Artwork
Landscape with a View toward Haarlem (The Goldweigher's Field)
Landscape with a View toward Haarlem (The Goldweigher's Field) is an ink print by the Baroque artist Rembrandt. It dates from 1651 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1651, this print by Rembrandt van Rijn combines etching with drypoint on laid paper. It presents a broad, open landscape that leads the eye toward a distant settlement, often identified as the Goldweigher’s Field near Haarlem. The work exemplifies the artist’s late‑period interest in natural scenery and the subtle play of light across the countryside.
Subject & Meaning
The composition opens with a cultivated field dotted with tufts of grass and solitary trees, while a line of foliage recedes toward a cluster of modest buildings on the horizon. The tranquil setting suggests a quiet, everyday rural life, emphasizing the harmony between cultivated land and the surrounding nature rather than dramatizing any specific narrative.
Technique & Style
Rembrandt employed both etching and drypoint, the latter creating burr‑rich lines that lend a velvety texture to the foreground vegetation and distant silhouettes. This combination produces a nuanced depth, allowing the foreground to appear tactile while the background remains atmospheric, a hallmark of his mature printmaking approach.
Context
The print belongs to the Baroque period, during which Dutch artists increasingly turned to landscape as an independent genre. Rembrandt’s work reflects this shift, focusing on the observation of light and atmosphere rather than elaborate allegory, and aligns with contemporary Dutch interest in depicting the local environment with realism and subtle emotional resonance.
Artist & collection
Artist
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), known mononymously as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman.
Plain near a Lake (La plaine pres du lac)
Valley of Dunes (La vallee des dunes)
Valley in Bourgogne (Une vallee en Bourgogne)
Prospect (Le point de vue)
Plain (La plaine)
Banks of the Yanne (Les bords de la Yanne)
Canal, Ostend
Valley of the Dunes (La Vallee des Dunes)
Valley in Bourgogne (Une vallee en Bourgogne)