Rembrandt, his life, his work and his time . have settheir marks there. Thepersistent concentrationof his gaze has deepenedthe furrow between thebrows. The fires of pas-sion and youthful pridehave died out in theeyes ; they have a sadand anxious moustache has dis-appeared, the hair is crop-ped and begins to growscanty, falling away fromthe broad and noble browbeneath which such aworld of thought and im-agination lies etchings of thisperiod are comparativelyfew and unimportant. They include several rapid sketches,scratched on the first plate that came to hand, such
Rembrandt, his life, his work and his time . have settheir marks there. Thepersistent concentrationof his gaze has deepenedthe furrow between thebrows. The fires of pas-sion and youthful pridehave died out in theeyes ; they have a sadand anxious moustache has dis-appeared, the hair is crop-ped and begins to growscanty, falling away fromthe broad and noble browbeneath which such aworld of thought and im-agination lies etchings of thisperiod are comparativelyfew and unimportant. They include several rapid sketches,scratched on the first plate that came to hand, such as theTravelling Peasants (b. 131), executed about 1643, a spiritedstudy, in which the progression of the figures is very skilfullysuggested. The Hog (b. 157), signed and dated 1643—we reproduce the study for this plate in M. Bonnats collection—is abucolic tragedy the master may often have seen enacted in thecountry. Bound, and laid on his side, the animal contemplates thepreparations for his execution. He is fatted to a turn, and hope. ABRAHAM WITH HIS SON ISAAC 1645 (B. 34). ETCHINGS OF THIS PERIOD 3°9 is no longer possible ; his hour has come. Children crowd roundhim, rejoicing at the prospect of the approaching feast, with all thecallousness of youth ; a peasant already sharpens the fatal knife. In1644 we have only one work to record, The Shepherd and his Family(b. 220), a little composition hastily sketched on a plate containingseveral other studies. The shepherd stands beside his wife, whosuckles her child on the bank of a stream, from which some goatsare drinking. Several sacred subjects bear the date 1645, among
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1894
