Rembrandt van Rijn




 

Jan Uytenbogeart, Preacher of the Remonstrants, 1635
50953

Original drypoint and etching with small to wide margins. Good dark impression. Biorklund's state 6/6. Ustickes state 5/6. Dimensions: 9" x 7 3/8". Catalogue reference: Bartsch 279; Usticke 279; Hind 128. As the leader of the Dutch Remonstrants (a more liberal sect of Calvinism, followers of Jacobus Arminius) Uytenbogaert (1577-1644) played a central role in the history of his times. Until his banishment (1618-26), in the wake of the victory of orthodox Calvinism over Remonstrantism, he exercised great political influence, partly in his function as tutor of Prince Frederik Hendrik. After his return to Holland he settled in The Hague, but paid frequent visits to Amsterdam. The portrait of Uytenbogaert was Rembrandt's first official commission for an etched portrait. Until that time he had made portrait etchings only of members of his family. The official nature of this portrait is underlined by its Latin inscription ("He who was honored by the pious and the army was damned by the assembled preachers. Worse handled by fate than by time, he now returns, The Hague, to you.")