When I was a kid in art school in Philadelphia, strolling down Walnut Street, I saw in the window of the Haddassah Thrift Shop, in a dirty cracked frame, an etching..."The Great Jewish Bride". I recognized it as a portrait of Rembrandt's wife Saskia. They obviously had no Idea what it was but wanted $18.00 for it. They thought the frame more valuable than its contents.
I had to run to withdraw the $18.00 from the bank, serious money to me. I was gambling. Was it an original or a reproduction ?
I took it to the main library which housed the print collection of the Art Museum. where comparing it to their, much finer impression from the same plate, the curator acknowledged it was a late, probably posthumus impression, but quite authentic.
A few years later, a bursary student in the Print Room of the Yale Art Gallery, the paper conservator, Mrs Elizabeth Archer Gee helped me wash and reframe it. An etching, printed on paper, and not an especially good impression was worth only several hundred dollars, but for me it was the greatest prize. I subsequently became a printmaker myself, with my own printshop and with work included in a few national collections.
Wonderful piece.
Got it! Thanks so much. WS
Amazing!!
When I was a kid in art school in Philadelphia, strolling down Walnut Street, I saw in the window of the Haddassah Thrift Shop, in a dirty cracked frame, an etching..."The Great Jewish Bride". I recognized it as a portrait of Rembrandt's wife Saskia. They obviously had no Idea what it was but wanted $18.00 for it. They thought the frame more valuable than its contents.
I had to run to withdraw the $18.00 from the bank, serious money to me. I was gambling. Was it an original or a reproduction ?
I took it to the main library which housed the print collection of the Art Museum. where comparing it to their, much finer impression from the same plate, the curator acknowledged it was a late, probably posthumus impression, but quite authentic.
A few years later, a bursary student in the Print Room of the Yale Art Gallery, the paper conservator, Mrs Elizabeth Archer Gee helped me wash and reframe it. An etching, printed on paper, and not an especially good impression was worth only several hundred dollars, but for me it was the greatest prize. I subsequently became a printmaker myself, with my own printshop and with work included in a few national collections.
Thanks for your comment. It sent me off the this fascinating lecture about the Jewish Bride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNVwOB8TMEA.
Hi Wendy. John Walsh is so great. Do not confuse the painting the"Jewish Bride" with the etcfhing, the "Great Jewish Bride".
Lovely story