Title: Jan Cornelis Sylvius, Preacher 
Artist: _ Rembrandt
Category: Old Master
Medium: Etching
Framed: Yes
Height: 16"
Width: 14.1"

c 1633. Bartsch's second state. Signed and dated in the plate Rembrandt f.1633.

Jan Cornelis Sylvius (1564-1638), a preacher in the Dutch Reformed Church in Amsterdam since 1610, was the legal guardian of Rembrandt's wife-to-be Saskia van Uylenburgh at the time this etching was made. It was to Sylvius that Rembrandt made his appeal for Saskia's hand. This portrait undoubtedly helped engineer the old man’s consent, for Saskia and Rembrandt married the year after its completion. His hands clasped over his Bible and his head covered by a skullcap, the early Sylvius (Rembrandt executed another, posthumously, in 1646), conveys the asceticism of this religious scholar.

This etched portrait of Sylvius is a quiet and restrained work, quite different from the majority of the painted portraits of those years. The background always plays a very limited role in early portrait studies. In this etching the gray of the background effectively sets off the modeling in light and dark of the face and clothing. The deep blacks of the clothing and the skullcap were achieved by biting the plate twice.