The skater 1639

Rembrandt van Rijn made this etching of a skater in the Netherlands sometime around 1650. Etchings like this one were luxury goods, part of a thriving market for art among the middle classes of the Dutch Republic. The image shows a working man on skates, and it’s part of a well-established tradition of winter landscapes in Dutch art. But while earlier artists focused on grand vistas filled with crowds of people, Rembrandt zooms in on a single figure, one who would have been considered part of the lower classes. What are the politics of this imagery? Does it show a new appreciation for ordinary people? Did the art market encourage artists to seek out new kinds of subject matter? To answer these questions, one could look at probate inventories, business records, and other archival sources that would tell us more about the people who made and consumed art at this time.