Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606–1669), Male Nude, Seated and Standing (‘Het Rolwagentje’), c. 1646, etching, state I/VIII, plate: 195 × 128 mm, The British Museum, London (B. 194; New Holl. 233; H. 222)
In the 1731 inventory of the Amsterdam collector Valerius Röver (1686–1739), this small etching already carried the name Het rolwagentje, ‘the baby walker’. It is an odd title for a print dominated by two studies of a nude young man, one standing and one seated, both wearing only a loincloth. The explanation lies in the background, where Rembrandt lightly etched a domestic scene: a woman crouching in a kitchen with an open fireplace, coaxing a toddler towards her with outstretched arms, the child supported by a wheeled walking frame. The juxtaposition is deliberate, and it carries a point.
In seventeenth-century Dutch culture, the image of a child learning to walk was a well-established metaphor for the principle that mastery comes only through persistent practice. The art historian Jan Emmens (1926–1971) traced this emblematic tradition in detail in his Rembrandt en de regels van de kunst (Rembrandt and the Rules of Art), noting its recurrence in moral literature and visual culture alike. Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679) drew on the same figure in his 1650 poetry treatise De Aenleidinge ter Nederduitsche Dichtkunste (Introduction to Netherlandish Poetry), urging learners not to be discouraged by early difficulties: the child must hold on to benches and chairs before daring to stand alone. Dutch emblem books made the analogy explicit, pairing the image of the baby walker with the proverb “practice makes perfect.” Rembrandt, by placing this vignette behind his nude studies, turned what might have been a simple studio exercise into something closer to a visual instruction, a quiet admonition to his pupils.
The two foreground figures are, in fact, the same model shown in two poses, a rare arrangement outside the conventions of a study sheet. It suggests that Rembrandt was thinking about the plate as a kind of pedagogical record. His pupils drew this model from their own vantage points on separate sheets, while the master himself worked directly onto the copper plate with an etching needle. There is something pointed about that division of labour. The pupils practised in pencil, chalk, or ink, media that permit erasure and revision. Rembrandt, by contrast, chose the most unforgiving method available to him: the etched line, once scored into the ground, cannot be taken back. Was this competitive instinct? A demonstration of what years of practice could achieve? Or simply a preference for working under pressure, which, for some temperaments, sharpens rather than inhibits the hand?
He produced at least three male nude etchings in 1646 (catalogued as White-Boon 193, 194, and 196), all related to these studio sessions. A 1658 document from the sale of Rembrandt’s house on the Sint Anthonisbreestraat refers to “various cubicles (afschutsels) that had been set up in the attic for his students,” confirming that drawing from live models was a structured part of workshop life. The house itself, now the Museum Het Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam, preserves something of the layout described in these records.
Surviving drawings by Rembrandt’s pupils confirm that these were collaborative sessions. A drawing by Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–1678), now in the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. RF 4713), records the same model in a comparable pose, viewed from a different angle. A further drawing attributed to Carel Fabritius (1622–1654), Standing Male Nude, appears to relate to the same session. Fabritius’s drawing, executed in pen, ink, and wash, offers a telling contrast with Rembrandt’s etched line: the difference in medium is itself evidence of the variety of techniques encouraged within the workshop.
It is worth pausing over one quality that runs through nearly all of Rembrandt’s nude studies. He refuses to conceal his models’ physical imperfections. The sagging flesh, the plain features, the unglamorous bodies are recorded without idealisation, producing an effect that can be simultaneously jarring and sympathetic. There is no classical filter here. The body is observed as it is, not as academic convention might have wished it to be. How much of this was principle, and how much was simply temperament, is a question the prints leave open.
One further detail deserves attention. It has been suggested that the background scene with the woman and child may have been etched onto the plate at an earlier date, possibly around 1643, and might depict Geertje Dircks (c. 1610/15–after 1656) with the young Titus van Rijn (1641–1668), who would then have been around eighteen months old. If so, the male nudes were added to the plate several years later, giving the composition a layered history that its seamless appearance does not immediately reveal. This remains speculative, but it raises an interesting question about how Rembrandt thought about his copper plates as living surfaces, capable of accumulating images over time.
References
Bevers, H. (ed.) (2009) Drawings by Rembrandt and his Pupils: Telling the Difference. Exhibition catalogue. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum
The British Museum (n.d.) Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Nude man seated and another standing; a woman and a child in a baby walker in background, c. 1646. Etching, registration no. F,5.141. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_F-5-141 (Accessed: 24 Augsut 2024).
Emmens, J.A. (1968) Rembrandt en de regels van de kunst (Rembrandt and the Rules of Art). Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, pp. 154–59
Fondation Custodia (n.d.) ‘Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Male Nude, Seated and Standing (“Het rolwagentje”)‘. Available at: https://www.fondationcustodia.fr/38-Rembrandt-Harmensz-van-Rijn-837 (Accessed: 24 August 2024).
Hinterding, E. (2008) Rembrandt Etchings from the Frits Lugt Collection: Catalogue raisonné. Bussum: THOTH Publishers, no. 151.
Hinterding, E. and Rutgers, J. (2013) The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450–1700: Rembrandt. Edited by G. Luijten. Ouderkerk aan den IJssel: Sound & Vision Publishers, no. 233.
Rijksmuseum (n.d.) Het rolwagentje. RP-P-OB-427. Available at: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-OB-427 (Accessed: 23 August 2024).
RISD Museum (n.d.) Male Nude, Seated and Standing (Het Rolwagentje). Accession no. 84.198.127.0. Available at: https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/male-nude-seated-and-standing-het-rolwagentje-841981270 (Accessed: 23 August 2024).
Schatborn, P. (2006) ‘Drawings Attributed to Carel Fabritius’, Oud Holland, 119(2–3), pp. 137-138.Avaialble at :https://rkddb.rkd.nl/rkddb/digital_book/18750176_119_02-03_s007_text.pdf (Accessed 23 August 2024)