Rembrandt van Rijn

When drawing landscape, which he did on site, Rembrandt began with fine lines that he then elaborated with heavier ones. This can be observed in the handling of grasses at the drawing’s center. Diverse markings, some executed with a half-dry pen, create unexpected depth in the landscape. Rembrandt also made corrections to his own drawings with white paint. A possible correction can be viewed at the left, where an area of white paint appears midway up the side of the house.

Whereas Dürer obsessively fills the sheet with line, Rembrandt's drawing is distinguished by his economy and his use of the white of the paper. Rembrandt built the structure of the picture with condensed areas of mark-making, leaving most of the sheet empty to convey the light and atmosphere of the landscape. His line feels quick, sure, and free. In the bottom center, Rembrandt's dark, broad, and bold strokes suggest the foliage at the edge of the canal and carry the viewer's eye into the picture and over the bridge. At the right edge of the picture, dry vertical pen strokes of varying width define the rugged embankment. The shape of the figure at the center repeats throughout the image -- in the door of the house, in the cluster of trees, in the figures at the horizon line -- to keep the viewer moving through the landscape, as do the figures populating the scene.