Sleeping Puppy, Rembrandt van Rijn, etching and drypoint, 1 1/2″ x 3″ (4 x 8 cm). This print is in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum, NY. From their page, you can zoom or download the large image.
This tiny etching of a sleeping puppy, hardly the expected subject for a Rembrandt etching, has an intamacy and warm feeling, leaving me to wonder if it was actually Rembrandt’s own dog.
Look at how Rembrandt’s seemingly casual hatching and cross hatching follows the contour of the dog’s body, and particularly the more sharply defined elements of the head.
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