Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/555

In Holland. 525 worn. At Cassel, are the Blessing of Jacob, which contains five or six figures ; his first wife, Saslda Ulenburch, whose portrait he painted with as much love as did Rubens that of his beautiful Helena Fourment. Near her are different friends of the painter, the poet Croll ; the burgomaster Six ; the writing master Koppenol; and Rembrandt himself, in a black cap and brown cloak. At Dresden may be seen the Rape of Ganymede ; his old Mother weighing golden pieces; Rembrandt and his young wife, who is seated on his knees; and still more a Young Girl (perhaps Saskia herself) holding a pink in her hand ; and two old Grey -bearded Men, with black caps on, clothed in rich dark stuffs. The Hermitage, S. Petersburg, contains forty-one of his works. In landscape we find a View of Judea. In marine pictures — still more rare — we find a Coast of Holland, of a warm, golden tint, in which the sky and water seem to melt into each other in the distant horizon. Rembrandt's etchings are as celebrated as his paint- ings : there are nearly four hundred of them — scriptural subjects, portraits and landscapes, dated from 1628 to 1661 — to be found in various collections. The Print-room in the British Museum has a magnificent series. An early proof-impression of Christ healing the sick (known as the Hundred Guilder Print) was sold by auction in 1867 for £1180. It is, of course, beyond the scope of the present work to enumerate even the principal of the etchings by which Rembrandt is so well known ; but the example which we give (Fig. 168) may serve to afford some very faint notion of the marvellous effects of light and shade he obtained with the simple means at his disposal.