se stood by him. Samuel Manasseh ben Israel, whom Cromwell
honored, was his neighbor on the Breedstraat, and an intimate friend.
Then there were Jan Sylvius and Cornells Anslo, the Protestant ministers;
Fan Asselyn and Clement de Jonghe, who were artists; Bonus and Linden, the
physicians; Lutma, the goldsmith, and young Jan Six, "Lover of science,
art and virtue." These and a few others are known and honored to-day
chiefly because they were Rembrandt's friends. His recognition of their
faithulness to him was shown in a much more permanent form than they knew.
Good impressions of his etched portraits of these men are still to be
seen. They are, like all his etchings, rapidly increasing in value. A
"Jan Six" sold recently for over $14,000; an "Ephraim Bonus" (No. 226) for
$9,000. To possess such a portrait of an ancestor is little short of a
patent of nobility. The Six family of Amsterdam happily have not only
Rembrandt's oil-portraits of the Sixes of his day, but also good
impressions of the etching of the burgomaster, and even the plate
itself--that famous dry-point plate, which the artist worked on for weeks,
and which his critics have worked over ever since. Some of these critics
hold that even Rembrandt should not have attempted such complete tonality
in an etching, that Jan Six urged him to it, and that, in short, as an
etching, it comes near to the failure line. Other critics believe that
the artist's idea was to show the utmost extent to which the art could be
carried, and that in so doing he produced a masterpiece. Middleton, for
instance, thinks that "it is not possible to conceive a move beautiful and
more perfect triumph of the etcher's art." Few, it is safe to say, can
see a good impression of an early state of this portrait without being
struck by its great originality and beauty, and upon closer study, I feel
a fair-minded person will inevitably fall under the spell of the
wonderfully drawn face and hands, the deep, transparent shadows, and the
soft, tender light which envelopes the whole.

[No. 183. Jacob and Laban (?)]

_No. 183. Jacob and Laban (?)._

[No. 228. Jan Six.]

_No. 228. Jan Six._

[Tobias and the Angel. By Hercules Seghers]

_Tobias and the Angel. By Hercules Seghers_

[(No. 266). The Flight into Egypt.]

_(