His power of characterization is not con fined to painting and his small etchings drawn upon copper in a few straggling lines have as much of it, according to their subject, as the largest pictures. This power of charaeteriza• tion lifts him almost out of the category of the painters of his period. When he has character to express, either of an individual or of a race of men, he does it with touch and an evi dence of thought entirely his own. It may sometimes take a disagreeable, even an ignomin ious appearance and his drawing in a given case may not be dignified or refined or even truthful; while yet the significance of the state ment he wishes to make remains uniformly dis finct and positive.
Among his most important paintings are the (Saint Paul in Prison,' in the Stuttgart Gallery, signed and dated 1627; the portrait of a man at Windsor Castle, signed and dated 1631; the portrait of his brother in the Berlin Museum, that of himself in Buckingham Palace and that of an old woman in the Hermitage collec - doh near Petrograd; (The Supper at Em maus,' in the Louvre; and (The Lesson in Anatomy,' at The Hague. There are two magnificent portrait groups, one of his middle life and one of his more advanced age; (The Night Watch,' in the Amsterdam Museum, signed and dated 1642 and (The Syndics of the Clothmakers Company,' in the Amsterdam Museum, signed and dated 1661.
Of his etchings the number is so very great and the enthusiasm which they have excited among great classes of collectors and students during the 19th century is so intense, that it is very hard to name even a few characteristic specimens. The prices which they fetch at auc tion or at private sale are enormous (several thousands of dollars in many cases), though price is not always proportionate to merit, as rarity has much to do with this detail. Thus the famous 'Three Trees' (1643), of which a fine copy is worth as much money as a large oil painting by a modern artist and the won derful portrait of the 'Burgomaster Six' are not necessarily as much better than other and less costly prints as their price would indi cate. Their faultless work, however is the main consideration and the portrait of Six must always be of extreme value when in fine con dition, because the closely worked etching has caused the plate to suffer from use — there can never have been more than 40 or 50 impres sions of great brilliancy. During his life and
during the 18th the so-called Hun dred Guilder print, Healing the Sick,' was the most famous; and since that time the etching, slight and but little worked over, (The Death of the Virgin' (1639), is one of the most admired by artists of all Rembrandt's work in black and white; the wonderful portrait of the (1639), that of the preacher Uijtenbogaert (1635), the famous Dr. Faustus, dated 1648, and several of the landscapes, especially the (Cottage with the Great Tree,' and the magnificent (Omval) dated 1645, are all etchings which are unsurpassable even among Rembrandt's own works.
The most complete book on Rembrandt, that of C. Vosmaer, sa vie et ses oeuvres) (1877), has furnished most writers since that time with their facts. A more re cent work of great extent and thoroughness is that by Emile translated into English as (Rembrandt, his Life, his Work, his Time' (London 1894). This book is elaborately illus trated. Small biographies by Knackfuss (1899), Malcolm Bell (London 1899), Neumann (1900), some of them well imagined, are contained in the different series of Artists' Lives. The etch ings form a continual study and besides the famous work of Bartsch (1797), which is con tinually referred to, there have been works by Charles Blanc (1880) and Dutnit. The best recent works on the etchings are that by Rovin ski (3 vols., Saint Petersburg 1890) and that by Hameston (London 1904). His complete etched work has been reproduced in admirable photogravure by Armand-Durand. The Eng lish etcher and student of etchings, Sir Francis Seymour Haden, has published a small book on Rembrandt's etchings, (The Etched Work of Rembrandt) (1879-80), in which there is a care ful investigation of the authenticity of some which may be thought to be by students or imi tators. Consult also Bode, Wilhelm, de Rembrandt> (8 vols., Paris 1897), with repro-, ductions of all paintings; Blanc, A. A. P. C., 'L'(Euvre complet de Rembrandt, decrit et com mente) (2 vols., Paris 1861) ; La Farge, John, in (Great Masters' (New York 1903) • Michel, F. E., (Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn: A Memorial of his Tercentenary> (New York 1907) ; Hare, T. L., Great Portrait Painters' (ib. 1909) ; Holmes, C J., 'Notes on the Art of Rembrandt> (London 1911) • de Groot, C. Hofstede, 'Die Urkunden fiber Item brandt) (The Hague 1906).