The Great Engravers, Rembrandt, with a and similar items

The real quality of dry-point may be better studied in some of the lightly sketched lines in the foreground of the Artist drawing from a model. In his early period up till about 1640, Rembrandt's etching is characterized by a clear lineal manner with little tendency to the chiaroscuro which gradually became the characteristic feature of his artistic style in etching as well as in painting. Later he tends to a greater breadth of treatment in line, and a less imitative treatment of physical form. At first his experiments in chiaroscuro were produced by the close mesh of etched lines, but it must be confessed that etching as such rather loses its character when the line is so entirely lost in tone. The Hundred Guilder Print holds its unrivalled place in the art of etching rather for the genius that overcame supreme difficulties than for the supreme fitness of the style in relation to the medium.