Original etching with drypoint printed on laid paper. Contains unidentified watermark. Collectors stamp of C. Delanglade on verso (Lugt No.660). Bartsch's only state and Usticke's first state of two. A 17th century impression. Plate not in existence.

Dimensions: 6 7/8" x 8 7/16"
Catalogue reference: Bartsch 40; Usticke 40 i/ii; Hind 172

The print shows a scene from Chapter VI of the Book of Esther. Mordecai had helped foil a plot to assassinate the King Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus asked his advisor, Haman, a sworm ememy of the Jews how he should honour a man who had done him a great service, and Haman, thinking the king was referring to himself, suggested he be dressed in the king’s robes and led in triumph through the city. Haman is greatly humiliated by this event, but still worse is in store for him, for he was subsequently hanged for conspiring against the Jews from the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Rembrandt has introduced the figures of Ahasuerus and Queen Esther, Mordecai’s foster daughter, into the scene. They are watching from the balcony at the right and have often been considered portraits of Rembrandt and Saskia.

From A Collection of Etchings by Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn, Artemis and Sotheby’s, 1995.