The French Bed (‘Het ledikant’), Rembrandt van Rijn, 1646
etching, h 125mm × w 223mm More details
Salacious depictions were hardly unknown in the 17th century, but few were as explicit as this print. For a long time, the etching was viewed with disgust, and from the 19th century onwards, some people simply could not accept that Rembrandt had made it. Its experimental character is evident from a detail: the woman has two left arms. Rembrandt never tried to remove this extra arm.
