Bust of an old man with flowing beard and white sleeve.

During his lifetime, Rembrandt's extraordinary skills as a printmaker were the main source of his international fame. Unlike his oil paintings, prints travelled light and were relatively cheap. For this reason, they soon became very popular with collectors not only within, but also beyond the borders of the Netherlands, and it also explains why, three centuries later, they were affordable for Wellington collector and philanthropist Sir John Ilott, who presented 37 Rembrandt prints to the National Art Gallery between 1952 and 1969.

In the years after 1630 Rembrandt made a series of red chalk drawings of imposing old men. Some of these subjects were later used in paintings of biblical subjects or of meditating men. This series ofdrawings is connected with several etchings by Rembrandt, seven of which including this work are currently in Te Papa's collection. These are known as <em>tronies</em>, the Dutch word at the time for a face. Typically these are heads or busts only, concentrating on the facial expression, but often half-length when featured in an exotic costume. Tronies might be based on studies from life or use the features of actual sitters. Both paintings and prints of this kind were sold on the art market without identification of the sitter, and were not commissioned and retained by the sitter as portraits normally were. Rembrandt's tronies were among his most popular and widely imitated prints.

This etching is one of the early tronies. It is a bust-length image of an elderly man with a beard and large forehead, his body facing to the right, while his head is turned to the front. He wears a garment, of which the left sleeve is left unfinished, hence the common title 'white sleeve' to help distinguish him from his 'brothers' who often wear fur caps. Te Papa's impression is from the first of two states (the first by Rembrandt). It pre-dates the complete reworking of the worn image, although print dealer Christopher Mendez believes that it is 'not early'.

The New Hollstein, <em>Rembrandt vol. I</em>, p. 98, states: ‘This tronie was prepared with a drawing of a full figure in red chalk in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin. The outline of the whole figure is indented for transfer but no impressions of a plate larger than the bust are known. The cracks visible in the etching ground may indicate that Rembrandt encountered a problem biting the original plate, and subsequently reduced it to the bust only.’

References: New Hollstein Dutch 65, 1st of 2 states; Hollstein Dutch 291, only state.

See: 

New Hollstein, <em>Rembrandt 1 </em>(Ouderkerk aan den IJssel, Netherlands, 2013).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tronie

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    August 2017