Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669) The Triumph of Mordecai. About 1641. Etching and drypoint. 212 x 175. Bartsch-Hollstein 40; Hind 172; Bjorklund-Barnard 41-1; New Hollstein 185 (iii/iv). A very fine proof on thin ivory laid paper (partial watermark: shield of Strasbourg, Ash and Fletcher 35 C.b., conforming to that of the proof in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), loaded with barbs particularly in the left part of the subject, from the 3rd state (of 4), before the plate was completely retouched in aquatint (by another hand). Minor foxing and stains on verso. A tiny hole in the centre visible by transparency. A tiny freckle visible under the arch on the right. Ex-coll. J. B. E. Gallice (his initials, Lugt 1063, and the date "1870") and unidentified mark (P.). Addendum: the unidentified collector's mark (letter P in a house) corresponds to the German collector Paul Heisel, born in 1903, who was particularly interested in Rembrandt (we would like to thank Madame Choueiry, of the Fondation Custodia, who kindly provided us with this information). In the Book of Esther, it is recounted that the Persian king Ahasuerus, much to the displeasure of his adviser Aman, ordered that the Jew Mordecai be adorned with the royal mantle and led in triumph through the city on his own horse as a sign of gratitude for a past benefit. "This is the precise moment that Rembrandt chose to depict [...]. [...] The artist has fully resolved the technical impasse he encountered in the Presentation in the Temple by making the drypoint work an integral part of the execution - and not a final addition. Some figures appear to have been enriched with deep barbs. This is the first etching in which the chiaroscuro is perfectly pictorial, Rembrandt having succeeded, as it were, in painting with the etching needle. [...] In the early 1640s, the artist was keen to integrate his figures into a frame, and the Night Watch, painted a year after the Triumph of Mordecai, is an even more accomplished example of this research. [...] Aman is the "Banning Cocq" of the Ronde, and his theatrical gesture, reminiscent of that of an actor in front of an audience, is the same as that of the Captain of the Civic Guard. [...] The theatre in Amsterdam may have inspired the highly scenic motif of the box where King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther are standing. This detail, absent from the Bible, is an invention of the artist's, made all the more personal by the fact that the royal couple have the features of Rembrandt and Saskia. The circular temple that rises into the bright light of the background is a rare type of architecture in Rembrandt's work, and was perhaps inspired by the octagonal building that the architect Arent van's-Gravesende had been erecting since 1639 in Leiden, the city where Rembrandt's mother lived until her death. [...] The refinement and particular flavour of Rembrandt's representations are due to the artist's marvellous finesse of observation; many of the figures seem to be 'on-the-spot' studies and there is a sketch for the mother and her child". (S. de Bussierre, et al, Rembrandt, eaux-fortes, collection Dutuit, Paris, Petit Palais, 1986, p. 149-150).