REMBRANDT VAN RIJN Self Portrait Leaning on a Stone Sill. Etching and drypoint, 1639. 206x163 mm; 8¼x6½ inches. Biörklund's second state (of 2), with the cap band completed; Usticke's second state (e) (of 3); White and Boon's second state (of 2). Partial star watermark (Hinterding volume III, p. 181, he cites this watermark on another impression of this subject now in a private collection). A very good, well-inked and crisp impression of this extremely scarce etching, with little to no sign of wear and with touches of drypoint to the left of the cap."IN this, Rembrandt's most detailed etched self-portrait, he is dressed in Renaissance costume. He drew inspiration from Titian's painting, the so-called Portrait of Ariosto, which in Rembrandt's day was in the Amsterdam collection of Alfonso Lopez . . . But in 1639 he also saw Raphael's portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, now in the Louvre, when it was auctioned in Amsterdam and purchased by Lopez for 3,500 guilders," (Luijten/Royalton-Kisch, Rembrandt the Printmaker, London, 2000, pp. 166-69).According to Usticke, "Very scarce--a most desirable portrait (RR-)." Bartsch 21; Biörklund 39-E; Hollstein (White and Boon 21).