He specializes in seventeenth-century Dutch drawings.

Erik Hinterding studied art history at Utrecht University and completed his PhD on Rembrandt the etcher. He has worked on publications and exhibitions for numerous institutions among them the Fondation Custodia in Paris, the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. In 2013 he was one of two authors of the new seven-volume catalogue raisonné of Rembrandt’s etchings. Since 2012 he has been Curator of Prints at the Rijksmuseum, where he oversees the early modern print collection.