When the finished print is compared with the sketch of the etched lines alone, it can be seen how vital the drypoint is to Rembrandt's whole conception. The needle held vertically and slightly dulled, for instance, produced the light shadings on the central hillock at lower left. The sharp needle, held at an angle, threw up the burr which printed as the rich blacks on both sides of the hay barn, along the bank of the stream, and on the road at left center. The sheep and post at the far right were completely drawn with drypoint, as was the shepherd of the flock at left center (figure 16). It is interesting to note that the flock originally had two shepherds, evidently a man and a woman, standing at the center of the road and behind the flock.[34] These figures were drawn in the ground and etched in the first stage of the print. Rembrandt then must have decided that their proportion was wrong for his composition. He reworked the area, using a scraper or burnisher to flatten out his etched lines, and covered the remaining ghosts of the figures with a mesh of drypoint cross-hatching. He then added the single small figure of the shepherd boy entirely in drypoint.
Detail of Rembrandt's finished print, _Landscape with a hay barn and a flock of sheep_, showing shepherd in drypoint, erased figures behind flock, signature, and date. Enlarged 5 times. (Smithsonian photo 59389.)]
Houbraken, writing in 1718, talked of Rembrandt's technical secrets, "which he would not let his pupils see."[35] In truth, there are no secrets to this artist's _technique_ in the etching medium. But his mastery of the _art_ goes far beyond communicable secrets.
[1] Hind 241 (+A. M. Hind+, _A Catalogue of Rembrandt's Etchings_, 2 vol., rev. ed., London, 1923), Bartsch 224 (+Adam Bartsch+, _Catalogue raisonne de toutes les estampes ... de Rembrandt_ ..., Vienna, 1797). The particular example studied here is an impression of the second state (of two) in the collection of the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
The author wishes to express his deepest gratitude to Jacob Kainen, curator of graphic arts at the Smithsonian Institution, for his acute knowledge, unfailing helpfulness, and encouragement in the preparation of this paper.