The ringball player ("Het klosbaantje").

Etching, 9,6 x 14,4 cm, laid paper, signed and dated "Rembrandt f. 1654" (few sm. light stains).

Good impression with margins. Hinged at upper edges. Under passe-partout and frame (studied outside frame).

A man is sitting at a table in a tavern while in the background a man is playing ringball. In this etching, Rembrandt plays with the difference between an elaborated figure and a hasty sketch. 2nd state with a few blank spots shaded out and a few lines extended. Late 18th-c. impression from the original plate from 1654. In terms of plate tone and the condition of the plate (cf. sm. spots at top left), this impression is very close to one in London (British Museum, inv. 1843,0513.256).
Ref. Bartsch (Rembrandt) I, pp. 121-122, 125. - New Hollstein (Rembrandt) 282.II (of II).
Prov. [Christiaan van Dongen].