Rembrandt News

Large collection of authentic Rembrandt paintings opens at Cleveland Museum of Art

Rembrandt in America
February 19–May 28, 2012
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

from the museum website:
Rembrandt in America is the first major exhibition to explore in depth the collecting history of Rembrandt paintings in America. Consisting of over 50 works, the exhibition brings together autograph works by Rembrandt as well as others thought to be by the artist when they entered American collections but whose attributions can no longer be maintained. The exhibition therefore surveys the long career of Rembrandt as a painter, including his studio and a broader network of adapters, followers, and copyists.

While many exhibitions devoted to Rembrandt’s paintings took place during the 400-year centenary of the artist’s birth in 2006, Rembrandt in America offers the public a rare opportunity to examine the evolving opinions and methods of scholars and collectors regarding what constituted an autograph Rembrandt painting over a period of more than a century.

By arranging works in small groupings, visitors can develop their own skills in connoisseurship and opinions on authenticity. The exhibition occurs at a time when scrutiny of “Rembrandt” versus “not Rembrandt” continues to trouble the discipline and affect the art market significantly. As the first major exhibition to take a broader look at the history of Rembrandt collecting and connoisseurship in America, the show also addresses growing interest in the country’s collecting history.

Rembrandt in America not only investigates collecting Rembrandts in America but also in Cleveland. The museum owns four paintings associated with Rembrandt, two acquired in the early 20th century by the Cleveland collectors John L. Severance and Elisabeth Severance Prentiss. Two others were purchased by the museum in 1950 and 1967. Each came to the museum attributed to Rembrandt, and all have subsequently been questioned to various degrees, with consensus yet to be reached. This exhibition offers the unique opportunity to place these problems front and center and bring together paintings from other collections to compare to Cleveland’s own works.

http://clevelandart.org/visit/Exhibitions.aspx

Rembrandt Etching exhibition in Finland

Rembrandt: master of the copper plate
2 February–29 April 2012
Sinebrychoffin Taidemuseo
Helsinki, Finland

information from the museum website:

The exhibition presents the graphic etchings by Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn from the unique Rovinsky collection of the State Hermitage Museum. All 55 exhibited works belong to the graphics collection of a Russian Master of laws, Dmitry Rovinsky, and they have never before been seen abroad. The selection of the art pieces and research on the exhibition are based on the research of Doctor Roman Grigoryev. He has researched the materials of the Rembrandt graphics; the reason which made the works of Rembrandt so unique. In addition to the Rovinsky Collection, the exhibition also presents the graphic etchings by the pupils and peers of Rembrandt from the collections of Sinebrychoff Art Museum.

http://www.sinebrychoffintaidemuseo.fi/explore/exhibitions/coming%20exhibitions/prime101_en.aspx

Rembrandt in America - first venue: Raleigh, North Carolina

 

from the museum website:

Rembrandt in America will be the first major exhibition to explore in depth the collecting history of Rembrandt paintings in America. Consisting of approximately 50 paintings, the exhibition will bring together autograph paintings by Rembrandt as well as others thought to be by the master when they entered American collections but whose attributions can no longer be maintained.

While many exhibitions devoted to Rembrandt’s paintings were held during the 400-year centenary of the artist’s birth in 2006, Rembrandt in America will be unique in offering the public a rare opportunity to visualize the evolving opinions of scholars and collectors regarding what constituted an autograph Rembrandt painting over a period of more than a century.

While the primary focus of the exhibition is on the history of Rembrandt collecting in America, the show also explores his work across various genres, his artistic evolution, and his influence on other artists of the day. Included in this exhibition are a number of significant portraits from Rembrandt’s prosperous early career in Amsterdam as the city’s most sought-after portrait painter, as well as character studies, historical and biblical scenes, and three of his celebrated self-portraits. In addition, the exhibition features a gallery with Rembrandt catalogues since the mid-19th century. Visitors will also get a glimpse into the world of conservation with a painting on loan from the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Consisting of nearly 50 paintings, the exhibition brings together 27 autograph paintings by Rembrandt as well as others thought to be by the master when they entered American collections but whose attributions can no longer be maintained. These include paintings by Dutch masters Jan Lievens and Govert Flinck. 

Rembrandt in America not only investigates the overall issue of collecting Rembrandts in America but also the collecting history of some of the works in the NCMA’s collection. In the 1950s Museum director and Rembrandt expert William Valentiner recommended the acquisition of two paintings then thought to be by Rembrandt. Since their acquisition, however, the paintings have been reattributed to other artists. This exhibition is the first to examine these paintings within the larger context of attribution and collecting Rembrandts during the 20th century. 

National Gallery of Prague exhibits Dutch Golden Age Masters' including A Bearded Man in a Cap by Rembrandt

National Gallery in Prague

Paintings by Dutch Masters of the Golden Age, including Rembrandt's A Bearded Man in a Cap, will be on display in the National Gallery in Prague as from February, NG spokeswoman Eva Kolerusova has told reporters, adding that the exhibition will be the NG's most important in this season.

The exhibition, presenting the best works of the Dutch 17th-century painting, will be opened in the Sternberg Palace which belongs to The Gallery. Some works, loaned from important European galleries, will be displayed in Prague for the first time, Kolerusova said.

A Scholar Seated at a Desk (1634) is the only painting by Rembrandt van Rijn that is owned by the Czech Republic.

http://www.ngprague.cz/en/1010/2063/clanek/a-masterpiece-visits-prague-rembrandt-van-rijn---a-bearded-man-in-a-cap/

 

 

 

 

Rembrandt gets exceptional Turnout at Detroit Exhibition

through Sunday, Feb, 12, 2012

The popular exhibition Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus at the Detroit Institute of Arts through Feb. 12 broke attendance records for recent exhibitions at the museum, with more than 15,000 visitors during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. That number is three times the typical weekly attendance for the exhibition.

“The response has been overwhelming,” said DIA director Graham Beal. “Much of the positive feedback we have received focuses on how the exhibition is presented, which places Rembrandt and the works of art in historical and cultural context. We are delighted that our presentation has resonated with so many visitors.”

Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus brings together for the first time many of Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn's finest paintings, prints and drawings that portray Jesus and events described in the Bible. The exhibition of 64 works includes approximately 52 small, intimate paintings, prints and drawings by Rembrandt and his students that illustrate how Rembrandt broke from traditional 17th-century representations of Jesus.

http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=2306&iid=

Rembrandt gets his own route through Amsterdam

Monday 02 May 2011
from: DutchNews.com

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), one of the Netherlands' most famous painters, is to have the route he walked between his house and the village of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel marked by a special tourist trail.

The Rembrandt Foundation said on Monday that it plans to mark the route with a series of ten statues and will unveil one a year, reports news agency ANP.

The first, on the Professor Tulpplein, will be unveiled on Tuesday. It shows the young Rembrandt and was sculpted in 1968 by the late Wim van Hoorn.

REMBRANDT AND THE FACE OF CHRIST

April 21 - June 18, 2011
Louvre, Paris

Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus reunites, for the first time, seven of the eight paintings of this exceedingly rare and singular series—complemented by more than fifty related paintings, prints, and drawings—allowing visitors to consider the religious, historic, and artistic significance of these paintings, all while pondering fascinating issues of attribution derived from Rembrandt’s collaboration with students and apprentices in his workshop. Objects of private reflection for Rembrandt, the paintings in this exhibition bear witness to Rembrandt’s iconoclasm and his search for a meditative ideal.

from the Louvre webslite:
To paint Christ from life… It is this puzzling idea, that a picture of Christ could be painted “from life,” which prompted this exhibition, Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus. The face, physiognomy, physique, outline, even silhouette of a person, a legend and his memory… Rembrandt’s portrayal of Christ in silhouette in Pilgrims at Emmaus (Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André) poses the problem of the mystery of Christ's resurrection whilst reminding us that there is no first-hand description of his actual appearance. Rembrandt discarded the time-worn, formulaic image of Christ.

In his quest to revitalize Christian imagery, Rembrandt rejected the predictable majesty of traditional portrayals of Christ. He was interested in Christ the man himself, and how his family and the crowds to whom he preached perceived him. Rembrandt seems to have been unconcerned by contemporary theological quarrels. He was a Protestant, in a Protestant republic welcoming all religions, and it is this famous religious tolerance in Holland in the 17th century that lies behind the works you are about to see.

Rembrandt: The Quest for Chiaroscuro

March 12 - June 12, 2011
The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

from the museum website:

In the cooperation with the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, this show presents some 110 of the artist’s most important prints and some 15 of his paintings in demonstrating his fascination with and dedication to light and shadow.
The artworks are gathered from the Rijksmuseum, the British Museum, the Louvre Museum, and other major institutions.

Some 30 works in this exhibition are printed on Japanese paper. Rembrandt began using paper imported from Japan by the East India Company since about 1647. The exhibition explores the role that paper played in Rembrandt’s art.

Together, these works trace how the artist, from his early years to the end of his career, dedicated himself to the pursuit of light and shadow, and demonstrate the unsurpassed variation and depth of expressions he was able to achieve.

Ultra High-Resolution image of Remrandt's The Return of the ProdiGal Son