Object Details
Artist
Rembrandt van Rijn
Date
1643
Medium
Etching and drypoint on laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 5 11/16 × 7 1/8 inches (14.4 × 18.1 cm)
Sheet: 5 13/16 × 7 5/16 inches (14.8 × 18.6 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired through the generosity of Seymour R. Askin, Jr., Class of 1947, and Helen-Mae Askin; Nancy and Nelson Schaenen, Jr., Class of 1950; and through the Margaret Treman and Charles E. Treman, Jr., Class of 1930, Endowment; supplemented by Margaret and Frank Robinson
Object
Number
2003.086
The Hog mixes a more traditional genre topic with the lower classes’ practical relationship with a(…)
The Hog mixes a more traditional genre topic with the lower classes’ practical relationship with animals. Here, a peasant family gathers excitedly around a fatted sow tied up for slaughter. Rembrandt contrasts the animal’s resigned, vacant stare with the gleeful expression of the family’s son, who holds a pig bladder to inflate with the aid of a straw clutched in his right hand. Rembrandt’s use of lightly etched lines to convey a farmyard suggests just enough detail to let the viewer imagine the remainder of the scene. Yet, the hog, rendered with comparatively dense linework, reminds us of the reality behind the pastoral family trope: no matter how quaint their surroundings, they too must slaughter their meat to survive.
The Basilisk watermark on this impression of The Hog dates it to about the time of the plate’s inception.
(“Lines of Inquiry: Learning from Rembrandt’s Etchings,” curated by Andrew C. Weislogel and presented at the Johnson Museum September 23–December 17, 2017)
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