Signed and dated 1658, Rembrandt van Rijn’s dark and atmospheric etching of a reclining female nude seen from behind was given the title of Negress lying down (B 205) in 1797 when it was catalogued by Adam Bartsch. Previously the print had been generically referred to as a ‘naked sleeping woman.’1 During the period when Rembrandt made this print, his personal life was in shambles. He had applied in 1656 to the High Court of Holland for bankruptcy relief, and during the year in which he completed the etching, Rembrandt’s possessions continued to be sold.2 However, despite his financial woes, Rembrandt produced three states of the print using etching, drypoint, and burin. The first state had white areas at the top of the plate; in the second state cross-hatching was added to the pillow; and in the third state the top area of the plate that had been white was shaded. All in all, the three states do not vary drastically. Impressions of the second and third state vary only according to the inking of the plate.3

Despite its more than two centuries of use, in more recent years the identification of the woman as a ‘negress’ has been disputed. In the first of the three states, the skin of the woman is considerably paler than it appears in the later states. In careful comparison of the three states it is now believed that Rembrandt rethought the positioning of the figure moving her to the left and further down leaving evidence of the original positioning. Besides this, there is also what appears to be a second head, "a ghostly double image," on the pillow above the first.4 In order to disguise his alterations Rembrandt most likely shaded heavily around the upper contours of the figure leaving a stark contrast between the woman and the background. In turn he added cross-hatching to the figure itself to create a tonal balance in the composition.

Another theory for the extreme darkness of the woman’s skin is simply that there would be dim lighting in an enclosed bed and Rembrandt’s decision to darken the shadows was, therefore, strictly naturalistic in intent. Rembrandt also seems to have been interested in using drypoint, an engraving process made with a needle directly without the use of acid, and burin, an engraving tool with a sharp point. These techniques allowed the artist to enhance the dark, rich tones.

It is probable that Rembrandt considered all these issues in the final creation of an atmospheric veil of mystery . It is obvious when examining the print that Rembrandt was concerned with the effects of dark tones and shadowing on the nude female form. A major clue is the complete lack of any indentifying atrributes for a classical or mythological subject. The fact that Rembrandt chose to not show us the woman’s face further demonstrates his disregard for her identity and his intent focus on the rendering of the female form with dark tones.5 More typical of Rembrandt’s time were nude female figures identified as pagan or mythological characters such as Venus and Danäe.

The very minimal definition of the bedclothes is also another clue to Rembrandt’s focus on the volume and contours of the female figure. The ‘Negress’ lies totally nude atop a heap of sheets and pillows with her left leg outstretched and the right curled underneath; she is completely immersed in her surroundings, and a dark curtain in the background envelopes her as her back and head curve into deeper shadow. Only the top portion of the ‘Negress’s’ left arm is visible as the rest disappears behind her torso. She seems to be unaware of any onlookers. This pose "may have been influenced by earlier images including a figure in Hans Sebald Beham’s engraving of St John Chrysostom, Agostino Veneziano’s print of A Nude Woman on a Fur," or Giulio Campagnola’s nude in a landscape.6

Though the pose of Rembrandt’s reclining nude may have been inspired by examples of Renaissance depictions of females, he did anything but idealize the form of the ‘Negress.’ Her thick buttocks and thighs are far more naturalistic than the typical classically inspired female form that had been and was being portrayed by Rembrandt’s predecessors and contemporaries.

Along with the ‘Negress lying down,’ Rembrandt produced three other etchings of nude female figures in 1658: Woman sitting half dressed beside a stove, Seated naked woman with a hat, and Seated naked woman. All four were strictly studies of the nude form without any classical references. This apparent interest in the naturalistic nude form was unusual in seventeenth-century Dutch art. The few that were done appear in poular Biblical narratives such as Susanna and the Elders.7 Rembrandt’s treatment of the nude female form in his paintings, drawings, and etchings received much criticism. His nude figures seemed to have an almost exaggerated naturalism that many found pathetic, even repulsive. In the twentieth century, Benjamin Robert Haydon commented that Rembrandt’s "notions of the delicate forms of a woman would have frightened an arctic bear," and even in his own time his nudes were described as having "flabby breasts, ill-shaped hands," and "traces of the lacings of the corset on the stomach, of the garters on the legs."8 However, Rembrandt was more concerned with imitating nature than with repeating classical fictions.

Despite such criticism of Rembrandt’s treatment of the female form, the ‘Negress lying down’ proves his mastery of tone in rendering the female figure. Most painters learn by sketching and drawing nudes when they are still young. Rembrandt, however, etched most of his nudes towards the end of his career, between the ages of forty and forty-five, but still his ability was unmatched. It is indeed as Henry Walters wrote, "it is hard enough to draw a thing to look round, but next to impossible to embed it in a shallow yet palpable deposit of air."9

--Lindsay Leigh