Rembrandt's prints were made from a
drypoint engraving on
copper plate, and eight states are known. The first version, state i, measures , and the final version, state viii, is slightly shorter, measuring . Save for the architecture to the top right, the first state was nearly complete. Only eight versions of the first state are known, printed on expensively imported yellowish
Japanese paper. Seven are in public collections, at
Kupferstichkabinett Berlin of the
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the
British Museum in London, the
Morgan Library and Museum in New York, the
Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, two in Paris at the Dutuit collection at the
Musée du Petit Palais and the collection of
Edmond de Rothschild at the
Musée du Louvre, and at the
Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna. The last remaining impression of the first state in private hands was sold at
Christie's in July 2018 from the collection of the late
Samuel Josefowitz for £2.2 million, setting a record for an
Old Master print. No impressions of the second to fourth states are held privately. Only minor changes were made in the next two states. The second state adds
cross-hatched shading to the doorway to the left, and the third state adds similar shading to the right leg of the gesturing man on the left of the platform. The missing architecture to the top right is completed in the fourth state, with a balustrade added above the windows; at the same time, an inch (25 mm) was removed from the top of the print in this state, eliminating the architrave above the central building, allowing Rembrandt to print the whole composition on just a single sheet of paper: the first three impressions needed a thin strip of paper to be added along the top. By the fifth state, several dozen impressions have been made and the soft copper plate was showing signs of wear, and some shading is added to the windows to the right. The wear was countered in the sixth state by significant reworking in some areas, including removing the crowd of figures in front of the central platform: only two impressions are known of this version. By the seventh state, two arches have been added to the front wall of the platform. Rembrandt signed and dated the seventh version, and then added more changes to the eighth and last version. It is unclear why Rembrandt decided to print intermediate versions of the print, and indeed why they were printed on expensive imported paper. Usual practice was to take impression at each stage while the engraving developed on cheap paper which could be discarded, and then make several impressions of the completed version for sale. Only the last two states are signed and dated above the archway to the right of the central platform ("Rembrandt
f. 1655"), suggesting he may have regarded the others as only intermediate stages or
artist's proofs. However, Rembrandt may have been motivated by a commercial desire to sell rare limited editions to collectors.
Arnold Houbraken noted in 1718 that Rembrandt would make small changes so he could sell prints as new designs. ==Gallery==