When artists in the Netherlands lost commissions from the Catholic Church
following the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, they began to paint and
draw the landscape and scenes of everyday life. It was the beginning of what we
think of as artistic realism, and Rembrandt van Rijn was at the forefront.

When artists in the Netherlands lost commissions from the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, they began to paint and draw the landscape and scenes of everyday life. It was the beginning of what we think of as artistic realism, and Rembrandt van Rijn was at the forefront. Perhaps more than anything he loved to paint people: ordinary people, including the old and the ill. (Art Review; Genocchio, 2009).  Rembrandt produced etchings for most of his career, from 1626 to 1660, when he was forced to sell his printing-press and practically abandoned etching. He took easily to etching and, though he also learned to use a burin and partly engraved many plates, the freedom of etching technique was fundamental to his work.