Landscape with a Fisherman (‘The Milkman’), Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1650
etching, h 65mm × w 174mm More details
This is the Sint Antonies- or Diemerdijk, a sea dike that protected the countryside around Amsterdam in an easterly direction from the Zuiderzee. Arriving here, Rembrandt would have left the city far behind. The site is fairly accurately recorded, though in reverse in the etching. Only the low mountains at the far left are a fanciful addition, which have little to do with the flat Dutch land.
