Fantasielandschaft mit hohem Felsengebirge, 1642

About the Work

Rembrandt’s landscape drawings are basically always sketches drawn before the motif. The kind of finished composition we find here, with tiny people in a majestic “world landscape” of mountains, a river, city and countryside is found in only a few of his paintings. This and the signature, unusual in his drawings, led to the suspicion as far back as the 19th century that this print was a “forgery”. More recent examinations however have produced arguments favouring the notion that it could in fact be an original. A close look at the range of details, simply drawn but vibrant, such as the travellers in the left foreground, reveals a level of drawing expertise not anticipated in a first glance at this surprising drawing.