Portrait of Jan Asselyn, 1647

One of six prints Jan Asselyn (ca. 1610-1652) was a Dutch landscape painter active in Rome from 1635-1644, Paris until 1647 and Amsterdam until 1652. Who had a deformity in his left hand, and was nicknamed “Crabbetje” or “little crab” by his fellow artist in Rome who were themselves known as the “Bentveughels” or “ Bird of a Feather”. In this portrait, Rembrandt has portrayed himself in fashionable street clothes rather than dressed as an artist, with his deformed hand hidden by his cocked elbow and a ruffled lace cuff. These aspects show Rembrandt’s empathy with those less fortunate than himself, and even indicate that he held the sitter in high regard. In fact Asselyn’s brother Thomas was a patron of Rembrandt’s and helped witness the purchase of his house. The tall felt hat that Asselyn wears was made from felt produced from beaver fur. By the early seventeenth century, the great popularity of these hats, which because of their expenses were signs of social, was causing a shortage of beavers throughout Europe. This explains the excitement of colonists when beavers were found in New World. The beaver trade became one of the main economic engines powering the newly formed colonies. Rembrandt enjoyed collecting different kinds of paper from around the world and liked to experiment with the effects of the different textures the produced. Some impressions of this particular print were printed on a warm-toned Japanese paper, some on vellum, and some on oatmeal paper, which contains flecks of color. When printing his plates, Rembrandt often left a veil of ink on the surface of the plate to tonally enrich the image. Although he printed impressions of both the first (with the easel) and second (without the easel) states of this print himself, the 3rd state (with all indication of the easel removed) were probably printed by a commercial printers as a commemoration for Asselyn, who had died. These later states are on everyday European papers and show little or no tonal experimentation.