Jan Uytenbogaert [The Goldweigher]

Portrait of Jan Uytenbogaert, 'The Goldweigher'; a well-dressed man sitting in a fur-trimmed cloak and soft beret at a table, writing in a ledger while handing a small bag to a youth who kneels beside him, with chests and barrels in left foreground, a scale hanging from a hanging-shelf above the table which is littered with bags and coins; with a picture of Moses and the brazen serpent on the wall behind and a man and woman waiting at a counter in left background.

Etching with drypoint, 1639, signed and dated at lower left Rembrandt f. 1639.

Example of the third state, reworked by William Baillie.

Jan Uytenbogaert (1608–1680) was Holland’s Receiver-General, or chief tax collector. Rembrandt may have met him in Leiden in the early 1630s, when Uytenbogaert was studying law and Rembrandt was studying painting. In Amsterdam, they both enjoyed collecting prints.

Rembrandt may have etched this print as a token of gratitude to Uytenbogaert for his intervention on the artist’s behalf. In 1639, the year of this print, Rembrandt sought to purchase a house in Amsterdam but lacked the necessary down payment, as he was still waiting to receive compensation for the paintings he had completed for Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Uytenbogaert’s overture on the artist’s behalf was successful, and Rembrandt’s purchase of the house followed soon after.

In this portrait, the artist depicts Uytenbogaert exercising his professional duties. He sits at a carpet-covered table topped with gold-weighing scales and bags of gold, and records payments in a ledger. A kneeling servant accepts one of the bags. To the left, a couple carrying bags of gold are about to enter. Light and dark passages animate the space, with drypoint used to describe the velvety character of his fur coat and hat. One wonders if Rembrandt consulted with Uytenbogaert before composing this conceptually and technically ambitious etching. The profusion of anecdotal detail recalls Northern graphic traditions of a century earlier, reflecting the collecting tastes of both men.

This print of the tax collector Jan Uytenbogaert marks one of Rembrandt van Rijn’s first uses of drypoint, not as a corrective tool but as a supplement to an etching. Here the technique accentuates the velvety quality of the sitter’s rich fur garment. 

A good impression, printed on laid paper without watermark, trimmed to the platemark, in good condition.

Bibliografia

The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts 1450-1700 (172. III); Hind, A Catalogue of Rembrandt's Etchings; chronologically arranged and completely illustrated (167); White & Boon, Rembrandt's Etchings: An Illustrated Critical Catalogue (281 II).