Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in Leiden in the Dutch Republic, later the Netherlands. Regarded as one of the worlds greatest painters, he was also a prolific etcher. His etched work began around 1626 and continued to almost the end of his life with his last plate produced in 1660. Throughout this period he etched around 290 plates with many impressions going through several states. He died in Amsterdam in 1669 never having left his country of birth. There have been many catalogues of his etchings published with possibly the one by Bartsch being the best of the earlier ones.