VAN RIJN, REMBRANDT (1606-1669)

"Susanna And The Elders" (c.1880)
etching by Karl Köpping (1848-1914)
cm
Signed in plate, lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Köpping studied in at the Academy Of Fine Arts, Munich, then in Paris under legendary German Impressionist, Max Liebermann. From 1890 he taught etching at the Berlin Academy & from 1896 replaced Meier-Graefe on the editorial board of the luxury art magazine Pan, where his early designs for fragile ornamental glasses were illustrated, in his own original etching.  He received the Order of Knights of the Legion of Honor and the First Class Medal of the Munich Art Exhibition, as well as the Grand Prix of the 1889 Paris World Fair. His etchings of masters such as Rembrandt, Hals, & Gainsborough are well regarded and collected, with works represented in several major institutions such as the British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, & MOMA NYC.
 
Rembrandt was an innovative and prolific master across three mediums. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art & the most important in Dutch art history. Unlike most Dutch masters of the 17th century, Rembrandt's works depict a wide range of style & subject matter, from portraits & self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, and biblical & mythological themes. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth & cultural achievement, called the Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch art (especially Dutch painting), although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative & gave rise to important new genres. Like many artists of the Dutch Golden Age, such as Jan Vermeer of Delft, Rembrandt was also an avid art collector and dealer.