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Rembrandt van Rijn

Landscape (Farm Buildings at the Dijk) (recto); Partial Landscape with Trees and Fence (verso), ca. 1648

Description

Maker

Title

Landscape (Farm Buildings at the Dijk) (recto); Partial Landscape with Trees and Fence (verso)

Year

ca. 1648

Medium

pen and brown ink and wash on laid paper

Dimensions

14.5 x 25.9 cm (5 11/16 x 10 3/16 inches)

Type

Credit

Jesse Metcalf Fund and Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

49.134

Projects & Publications

Publications

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Design and Description

January 27 - April 9, 2006

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.

Drawing the Line

March 30 - June 10, 2001

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.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Landscape (Farm Buildings at the Dijk) (recto); Partial Landscape with Trees and Fence (verso) with the accession number of 49.134. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.