A compelling reconsideration of Rembrandt's printed oeuvre based on new research into the artist's life and work As a pioneering printmaker, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) stood apart from his contemporaries thanks to his innovative approach to composition and his skillful rendering of space and light. He worked with the medium as a vehicle for artistic expression and experimentation, causing many to proclaim him the greatest etcher of all time. Moreover, the dissemination of the artist's prints outside of the Dutch Republic during his lifetime contributed greatly to establishing Rembrandt's reputation throughout Europe. Sumptuously illustrated with comparative paintings and drawings as well as prints, this important volume draws on exciting new scholarship on Rembrandt's etchings. Authors Jaco Rutgers and Timothy J. Standring examine the artist's prints from many angles. They reveal how Rembrandt intentionally varied the states of his etchings, printed them on exotic papers, and retouched prints by hand to create rarities for a clientele that valued unique impressions.

The print repertoire of the 16th and 17th centuries in England has been neglected historically, and this remarkable book rectifies a major oversight in the history of English visual art. It provides an iconographic survey of the single-sheet prints produced during the early modern era and brings to light significant recent discoveries from this visual storehouse. It publishes many works for the first time, as well as placing them and those relatively few others known to specialists in their cultural context. This large body of material is treated broadly thematically, and within each theme, chronologically. Portents and prodigies, the formal moralities and doctrines of Christianity, the sects of Christianity, visual satire of foreigners and "others," domestic political issues, social criticism and gender roles, marriage and sex, as well as numerical series and miscellaneous visual tricks, puzzles, and jokes, are all examined. The book concludes by considering the significance of this wealth of visual material for the cultural history of England in the early modern era. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art