Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn’s etching of Adam and Eve, depicts the story of the first Man and Woman with descriptive, wiry lines that create an evocative atmosphere. Shown at the moment of temptation, the couple is surrounded by light that seems about to be blotted out by the dark tree branch and leering serpent (the devil) stretching ominously above them. With their fleshy bodies and ordinary faces (so far removed from Dürer’s idealized pair), Rembrandt’s Adam and Eve are easy to identify with; their confusion, temptation, and choice become ours.
Date
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Recto, in plate, lower center: "Rembrandt f. 1638"
Dimensions
16.2 × 11.6 cm (6 7/16 × 4 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Marjorie Blum Kovler Foundation Collection and the Harry and Maribel G. Blum Foundation Collection
Reference Number
1987.247
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George Biörklund, Rembrandt’s Etchings: True and False (Stockholm, 1955), p. 70, no 38D (ill.).
Karel G. Boon, Rembrandt: The Complete Etchings, trans. by Elizabeth Willems-Treeman (New York, 1963), pl. 140.
G. W. Nowell-Usticke, Rembrandt’s Etchings: States and Values (Narberth, Pa. 1967), n.p., no. B28 (ill.).
Christopher White, Rembrandt as an Etcher: A Study of the Artist at Work, 2 vols. (London, 1969), II: 248, pl. 35.
Christopher White and Karel G. Boon, Rembrandt’s Etchings: An Illustrated Critical Catalogue, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1977), I: 13, no. 28, II:17 (ill.).
James N. Wood and Sally Ruth May, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Chicago, 1993), p. 195 (ill.).
Stephanie S. Dickey (editor), Illustrated Bartsch 50: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (New York, 1993), p. 18, no. 28 (ill.).
The New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (Charles Scribner’s Sons Publishers 2004).
Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers, edited by Ger Luijten, The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts: 1450-1700. Rembrandt: Text II: 1636-1665, nos. 156-314(Amsterdam: Sound and Vision Publishers, 2013), p.27.
The Art Institute of Chicago, May 1, 1987-February 9, 1989 (Allerton gallery 209A).
The Art Institute of Chicago, February 14, 2004-May 9, 2004.
Adolf Schwartz, Amstelveen, Holland [invoice]. Sold by Robert Light, Santa Barbara, Calif., to the Art Institute, 1987.
Bartsch 28 II/II
White & Boon 28 II/II
Biörklund 38-D II/II
Nowell-Usticke B28 I/I
Munz 177 I/II
Hind 159 II/II
Rovinskii 28 II/II
Seidlitz 28 II/II
Daulby 29
Claussin 34
Wilson, Rembrandt 35
Blanc 1
Boon 140
White 35
New Hollstein 168 II/II
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