Beggar Woman Leaning on a Stick (Bartsch no. 170)
About this artwork
Rembrandt’s etchings display extraordinary originality and innovation. This is the etched copper plate for ‘Beggar Woman Leaning on a Stick’. It is one of only eighty-two surviving etched plates of the three hundred or so that Rembrandt created. To make an etching the artist coats a thin copper plate with an acid-resistant layer of wax. He then draws the image into the wax using an etching needle. Once the design is complete, the plate is placed in a bath of dilute acid, and the drawn image is ‘bitten’ into the plate by the acid. When the wax is removed, the incised lines of the design remain on the plate. It is then dabbed with ink and wiped so that ink remains only in the incised lines. Together, the plate and paper are rolled through a press, transferring the image onto the paper.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (1606 - 1669) Dutch
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title:Beggar Woman Leaning on a Stick (Bartsch no. 170)
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date created:1646
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materials:Etching plate - copper plate with etching and drypoint
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measurements:8.20 x 6.50 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased by the Patrons of the National Galleries of Scotland 1993
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accession number:PLATE.42
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gallery:
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subject:
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)
Rembrandt is perhaps the most renowned, influential and inventive of all Dutch artists. In his oil paintings, he represented a wide range of subjects, including single portraits, group portraits, self-portraits and biblical and mythological scenes. He explored the dramatic potential of light and...