The RembrandtOpen Impression Project

Impression census

Every impression we can find, and its source

One row per recorded impression of this plate, transcribed from the holding institution’s own published record rather than from a dealer’s summary of it. Every row carries the URL it came from, so every row can be checked.

This is the part of the project that is useful to someone with no interest at all in a privately held sheet.
27
Records
18
Institutions
6
Countries
14
State recorded
13 do not state one
7
Watermark recorded
8
Openly licensed image

27 of 27 records · 14 state a state · 7 record a watermark

Impressions of Bartsch 20 / New Hollstein 170, one row per recorded impression, each with its source.
AccessionPlate / sheetDetail
IRijksmuseumRP-P-1961-989Amsterdam, Netherlands134 x 103—3Institutional record
IStaatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische SammlungA 10901Stuttgart, Germany——3Institutional record
IVictoria and Albert MuseumCAI.715London, United Kingdom—
142 x 110 (recorded as 'trimmed to')		—3Institutional record
IIBonhams (sale 27424, lot 2, London, 13 December 2022)—London, United Kingdom—
125 × 103		Partial Strasbourg Lily5Auction catalogue
IIHarvard Art Museums / Fogg MuseumG4910Cambridge, MA, United States136 x 106
162 x 127		—3Institutional record
IINational Gallery of Art1943.3.7201Washington, DC, United States135 x 103
180 x 142		Foolscap3Institutional record
IINational Gallery of Victoria19-4Melbourne, Australia135 x 105
139 x 108		Arms of Ravensburg (variant C.a.) - fragm…3Institutional record
IIRijksmuseumRP-P-OB-285Amsterdam, Netherlands134 x 103—3Institutional record
IIStatens Museum for Kunst (SMK)KKSgb5223Copenhagen, Denmark134 x 103—3Institutional record
IIThe British Museum1910,0212.376London, United Kingdom—Basilisk (Hinterding catalogue, variant A…3Institutional record
IIThe British MuseumF,4.25London, United Kingdom—Probably Strasbourg lily (Hinterding cata…3Institutional record
IIThe Morgan Library & MuseumRvR 24New York, United States134 x 103Countermark: Letters 'RP' with trefoil3Institutional record
IVRijksmuseumRP-P-OB-286Amsterdam, Netherlands134 x 104—3Institutional record
IVThe British Museum1941,0327.11.3London, United Kingdom——3Institutional record
not statedArt Institute of Chicago1938.1792Chicago, United States—
123 x 105 mm ('Sheet, cut within platemark: 12.3 x 10.5 cm (4 7/8 x 4 3/16 in.)')		—3Institutional record
not statedCleveland Museum of Art1942.874Cleveland, United States—
112 x 104 mm ('Sheet: 11.2 x 10.4 cm (4 7/16 x 4 1/8 in.)')		None recorded (the support_materials wate…3Institutional record
not statedFine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts)1963.30.187San Francisco, United States——3Institutional record
not statedHerzog Anton Ulrich-MuseumRembrandt AB 3.16Braunschweig, Germany135 x 104
140 x 110		—3Institutional record
not statedHerzog Anton Ulrich-MuseumRembrandt AB 3.17 (former number 5376)Braunschweig, Germany—
134 x 104		—3Institutional record
not statedMuseum Boijmans Van BeuningenMB 1962/213 (PK)Rotterdam, Netherlands——3Institutional record
not statedMuseum of Fine Arts, BostonP391Boston, United States135 x 105
141 x 110		—3Institutional record
not statedPrinceton University Art Museumx1949-229Princeton, NJ, United States138 x 105
138 x 105 (sheet trimmed to plate)		—3Institutional record
not statedPrivate collectionthis projectNP-RMB-001Dubai, United Arab Emirates—
c. 137 × 104 (convention unstated; see RQ-03)		—8Unreviewed submission
not statedRISD Museum (Rhode Island School of Design)84.198.1269Providence, RI, United States135 x 103 mm ('13.5 x 10.3 cm (5 5/16 x 4 1/16 inches) (plate)')—3Institutional record
not statedSwann Auction Galleries (sale 2566, 'Old Master Through Modern Prints', 6 May 2021, lot 87)—New York, United States135 x 105—5Auction catalogue
not statedThe Metropolitan Museum of Art60.598.66New York, United States——3Institutional record
not statedThe Metropolitan Museum of Art64.649.5New York, United States——3Institutional record

What the census already shows

Three patterns are visible in the data as it stands, and each is a finding rather than an artefact of how it was gathered.

Most institutions do not record a state at all

Of 27 records, 14 state a state and 13 do not. That is not carelessness — it reflects that three of the catalogues in common use for this print recognise only a single state, so there is nothing to record. It also means the state distribution below is a distribution of what has been catalogued, not of what exists.

State III is absent from the census entirely

No record located in any collection searched is catalogued as state III of this plate, and no source retrieved describes what state III looks like. This is the state the sheet at the centre of this project is said to be.

Watermarks are recorded for a small minority

7 of 27 records name a watermark. Where they do — a Basilisk, a Strasbourg lily, a Foolscap, Arms of Ravensburg — each is a thread back to a mill and a period, and each is the kind of evidence that could date an impression. The rest are silent, mostly because nobody has photographed those sheets in transmitted light.

Recorded impressions by state

I
3
II
9
III
0no description found
IV
2
—
13state not stated

How a row gets in

And what disqualifies one.

Rules

  • Every row has a source URL. The build refuses to compile a census record without one.
  • Fields are transcribed as the institution words them. Where a record says etching and drypoint and another says etching, both are kept.
  • Where a record contradicts itself, the contradiction is transcribed rather than resolved — one record here gives a New Hollstein state and separately says “only one state”.
  • Auction and dealer records are admitted at a lower evidence tier and marked as such. They are leads, not authorities.
  • A dimension is never converted between plate and sheet. If the institution did not label it, neither do we.

Known limits

  • This is a floor, not a total. Several major print rooms could not be searched reliably, and “not found” must not be read as “holds none”.
  • Two records carry data-quality flags rather than corrections: a sheet dimension that is almost certainly a typing error, and a catalogue number that disagrees with every other institution’s.
  • Copies of the composition — as opposed to impressions of this plate — have been excluded where a curator designates them as such, and are listed as rejected candidates.

Examined and rejected

Candidates considered for the census and excluded. Published so the same ground is not covered twice.

  • Bonhams, Prints and Multiples, sale 27424, lot 2, London, 13 December 2022 — an impression of the same print (Bartsch 20 / New Hollstein 170), catalogued as New Hollstein's second state of four, with a partial Strasbourg Lily watermark, sheet 125 × 103 mm, trimmed by 9 mm at the top and along the lower plate mark.

    Why excludedExamined as a possible match for the acquisition recorded in the working record and excluded: different year, different city, and a different state. It is retained in the census as an art-market record — it is a real impression with real recorded features, and its Strasbourg Lily watermark makes it a useful comparator for the paper question — but it is not this sheet.

    https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27424/lot/2/

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