Christ Crucified between the two Thieves, along with Christ Presented to the People (Ecce Homo) executed two years later in 1655, represents the culminating masterpiece of Rembrandt’s graphic œuvre ...

3.75 x 5.75 in. (9.5 x 14.6 cm.) Christopher White, Rembrandt as an Etcher: A Study of the Artist at Work, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1999, p. 88; Original etching printed in black ink ...

In December 2018, the Louvre Abu Dhabi acquired Rembrandt’s Head of a Young Man with Clasped Hands: Study of the Figure of Christ from a Sotheby’s London auction for $12.1 million.

And, as usual with Rembrandt, there was an idea behind the painting for which the style was meant to be perfectly suited -- Homer, thought of as the poet of the people, of lyric roughness.

Author Anne Woollett, associate curator in the paintings department of the Getty, relates a few of the dramatic stories behind these acquisitions, beautifully reproduced in this five-by-six-inch book.

"Art, Life, Legacy: Northern European Paintings in the Collection of Isabel and Alfred Bader" continues through Jan. 28 at the Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N. Art Museum Drive. For info, visit mam.org.

Two recently rediscovered Rembrandt paintings will be up for auction at Christie's in London next month, expected together to fetch between about $6.3 million and $10 million.