This work is a copy in reverse of Rembrandt’s original etching of 1652. A variation may have been made by German artist Georg Leopold Hertel in the middle of the eighteenth century. The work shows the full range of Rembrandt’s mastery of the medium of etching that he had achieved by the 1650s. Some of the figures are fully resolved with light and shadow, while others remain in a purposefully sketchy state. The spontaneity of the process is akin to drawing, and the artist makes that point with works such as this print.
