Christ healing the Sick ('The Hundred Guilder Print')

...'also here is the rarest print published by Rembrandt, in which Christ is healing the sick, and I know that in Holland [it] has been sold various times for 100 guilders and more; and it is as large as this sheet of paper, very fine and lovely, but ought to cost 30 guilders. It is very beautiful and pure.'

So states Jan Meyssens of Antwerp to Carolus van den Bosch, Bishop of Bruges, in a letter dated 9 February 1654. This extract provides the clue as to how this print gained its famous sobriquet: the print was so desirable that only a few years after its creation it was exchanging hands for the exceptionally high price of 100 guilders.
The scene centres on the luminous figure of Christ, who extends his right hand in welcome to an approaching woman who holds an infant, and a toddler who eagerly pulls his mother in the direction of Jesus. This well-known episode from the life of Christ is recounted in Matthew 19: 'Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these".’ The enthusiasm of the child is contrasted with the rich young man who sits despondently nearby, his chin resting on his hand, contemplating Jesus’s challenge to "sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven". The presence of the camel in the arched doorway alludes to Jesus’s saying that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Rembrandt draws out the varied responses of the crowd, from the indifference of the smartly dressed man in the foreground, with an oriental hat and walking cane, and the arguing teachers of the law on the left, to the dogged faith of the poor and sick who throng around him. Christ’s left hand is raised in blessing, ostensibly for the children who are being brought to him. However, his compassionate gaze extends beyond the crowd towards the viewer and his gesture becomes a statement of universal benediction.
Christ healing the Sick was a significant turning point in Rembrandt's development as an etcher; it is his first major work in which light and shadow were used to obtain such expressive power. By depicting these separate strands of the narrative of Matthew 19 in one composition, Rembrandt was embarking on the ambitious task of uniting all elements harmoniously. The image is almost at the risk of falling into two discrete halves: the left sketchy and bright, the right densely worked and dark. Yet through careful composition and the introduction of a halftone, Rembrandt managed to balance and unify this highly complex composition. It is his most 'painterly', most ambitious and one of his most sought-after print.
The print is known in two lifetimes states. The composition was complete in the first state, with a few small corrections made by the artist in the second. Only nine impressions of the first state are known. However, Hinterding cites over one hundred impressions of the second state, a testimony to its fame and popularity even in the artist’s lifetime. The figures and the background to the left of Christ have been etched lightly and print somewhat faintly even in the earliest impressions of the second state. Given the fugitive nature of burr and the tendency of the densely worked areas to wear quickly, the background is often printed with a heavily inked and selectively wiped plate tone, as in the present impression, in order to maintain the strong chiaroscuro effect.