No. 266). The Flight into Egypt._

Although Rembrandt had a few such cultivated friends as those mentioned
above, it was said of him by a contemporary German painter that "his art
suffered by his predilection for the society of the vulgar." It certainly
would have been more profitable for Rembrandt if he had always portrayed
people of position and wealth, but that his art suffered because he many
times used beggers for models it would be impossible to show. An
interesting series of tramps, peddlers and outcasts began with the
beginning of his career as an etcher, and ended twenty years later with
the production of one of his most popular plates, "Beggars Receiving Alms
at the Door of a House," (No. 233) a very freely handled, splendidly
composed etching, in which surprisingly few lines judiciously placed do
the work usually allotted to double their number. A little plate of less
than four square inches, entitled "The Quacksalver," (No. 139), strikes me
as the masterpiece of this series. Although Van de Velde is supposed to
have given Rembrandt the idea for his drawing, his genius made it his own
in realism and movement, and in its beauties of line, color and texture.
"An Old Woman Sleeping" (No. 129)), although scarcely to be included in
this series, is another that has wonderful spontaneity. This is no posed
model, but one who has actually fallen asleep over her book; Rembrandt
sees her, and before her "forty winks" are over, she is immortalized, and
probably she never knew it. About 1640 Rembrandt began etching
landscapes. They are free and simple in composition and treatment and
show even greater force and more suggestive power than those that he
painted. Practically all of his two dozen landscape plates hold
undisputed first rank. They always have and probably always will. In
"Landscape with Trees, Farm-buildings and a Tower" (No. 244), the tower is
"ruined" in the third state. A first state print at the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts shows the tower in good preservation. One of these prints sold
at auction not long ago for over $9,000. Another of the exceedingly
satisfactory etchings in the series, one that has exercised a great
influence on landscape etching all the world over, is "Omval" (No. 210).
Its creator seemed fond of the fine old tree in this plate. He used it
several times elsewhere. "Six's Bridge" (No. 209) which is almost pure
outline, and the "Three Trees" (No. 205), with its great sweep of