Anyone know this art/drawing?

I recently found this drawing (?) and somehow liked it. After I took it out of the frame, I saw that there is this sign on the bottom. Also is the Drawing (?) in some areas a lot thicker than in others, particularly in the darker areas.

Could this be an original? Also, does anyone have an idea what this sign could possibly mean, how old the painting (or what ever it is) might be, where it is from, etc. Every thought is appreciated.

 

The clothing is Elizabethan (referring to Queen Elizabeth I of England and the period around her reign, 1600's?) The "sign" in the margin is a "remarque" - a little sketch most often seen in the margins of etchings. Etching was my first thought, but you don't mention (and I don't see) any sign of a plate impression around the main image.

The sketch appears to be a heraldic shield, perhaps referring to the family of the person in the image (which I assume is a woman.)

I think if this were an "original" work of art, you'd be able to tell since you have it out of the frame. Perhaps another member will recognize it.

 

It feels like an original when I look at it closely and you are right, there aren't any plate impressions. But they could also be cut of. I will try and take a couple better pictures with my camera tomorrow. The pictures with my cell didn't turn out too well.

 

The plate impression would not be outside of the Remarque. I would be just past the edges of the main image. Do you have a strong magnifying glass to use in looking at it?

 

It is a copy of an etching - "Portrait of Bayken of Bracht", by Willem Steelink. Original is in the Rijksmuseum

 

Yes!!!

 

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-P-1891-A-16709

 

Hi. The edge of the etching would appear to be the edge of the plate, which is what it looks like at the bottom. Is there a slight indentation of the image from the white paper where the plate was pressed into the paper by the printer?

 

I love hanging out with you smart people! Someday I hope to be smart. Awesome, Mansons. Wow!

 

No kudos deserved actually - when I lived in Amsterdam I spent hours wandering around the Rijksmuseum - when I got bored with the "other" charms Amsterdam had to offer.........................

 

.....................

 

Naughty, naughty.

 

Its one of the few things I am REALLY good at....................

 

Ahhhhh, Mansons! You're a Renaissance Man, then! I will look forward to ... stories!

 

Hey! I'm old but not THAT old........Victorian, possibly.....Edwardian almost certainly - but Renaissance? Humpf!...............

 

Uncle!