{ "dataset_version": "0.9", "dataset_date": "2026-08-12", "licence": { "metadata": "CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication)", "spdx": "CC0-1.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "note": "Descriptive metadata and the census are dedicated to the public domain. Reuse them for anything, including commercially, without asking and without attribution — though a citation helps other people find the source. Written prose on the site is CC BY 4.0. Comparator photographs belong to the institutions that made them and carry the terms stated on each comparator record." }, "type": "states", "count": 4, "catalogue": "New Hollstein (Hinterding & Rutgers, Rembrandt)", "summary": "How many states this plate has depends entirely on which catalogue you are reading, and the answer ranges from one to four. That is not a bibliographic quibble: a description reading “state III of IV” is unintelligible in three of the five catalogues in common use for this print, and it is precisely the description attached to NP-RMB-001. This atlas sets out what each state is said to look like, which impressions are catalogued in it, and — for one state — the fact that no source the project could reach describes it at all.", "divisions": [ { "catalogue": "Bartsch, 1797", "states_recognised": "1", "evidence": "The Rijksmuseum renders the reference as “Bartsch 20-1(1)” — state 1 of 1.", "source_url": "https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-1961-989", "source_name": "Rijksmuseum", "verified": true, "interpretation": null }, { "catalogue": "Hollstein, original series", "states_recognised": "1", "evidence": "The Rijksmuseum renders the reference as “Hollstein Dutch 20-1(1)”.", "source_url": "https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-1961-989", "source_name": "Rijksmuseum", "verified": true, "interpretation": null }, { "catalogue": "White & Boon, 1969", "states_recognised": "1", "evidence": "The National Gallery of Art's catalogue raisonné field reads verbatim: “White/Boon 1969, no. 20, State only.” “State only” means no state divisions were recognised.", "source_url": "https://www.nga.gov/artworks/9997-self-portrait-velvet-cap-plume", "source_name": "National Gallery of Art", "verified": true, "interpretation": null }, { "catalogue": "New Hollstein, as cited by the National Gallery of Art", "states_recognised": "3", "evidence": "The NGA record's bibliography entry cites “The New Hollstein … no. 170, state ii/iii” — a three-state reading of the same catalogue that the British Museum and the Rijksmuseum read as four.", "source_url": "https://www.nga.gov/artworks/9997-self-portrait-velvet-cap-plume", "source_name": "National Gallery of Art", "verified": true, "interpretation": "The NGA citation points at the open-ended serial publication rather than at the completed Rembrandt volumes, so this is most likely an interim reading that was later superseded. That explanation is plausible and is not documented; it is recorded here as an interpretation, not a finding." }, { "catalogue": "New Hollstein, Rembrandt (Hinterding & Rutgers)", "states_recognised": "4", "evidence": "The British Museum cites impressions as “New Hollstein 170.II” and “170.IV”; the Rijksmuseum renders its impressions “170-1(4)”, “170-2(4)” and “170-4(4)”.", "source_url": "https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1941-0327-11-3", "source_name": "British Museum and Rijksmuseum", "verified": true, "interpretation": null } ], "divisions_note": "Catalogues disagree about how many states this plate has. Each division below is recorded with the catalogue that asserts it and the evidence for it, and none is presented as the settled answer.", "records": [ { "state": "I", "catalogue": "New Hollstein 170", "headline": "Before the jaw is strengthened", "description": "The earliest state. The signature and date are already in the plate, upper left: “Rembrandt f. 1638”. The state is defined negatively, by what has not yet happened — the chin and jaw below the left ear have not been strengthened. No source the project could reach prints a positive description of state I; the characterisation here is inferred from the description of state II and should be checked against the printed catalogue entry.", "diagnostic_features": [ "Signature and date present in the plate, upper left", "Chin and jaw below the left ear not yet delineated", "No cross-hatching in the beret above the plume" ], "signature_status": "Present", "documented": true, "source_url": "https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-1961-989", "source_name": "Rijksmuseum RP-P-1961-989, catalogued New Hollstein 170-1(4)", "caveat": "The Rijksmuseum record gives the state designation and records the inscription, but does not print a description of what distinguishes state I. The negative characterisation is an inference.", "census_ids": [], "census_records_in_this_state": [ { "id": "CN-rijksmuseum-rp-p-1961-989", "institution": "Rijksmuseum", "accession_number": "RP-P-1961-989" }, { "id": "CN-staatsgalerie-stut-a-10901", "institution": "Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung", "accession_number": "A 10901" }, { "id": "CN-victoria-and-alber-cai-715", "institution": "Victoria and Albert Museum", "accession_number": "CAI.715" } ] }, { "state": "II", "catalogue": "New Hollstein 170", "headline": "The jaw delineated", "description": "The British Museum's curatorial description, used verbatim for two separate impressions, is “second state with jaw delineated”. Expanded, the chin below the left ear is now clearly defined, and the beret above the plume has not yet been cross-hatched. The signature remains present. This is the best-attested state in the census: it accounts for more recorded impressions than any other.", "diagnostic_features": [ "Chin below the left ear clearly defined", "Before the cross-hatching in the beret above the plume", "Signature and date present" ], "signature_status": "Present", "documented": true, "source_url": "https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1910-0212-376", "source_name": "British Museum 1910,0212.376 and F,4.25, both catalogued New Hollstein 170.II", "caveat": null, "census_ids": [], "census_records_in_this_state": [ { "id": "CN-harvard-art-museum-g4910", "institution": "Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum", "accession_number": "G4910" }, { "id": "CN-national-gallery-o-1943-3-7201", "institution": "National Gallery of Art", "accession_number": "1943.3.7201" }, { "id": "CN-national-gallery-o-19-4", "institution": "National Gallery of Victoria", "accession_number": "19-4" }, { "id": "CN-rijksmuseum-rp-p-ob-285", "institution": "Rijksmuseum", "accession_number": "RP-P-OB-285" }, { "id": "CN-statens-museum-for-kksgb5223", "institution": "Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK)", "accession_number": "KKSgb5223" }, { "id": "CN-the-british-museum-1910-0212-376", "institution": "The British Museum", "accession_number": "1910,0212.376" }, { "id": "CN-the-british-museum-f-4-25", "institution": "The British Museum", "accession_number": "F,4.25" }, { "id": "CN-the-morgan-library-rvr-24", "institution": "The Morgan Library & Museum", "accession_number": "RvR 24" }, { "id": "CN-bonhams-27424-2", "institution": "Bonhams (sale 27424, lot 2, London, 13 December 2022)", "accession_number": null } ] }, { "state": "III", "catalogue": "New Hollstein 170", "headline": "Not described in any source the project could reach", "description": "No collection record, published description or accessible catalogue transcription retrieved by this project describes state III, and no impression catalogued as 170.III was located in any collection searched. What can be said is bounded: state II is defined as being before the cross-hatching in the beret above the plume, so state III is where that cross-hatching should appear. That is an inference from the neighbouring definition, not a documented description, and it is recorded as an inference. Resolving it requires the printed New Hollstein entry for no. 170, which the project does not hold.", "diagnostic_features": [ "Inferred: cross-hatching added to the beret above the plume", "Position in the sequence: after the jaw is delineated, before the plate is reworked for the Basan re-issue" ], "signature_status": "Not documented. Since state IV is defined by the signature being redrawn, the signature must have degraded on the plate at some point before that rework — which is consistent with a late state III showing a faint or broken signature, though no source states this.", "documented": false, "source_url": null, "source_name": null, "caveat": "This is the weakest link in the sequence, and it is exactly the state the working record claims for NP-RMB-001. Any determination of “state III” for this sheet currently rests on a description nobody can check. See RQ-02.", "census_ids": [], "census_records_in_this_state": [] }, { "state": "IV", "catalogue": "New Hollstein 170", "headline": "The signature redrawn, for the Basan re-issue", "description": "“Fourth state with signature redrawn; from an edition of the Recueil published by Henri Louis Basan around 1810.” The British Museum credits the plate rework to François Basan and the publication to Henri Louis Basan, Paris. The Rijksmuseum's impression in this state is likewise associated with the Basan workshop and with a later nineteenth-century printing. State IV is therefore posthumous by definition: it exists because someone reworked Rembrandt's plate roughly a century and a half after his death in order to print it again.", "diagnostic_features": [ "Signature redrawn rather than original", "Associated with the Recueil Basan, published in Paris around 1810", "Plate rework attributed to François Basan" ], "signature_status": "Present, but redrawn", "documented": true, "source_url": "https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1941-0327-11-3", "source_name": "British Museum 1941,0327.11.3, catalogued New Hollstein 170.IV", "caveat": null, "census_ids": [], "census_records_in_this_state": [ { "id": "CN-rijksmuseum-rp-p-ob-286", "institution": "Rijksmuseum", "accession_number": "RP-P-OB-286" }, { "id": "CN-the-british-museum-1941-0327-11-3", "institution": "The British Museum", "accession_number": "1941,0327.11.3" } ] } ] }