Rembrandt, The Three Trees, 1643 — the etching reproduced whole to the platemark: rain sweeping in from the upper left, three trees on a ridge, the flat land running to Amsterdam

Rembrandt van Rijn – The Three Trees, 1643 | Giclée Print

35 × 27 cm / 13.8 × 10.6 in — Original size, 1:1
CHF 49.00
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Rembrandt, The Three Trees, 1643 — the etching reproduced whole to the platemark: rain sweeping in from the upper left, three trees on a ridge, the flat land running to Amsterdam
  • Rembrandt, The Three Trees, 1643 — the etching reproduced whole to the platemark: rain sweeping in from the upper left, three trees on a ridge, the flat land running to Amsterdam
  • Rembrandt's The Three Trees as a 35 × 27 cm giclée print at the original plate size, unframed, hung 25 cm above a 140 cm sideboard
  • Detail at actual print size: the three trees on the ridge, the drypoint burr in the foliage and the fine etched lines of the distant land
  • Rembrandt, The Three Trees, 1643 — the etching reproduced whole to the platemark: rain sweeping in from the upper left, three trees on a ridge, the flat land running to Amsterdam
  • Rembrandt's The Three Trees as a 35 × 27 cm giclée print at the original plate size, unframed, hung 25 cm above a 140 cm sideboard
  • Detail at actual print size: the three trees on the ridge, the drypoint burr in the foliage and the fine etched lines of the distant land
Rembrandt van Rijn – The Three Trees, 1643 | Giclée Print

Rembrandt van Rijn – The Three Trees, 1643 | Giclée Print

CHF 49.00
Size35 × 27 cm / 13.8 × 10.6 in — Original size, 1:1

Rembrandt's best-known landscape, and smaller than almost anyone expects. The copperplate measures 21.4 × 28 cm — roughly a sheet of A5 turned sideways. Rain sweeps in from the upper left in long diagonal strokes; three trees stand on a ridge against a sky of open paper; below them the land runs flat to Amsterdam, with a fisherman and his wife at the water's edge, cattle, a windmill, and a draughtsman on the far slope with a board on his knee.

This is not a reproduction of a painting. It is a reproduction of a print — which is a different thing, and the reason this sheet is in the shop at all. Rembrandt made The Three Trees in 1643 by etching, drypoint and engraving worked into one plate, and he made it because plates multiply. He printed it, sold it, and reworked plates when he wanted to. An etching is a reproduction technology used as an original medium.

Which impression. The National Gallery of Art's, from the Rosenwald Collection — an untrimmed sheet, 21.8 × 28.7 cm, with the platemark visible on all four sides and paper beyond it. Most surviving impressions of this print have been cut to the platemark or inside it; this one has not, which is why the crop could be taken at the plate edge itself rather than estimated. Signed in the plate at lower left: Rembrandt f. 1643.

Scale
Original plate: 21.4 × 28 cm / 8 7/16 × 11 in — National Gallery of Art, Washington
35 × 27 cm / 13.8 × 10.6 in — Original size, 1:1

One size, and that is the point. The file would carry an enlargement to 39 cm at 300 dpi, so a larger sheet is technically available and we have not made one. The interesting fact about this picture is how small it is; printing it bigger would throw that away. If you have only seen The Three Trees as a poster, this is the first time you will see it at the size Rembrandt pulled it.

What is lost. Worth saying plainly. The burr of the drypoint, which holds ink like velvet and wears off after a few dozen impressions. The plate tone the printer left or wiped. The particular paper and the way the plate pressed into it. Those are not reproducible by any printer, and this sheet does not reproduce them. What it carries is the drawing, the storm, the composition — and the true size.

Why this sheet is in the shop. Every other print here was chosen because people are looking for it. This one was not. It is here because a reproduction of The Three Trees hung in a great-uncle's flat for forty years and was never once apologised for — which is an argument about reproductions worth making at length: What a Reproduction Was For.

Provenance
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669), The Three Trees, 1643; etching with drypoint and engraving on laid paper. Plate 21.4 × 28 cm, sheet 21.8 × 28.7 cm.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection, accession 1943.3.9119.
Purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald in 1928 and given to the National Gallery of Art in 1943.
Catalogued as White/Boon 212 and New Hollstein 214, one state only.
Public domain; the museum publishes the image under its Open Access policy.

The print
Giclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original impression is kept, not corrected to white. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.

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