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The Mathematician: P.15028-R

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

The Mathematician
The Mathematician, a Scholar with Dividers and a Set Square at a Table in His Study Attended by a Pupil

Maker(s)

Printmaker: McArdell, James
Painter: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (After)

Entities

Categories

Description

After the painting previously thought to be by Rembrandt but now attributed to School of Rembrandt, (1600-1700; Chequers Court, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Inv. No. 106). On the right, a standing male figure wearing a soft velvet cap and seen in profile facing left leans over a table holding a pair of dividers onto a manuscript with his right hand. He is watched by a younger man seated at the table to the left. A pair of globes are seen in the foreground to the left.

Notes

History note: VanSittart gave 1,485 engravings to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1879 and this mezzotint was probably included within this group. The number written on the verso in graphite presumably relates to some kind of count by curators at the time of the acquisition. A curatorial annotation in the FM copy of Chaloner Smith (p.907) lists 'The Mathematican' as '202' and gives the Goodwin reference 'G G 213'.

Legal notes

Given by Augustus Arthur VanSittart, ?1879

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1879) by VanSittart, Augustus Arthur

Dating

18th Century#
Circa 1740 - Circa 1765

Note

Mezzotint, same direction. Lower edge of the inscription and platemark trimmed away. State after inscription. Engraved with title and artist's name in italics, closed roman uppercase and gothic lettering: 'The Mathematician / Done form the ORIGINAL PICTURE painted by REMBRANDT. / By James McArdell'. Inscribed on the verso in graphite: 'Vansittart Collection'; '311'. See also impressions of first and second states; P.5839-R and P.5922-R.

School or Style

Irish

Techniques used in production

Mezzotint

Identification numbers

Accession number: P.15028-R
Primary reference Number: 240090
Goodwin (McArdell): 213.II
Alexander (Rembrandt): 107.III/IV (p.135)
Charrington (Rembrandt): 107.III/IV (pp.84-5)
Chaloner Smith: undescribed (listed by annotation, p.907)
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Thursday 9 January 2020 Updated: Wednesday 11 January 2023 Last processed: Thursday 7 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "The Mathematician" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/240090 Accessed: 2024-11-22 00:20:23

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/240090 |title=The Mathematician |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-22 00:20:23|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-240090

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