Landscape with a Farmhouse along a Road beside a Canal

The Landscape with a Farmhouse along a Road beside a Canal may be the earliest pure drypoint in Rembrandt's oeuvre. Only one other landscape print, the Clump of Trees with a Vista (B. 222; New Holl. 272), dated 1652, is also executed entirely in drypoint, and it can be assumed that both were made around the same time, with the present one probably preceding the other. Over the following years, Rembrandt would use the technique exclusively only in four more prints, but they include some of his greatest, most daring and fascinating graphic works: The Three Crosses of 1653, Ecce Homo and the portrait of Thomas Haaringhof 1655 (New Hollstein 274, 290, 291), and the first state of Saint Francis in Prayer (New Hollstein 299) of 1657.
Of these five works, the present small landscape is the most subtle and delicate, as Rembrandt must have realised that for a plate to yield a reasonable number of good impressions, the drypoint had to be applied quite vigorously. Here, the burr wore off quickly and, as a result, this is a very rare print. The detailed observation of this landscape raise the possibility that the print was executed en plein-air. Edmé-François Gersaint (1694-1750) already claimed that Rembrandt took prepared copper plates with him into the countryside. The technical simplicity of the drypoint method suggests that this might be true. Perhaps he used the same method for this prints as for Clump of Trees with a Vista, namely to sketch the main elements of the composition in situ directly onto the plate, then adding substance and shading to the image when back in the studio. Certain details, such as the figures on the open porch of the farmstead or the moored boat with the raised sail, seem observed rather than invented, and lend the print a particular vivacity and charm. No preparatory or even related drawing is known. (See: Schneider, 1990, no. 25, p. 126-127.)