Record Price for Rembrandt

The Rembrandt painting, entitled Portrait of a Man, Half-Length, With His Arms Akimbo, fetched a record price of £20.2m at Londons auction house Christie’s in December 2009. This is a record price for a Rembdandt painting at auction.

The previous world record price for a work by Rembrandt sold at auction was £19.8m.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history.

His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.

Etchings

Rembrandt produced etchings for most of his career, from 1626 to 1660, when he was forced to sell his printing-press and virtually abandoned etching. He took easily to etching and, though he also learned to use a burin and partly engraved many plates, the freedom of etching technique was fundamental to his work. He was very closely involved in the whole process of printmaking, and must have printed at least early examples of his etchings himself.

Landscapes

Rembrandt prints have similar subjects to his paintings, although the twenty-seven self-portraits are relatively more common, and portraits of other people less so. There are forty-six landscapes, mostly small, which largely set the course for the graphic treatment of landscape until the end of the 19th century.

Self Portrait

Rembrandts Self Portrait at the Age of 34. Oil on canvas
102 x 80 cm. Can be found in the National Gallery London. This portrait shows Rembrandt at the height of his career, presenting himself in a self-assured pose wearing an elaborate costume in the fashion of the 16th century.