# View of Amsterdam from the Northwest

**Rembrandt van Rijn** (Dutch, 1606–1669)  
c. 1640  
etching  
plate: 11.3 × 15.4 cm (4 7/16 × 6 1/16 in.) sheet: 11.8 × 15.8 cm (4 5/8 × 6 1/4 in.)

Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1943.3.7107. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.9903.html).

## About this work

Amsterdam’s skyline stretches low across the horizon, its church towers and windmills seen across flat meadows and water from the northwest, beneath a great empty sky. Rembrandt made this small etching around 1640, when his interest in the countryside around Amsterdam was growing; over the following years he made many landscape etchings and drawings on walks outside the city. The economy of line and the expanse of blank paper for the sky make the city feel both near and distant.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Rembrandt van Rijn made this in about 1640, aged 34. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Etching.** The artist draws with a needle through a waxy coating on a copper plate, and acid bites the exposed lines. The plate is then inked, wiped and printed under pressure, so the line keeps the freedom of drawing.

### [Rembrandt van Rijn](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/rembrandt-van-rijn)

Dutch, 1606–1669; born in Leiden; died in Amsterdam

Rembrandt trained in Leiden and Amsterdam, settled in Amsterdam in the early 1630s and became the city’s most sought-after portraitist. His later work grows rougher and more searching, with thick paint, deep shadow and faces that seem lost in thought, as in Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, painted for a Sicilian collector. He was also the leading etcher of his age, reworking plates through many states and making the medium as expressive as painting.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- The artist was 34
- Real size: about 4½ × 6 in (11 × 15 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 17th century
- Subjects: Water, Windmill, City, Grass, Sky, Building
- Colour: white
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1354.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1354/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/view-of-amsterdam-from-the-northwest-nga-9903).