1643

The Three Trees

Dutch, 1606 - 1669

Named for its prominent trio of trees, this is Rembrandt’s most complex landscape print. The artist deftly manipulated line and tone to describe a tempestuous sky and dramatic shifts in light as a storm moves over the land. Rembrandt’s inclusion of small figures—like the fisherman and his wife by the pond and a pair of lovers barely distinguishable in the shrubbery of the lower right—indicate humankind’s humble place in this vast view of the natural world. Like the tiny draftsman seated on the hill at the far right, Rembrandt made expeditions into the countryside around Amsterdam to sketch.