Etched copper plate. Rembrandt van Rijn. The Virgin and Child with the Cat and Snake, Netherlands, 1654. Varnished to prevent further printing.

A domestic interior with fireplace to the left, also in the room a trunk and chair, the Virgin Mary cradling the infant Christ in the centre of the scene, behind her a window through which Joseph is looking. To the right a cat playing with a snake. The setting and costume are contemporary to the artist.

Purchased with Art Fund support and the Friends of the V&A

Notes made by Liz Miller on the RP. No 93/399 on Basan Receuil impression, c.1810, British Museum, 157*b.26.[Plate taken to the BM on 31/1/94.]

"1. Wear on forehead (circular patch)
2. New lines on chin
3. No signs of cross hatching to right of Christ's back
4.Lost shadow of Mary's face on Christ but lines maybe still there?
5. Bottom hand gone. Lattice of Christ's back missing."

As above 1906 imprssion

"1.No sign of new horizontal hatching on right, across Mary's arm (?cosmetic for plate) that can be seen on plate.
2. Blank patch is there on forehead
3. We have lost shadow of Mary's face
4. Chin made up of criss cross lines."

Further notes on RF of comparison between V&A impression and impressions in the Fitzwillian Museum Cambridge.

From RF93/399
No plates were listed in Rembrandt's inventory of July 25/26 1656 [when declared voluntarily insolvent]. 75 plates were listed in the inventory of Clement de Jonghe, dated Feb 11, 1679. This plate is one of only thirty-two of the eighty pieces from the Robert Lee Humber collection which can be traced as far back as the Amsterdam printmaker and publisher Clement de Jonge. Aside from the Humber collection, only five other Rembrandt plates are extant; the present whereabouts of one is unknown, while another - a portrait of Jan Six - is with the descendants of the sitter.

Provenance: Clement de Jonge 1679; Pieter de Haan by 1786; Pierre Francois Basan 1786; Auguste Jean 1810; his widow; Auguste Bernard 1846; Michel Bernard, Alvin Beaumont 1906; Robert Lee Humber 1938; Artemis/ David Carritt Ltd.

Rembrandt was probably the most important and influential European etcher of all time. Another artist has gone over some of the lines making up the Virgin's hands, but otherwise the majority of the lines on the plate were created by Rembrandt himself in 1654. There are also some areas of the plate that have become worn, such as a patch on the Virgin's temple. A print was last made from this plate in 1906.

The V&A holds an early state of an impression from this plate, Museum number CAI.646. The plate was being printed from until 1906, during which period many of the plates were reworked to prolong their life.

The composition is partly based on an engraving of the Virgin and Child by Antegna Mantegna.

E.655-1993