Landscape with a Square Tower

Landscape with a Square Tower by Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669), created in 1650, is a distinguished example of the artist’s prolific printmaking career and a key work within the tradition of 17th-century Dutch landscape prints. This powerful image was executed using a combination of etching and drypoint on off-white laid paper. Rembrandt’s technical brilliance is immediately evident in the way he manipulated these two methods, utilizing the deep, velvety lines of drypoint to achieve rich shadows and density, which contrast with the finer, descriptive lines created through the etching process.

The work portrays a quintessential Dutch scene dominated by the severe verticality of a large, centrally positioned square tower. The artist renders the surrounding countryside with palpable texture, using intricate cross-hatching to define trees, fields, and the foreground’s uneven terrain. The sense of atmosphere and distance, a hallmark of Rembrandt’s graphic output, is achieved through subtle shifts in line weight and density, capturing the expansive and often moody skies typical of the Netherlands.

Rembrandt was widely celebrated for his landscapes, which moved beyond simple topographical documentation toward expressive, personalized visions of the countryside. This piece dates from a period when the artist was pushing the boundaries of print media. Today, many of these historically significant prints, including impressions of Landscape with a Square Tower, are widely accessible through public domain collections, facilitating deep scholarly study. This particular impression resides in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, offering crucial insight into the graphic legacy of the Dutch Golden Age master.