74 drawings by Rembrandt, Bol, Maes and others
The Peck Collection, Ackland Art Museum (USA)
March 18 – June 11, 2023

For the first time on view in Europe: 74 drawings from The Peck Collection (Ackland Art Museum, USA). The exhibition The Art of Drawing in The Rembrandt House Museum will feature works by Rembrandt, Bol, Maes and their contemporaries. You can hardly get any closer to an artist than through his drawings. Along the drawing lines, you can follow the artist’s hand – whether it’s a quick sketch or a meticulously finished artwork. The exhibition The Art of Drawing will be divided into seven chapters, which together answer the central question: ‘Why did a seventeenth-century artist make drawings?’ In the new, third exhibition room, the museum will host drawing workshops using seventeenth-century techniques and materials.

Click here for more information on the Peck collection

This exhibition has been organized by the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

See all activities surrounding the exhibition The Art of Drawing here

She was famous across Europe: the Asian elephant Hansken. In the middle of the seventeenth century, she was the only living elephant on the continent and was toured to markets, fairs, and courts. When Hansken was in Amsterdam, Rembrandt drew her. Occasion for The Rembrandt House Museum to tell her life’s story in an exhibition for young and old. Hansken, Rembrandt’s Elephant presents works of art by Rembrandt and his contemporaries, historical documents, and a digital map on which you can follow Hansken’s trail through Europe. But also Hansken’s skull, which has been preserved and has been brought from Italy to The Rembrandt House Museum specially for this exhibition. The story of Hansken is astonishing, but also moving. She had to put up with a lot in her life; she was forced to go on long journeys and constantly had to make appearances. Besides the beautiful works of art made after her by Rembrandt and his contemporaries, this exhibition also sheds light on elephant welfare from today’s standpoint. Hansken, Rembrandt’s Elephant is on view until 29 August 2021 in The Rembrandt House Museum.

Rembrandt meets Hansken

In 1633 Hansken first appeared in Amsterdam. She could be seen that summer on the Kloveniersburgwal, just around the corner from Rembrandt. But the artist may have been in Friesland at the time. In the autumn of 1637 she was in Amsterdam once more and then Rembrandt seized his opportunity. He must have been filled with wonder, as he had never seen an elephant before in real life. The enormous, grey animal with her long trunk will have made a deep impression on him: he immortalized her on several occasions. Leonore van Sloten, curator at The Rembrandt House Museum: ‘Rembrandt’s drawings of Hansken really show him observing closely and with great interest: he drew her “after life”, with attention to every detail including her short hairs, skin folds and the movement of her feet and trunk. These drawings hang next to Rembrandt’s etching of Adam and Eve in Paradise in the exhibition. There, you see Hansken in the background. Rembrandt incorporated a contemporary element in the Biblical scene, which made the print even more appealing to buyers.

Hansken did not only leave traces behind in works of art. In 1647 she sank through a wooden bridge on the dyke beside the Amstel just outside the city, and ended up in the water – but remained unharmed. A short poem, The Elephant Bridge, by the seventeenth-century poet Jan Six van Chandelier, commemorates this event. The bridge was restored, but now made of stone and named The Elephant Bridge. In the same neighbourhood there was also an Elephant Path and a tavern called The Elephant.

Hansken liet haar sporen niet alleen achter in kunstwerken. In 1647 is ze op de dijk langs de Amstel, net buiten de stad, door een houten brug gezakt en in het water terechtgekomen – met goede afloop. Een kort gedichtje, ‘De Olifantsbrug’ van de zeventiende-eeuwse dichter Jan Six van Chandelier, gaat daarover. De brug werd hersteld, maar nu van steen gebouwd en sindsdien de Olifantsbrug genoemd. In de buurt liep ook het Olifantspad en er was een herberg die De Oliphant heette.

Hansken’s journey through Europe
How did Hansken actually wind up in Europe, and what happened to her? The initial impulse for her arrival came from Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, who was keenly interested in the territories colonized by the VOC. And so he requested several times that the VOC send him exotic animals, including an elephant. After the first ship carrying an elephant sank in 1629, a second ship arrived in Amsterdam in 1633. On board was the three-year-old Hansken, an elephant from Ceylon. She was placed in the country estate of Frederik Hendrik, Huis ter Nieuburg in Rijswijk. A few years later she was sold to Cornelis van Groenevelt, who would subsequently lead her through Europe for nearly twenty years. Pamphlets summoned the public to attend a presentation – Hansken was the prototype of later circus animals. Her life was short: owing to ignorance, she did not receive appropriate feed or care. She died, at the age of only 25 years, during a performance in Florence. Artist Stefano della Bella was present at the moment and captured the dead elephant in a pair of moving drawings. In collaboration with ARTIS, the IFAW and the Marjo Hoedemaker Elephant Foundation, Hansken, Rembrandt’s Elephant also incorporates a present-day perspective on elephant welfare in the seventeenth century and today

Activities for Young and Old, and The Book on Hansken
The exhibition also features a dedicated children’s route with activities for children from 6 to 12 years old. Learn to draw elephants like Rembrandt did, follow Hansken’s journey from Ceylon to Amsterdam, and put her skeleton back together. Learn all about Asian Elephants; what do you think Hansken’s life was like? The exhibition invites adults and children to join the discussion on these issues. In addition, The Rembrandt House Museum will present workshops for adults and children, ARTIS Academy is organizing a lecture and tour in the zoo and drawing workshops by the elephant enclosure by docents of ARTIS Ateliers, and the Vrije Academie is presenting talks on the exhibition. In the museum shop, the book about Hansken is available (in Dutch and in English): Rembrandt’s Elephant. The Story of Hansken, written by guest curator Michiel Roscam Abbing. And finally, Hansken is also going online! On 12 May, The Rembrandt House Museum will launch a talk show and podcast on the exhibitions on YouTube and Facebook. ‘Hansken, Rembrandts olifant’ is based on a concept of Michiel Roscam Abbing (Guest Curator and author of ‘Rembrandt’s Elephant. The Story of Hansken’) and Anneke Groen (concept developer). The exhibition was made in collaboration with ARTIS, the IFAW and the Marjo Hoedemaker Elephant Foundation, and made possible in part by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Fonds 21, Stichting Zabawas, the Turing Foundation, the Gravin Van Bylandt Stichting, the P.W. Janssen’s Friesche Stichting and an anonymous fund.

Black people were present in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Here, in society, in Rembrandt’s neighbourhood and in art. This has long—wrongly—been overlooked. From 6 March to 31 May 2020 in The Rembrandt House Museum you can come eye to eye with extraordinary portraits of black people. How did artists depict them? And can we find out who they are? HERE: Black in Rembrandt’s Time is about overlooked works of art and representation, about recognition and acknowledgment.

What strikes us in Rembrandt’s art and that of many of his contemporaries? The stereotypes that later fixed the image of black people were yet to prevail. Black people are not simply secondary figures in subordinate roles, but often the subjects of the work. The exhibition also tells the stories behind the works. Between around 1630 and 1660 there was a small community of free black people around Jodenbreestraat, in Rembrandt’s neighbourhood. Recent research has revealed a lot more about these Afro-Amsterdammers.

“For years I’ve been looking for portraits of black people like me. Surely there had to be more than the stereotypical images of servants, enslaved people or caricatures? I found the alternative in Rembrandt’s time: a gallery of portraits of black people who are depicted with respect and dignity.” –Stephanie Archangel, Guest Curator

“As a museum we hope that this exhibition will make an impact. HERE. Black in Rembrandt’s Time is a powerful statement about black presence and representation in the Netherlands, about better looking and blind spots, about having a voice and a changing image.” – Lidewij de Koekkoek, Director, The Rembrandt House Museum

HERE: Black in Rembrandt’s Time runs from 6 March to 31 May 2020 in The Rembrandt House Museum. The exhibition was the brainchild of guest curators Elmer Kolfin and Stephanie Archangel, the design was by Raul Balai and Brian Elstak. Multi-disciplinary evening programmes in a number of venues accompany this exhibition. WBOOKS is publishing a book and there will also be a zine about contemporary black artists.

(l. to r.) Rembrandt, Bust of a Woman, 1630. Amsterdam, The Rembrandt House Museum | Hendrick Heerschop, King Caspar, 1654 or 1659. Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preussischen Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie | Gerrit Dou, Tronie of a Young Man in a Turban, c. 1635, Landesmuseum, Hannover | Jasper or Jeronimus Beckx, Portrait of Dom Miguel de Castro, 1643. Copenhagen, Statensmuseum for Kunst.

HERE: A Selection

Rembrandt’s interest in black people was highly unusual in the seventeenth century. They appear in at least ten of his paintings, six etchings and six drawings. They are usually secondary figures, but in a 1630 etching (‘Bust of a Woman’) a young woman stars. Rembrandt made this etching when he was still living in Leiden. Her facial features indicate that she was black, but he had not yet managed to make her skin appear dark. He had more success with this aspect later, in Amsterdam; his later portraits are often accurately depicted from life. It seems likely that Rembrandt used his neighbours as models.

Another eye-catching work in the exhibition is Hendrick Heerschop’s King Caspar. Legend has it that one of the three magi who came to worship the Christ child was an African. Sometimes he is called Caspar, sometimes Balthasar. Heerschop painted him without a setting or a story. He can only be identified by his expensive clothes and the jar of incense he gave as his gift. But it is the man’s face that attracts the most attention; he looks at us proudly and self-confidently. Rembrandt’s first pupil, Gerrit Dou, also made an impressive portrait of a black boy dressed in a fantasy costume, looking at us over his shoulder.

What remains complicated is the identity of the seventeenth-century black sitters. We are discovering more and more names of Rembrandt’s black neighbours, but we cannot link them to the portraits. We do, though, know who the man in the portrait on the right is. Dom Miguel de Castro was a controversial figure, the ambassador of Soyo (or Sonho), a region of the Congo that wanted independence. Dom Miguel and his servants came to Holland to argue his case and he sat for his portrait during his stay in Middelburg. He is shown here according to the standards of a seventeenth-century portrait of an important man: powerful and serious.

HERE: Black Artists Now

In contemporary art, black plays an entirely different role from that in the seventeenth century. Now there are black artists who reflect on their own identities. And when black people are depicted, we know who they are. Both sides, the maker and the portrayed, now have a voice. The exhibition features new and existing works by ten prominent contemporary artists, including Iris Kensmil, Iriée Zamblé and Charl Landvreugd.

Dutch Masters Revisited

Dutch Masters Revisited is a growing exhibition of photographs curated by Jörgen Tjon a Fong, in which prominent Dutch people of colour put themselves in the place of their seventeenth- and eighteenth-century predecessors. These proud, compelling portraits are made in the style of Rembrandt and his contemporaries. Four new portraits – of Humberto Tan, Jeangu Macrooy, Tania

Kross and Daniël Boissevain among others – have been made especially for The Rembrandt House Museum. The photos were made by Cigdem Yuksel and Ahmet Polat (former Laureate Photographer of the Nation) in the Oude Kerk and in The Rembrandt House Museum. Three of the portraits are on display in Rembrandt’s former home; the fourth is part of the exhibition HERE: Black in Rembrandt’s Time.

The exhibition is made possible in part by Fonds 21, the Mondrian Fund, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Ten Hagen Fonds, the Nachenius Tjeenk Foundation and VSBfonds. The exhibition has also been supported by the Dutch government: an indemnity grant has been provided by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands on behalf of the Minister of Education, Culture and Science.

Left: Rembrandt, Portrait of the Apothecary Abraham Francen, 1655-59, etching, drypoint and burin, 159 x 210 mm., Amsterdam Museum | Right: Jan Lievens, Portrait of Rembrandt, c. 1629, oil on panel, 57 x 44 cm., Rijksmuseum, private loan.

Boyhood Friend, ‘Blood Friend’ or True Friend?

Today Facebook asks you to categorize your online social network: ‘family’, a ‘good friend’ or perhaps simply ‘an acquaintance’. Anyone in the seventeenth-century would also be able to answer this question with ease: even then they had different categories of friendships. Striking portraits in Rembrandt’s Social Network enable us to identify five types of friendships in Rembrandt’s life.

There were the boyhood friends like the artist Jan Lievens, with whom Rembrandt shared a studio in Leiden. ‘Blood friends’ were family members who played a major role in Rembrandt’s social and financial life, in particular his wife Saskia Uylenburgh’s family. The connoisseurs, including Jan Six, were friendly collectors who bought works of art from Rembrandt and helped him with commissions. Among his artist friends there were also a number of pupil friends, like Philips Koninck, Roelant Roghman and Gerbrand van den Eeckhout. The close link with them is evidenced by the fact that Rembrandt went on excursions with them, where they drew together, and as a result their sketches are often very similar. Finally he had true friends: you get to know them in times of need. The hard times came for Rembrandt around 1652, when he was forty-six and money problems finally forced him to sell everything he owned. In this period he was helped by a few true friends, among them the collector Abraham Francen, for whom he made a special portrait print.

Highpoint: Rembrandt’s Portrait of Titus from Baltimore

The exhibition features paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, books and documents. Among the eye-catchers are a number of unusual alba amicorum – friendship books – and the many portrait etchings Rembrandt made of various friends and relations. The highpoint of this exhibition is Rembrandt’s impressive and personal portrait of his nineteen-year-old son Titus. This special loan from the Baltimore Museum of Art has never before been shown in an exhibition in Europe.

Rembrandt’s son Titus worked for his famous father all his life. After Rembrandt went bankrupt in 1656, Titus and his father’s companion Hendrickje Stoffels took over the selling of his father’s works and started a gallery specializing in the great artist’s work. This kept his father’s creditors at bay and effectively made Titus his father’s employer. In Rembrandt’s painting, a relaxed Titus sits in his chair, his chin cupped in his hand. This loosely painted portrait is typical of the way Rembrandt approached his friends and members of his family – an informal and original masterpiece.

100 Years of Collecting by The Rembrandt House Museum

In eight stimulating themes—‘heads, ‘nature’, ‘life’, ‘himself’, ‘emptiness’, ‘black’, ‘the line’ and ‘raw’—Rembrandt’s etchings introduce work by such artists as Pablo Picasso, Horst Janssen, Charles Donker, Aat Veldhoen, Marlene Dumas and Glenn Brown. The exhibition, with its exciting modern design, runs from 7 June to 1 September 2019 in The Rembrandt House Museum.

Left: Glenn Brown, Half-Life (after Rembrandt) 2, The Rembrandt House Museum | Right: Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt and Three Heads of Women, 1934, The Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam

THE GREENGROCER’S WIFE

Sometimes artists borrow subjects from Rembrandt’s work, like his ‘tronies’—heads of a character or type, like a happy soldier or an unknown Oriental. Most artists, though, appear to have been interested primarily in the typical artistic questions that occupied Rembrandt: expressive line, rendering shadow, the search for a deep black and, of course, the uncompromising depiction of reality, including things that are still taboo, like contorted faces, old bodies, deep wrinkles and people who urinate in public.

Left: Marlene Dumas, Woman Urinating, 1996, The Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam | Right: Charles Donker, Hawthorn Bushes in the Snow in Groningen, c. 1985, The Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam

‘It is fantastic to be able to show some of the beautiful things we have in this exhibition. My personal favourite is the etching Aat Velthoen made of Mrs Vlek, the wife of the greengrocer in the Bloemgracht in Amsterdam, who posed naked for her next-door neighbour. Her pose is completely natural: waiting patiently until the artist has finished—there is something disarming about it. And there is a lot more, like the snowy landscape by Charles Donker who created an enormous sense of space with the large blank areas. Or the woman urinating by Marlene Dumas. Rembrandt had already etched this subject, but Dumas makes it clear that this subject is still not entirely ‘taboo free’.

– Epco Runia, Head of Collections, The Rembrandt House Museum

Right: Rembrandt, Nude Woman Seated on a Mound, c. 1631, etching, state II (2), 177 x 160 mm., The Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam. | Left: Aat Veldhoen, Mrs Vlek, 1964, The Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam

DEBUT FOR THE RECENT PURCHASE OF AN ETCHING BY FERDINAND BOL

The exhibition is also the debut for Ferdinand Bol’s 1643 etching of The Holy Family in a Living Room, which the museum purchased at TEFAF 2019. Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680) was apprenticed to Rembrandt between 1636 and 1640. He was the only one of Rembrandt’s pupils who went on to make a great many etchings as well as paintings. He often modelled his compositions on his former teacher’s, seemingly always trying to measure up to him. In this etching darkness predominates: two-thirds of the etching is almost all-absorbing black. But even in this dark space many more details emerge if you look for a little longer: a domestic interior with a box bed, a cradle and a cat with a wary eye on what is happening. Bol has proved to be just as accomplished as his former teacher.

Detail of Ferdinand Bol, The Holy Family in a Living Room, 1643, The Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam.

De afgelopen jaren zijn diverse kunstwerken van Rembrandt door onderzoekers aan de nieuwste methoden onderworpen, waaronder Macro X-Ray Fluorescentie, kortweg macro-XRF. Hiermee kunnen we ín de verf van Rembrandts schilderijen kijken en onder andere veranderingen die tijdens het schilderen zijn gedaan in kaart brengen. Maar ook pigmenten, waarvan niet bekend was dat Rembrandt deze gebruikte, zijn zo gevonden. Sinds kort worden ook zijn tekeningen met deze methode onderzocht, om vast te stellen welke inkten hij gebruikte. Deze interactieve tentoonstelling bracht de wereld van het materiaal-technisch onderzoek tot leven voor zowel volwassenen als kinderen vanaf 6 jaar, dankzij de speciale Rembrandt Junior Lab-route – kunst meets wetenschap.

Links: Rembrandt, Portretten van Marten Soolmans en Oopjen Coppit, 1634. Collectie Rijksmuseum/ Collectie Musée du Louvre [als reproductie in de tentoonstelling te zien] | Rechts: Macro rontgenfluorescentie (MA-XRF) scan van Rembrandts portretten van Marten Soolmans en Oopjen Coppit uit 1634. Beeld: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Onder Marten en Oopjen spieken, Rembrandts gemiddelde werkdag en een recent ontdekt pigment

De tentoonstelling was opgebouwd in drie delen: ‘Verborgen ingrediënten’, ‘Rembrandt-raadsels’ en ‘Rembrandt aan het werk’. In elk deel kwam een aantal lopende onderzoeken aan bod, waarin je als bezoeker de kans kreeg om mee te denken over de uitkomsten. In totaal werden zes cases met verschillende onderzoeksvragen uitgelicht, gepaard met vaak verrassende nieuwe inzichten. Een tipje van de sluier:

Ze zijn wereldberoemd: Marten en Oopjen, als portretten ten voeten uit geschilderd door Rembrandt in 1634 (collectie Rijksmuseum en Musée du Louvre). Maar wat zit er onder het oppervlak van deze schilderijen? In Laboratorium Rembrandt werden voor het eerst de onderzoeksresultaten aan het grote publiek getoond, aan de hand van reproducties op ware grootte en scans die van de doeken zijn gemaakt.

Kunnen we erachter komen hoe een schilderdag er voor Rembrandt uitzag? Dankzij XRF-data kunnen we nu zien hoe hij zijn schilderij De man met de rode muts uit ca. 1660 (collectie Museum Boijmans van Beuningen) veranderde, en welke verf uit dezelfde schilderfase stamt. In de tentoonstelling wordt het originele schilderij getoond, samen met een indrukwekkende digitale impressie van deze mogelijke ‘giornate’.

Ook is er een nieuw (zeer giftig) pigment ontdekt in het werk van Rembrandt. Hierdoor is zijn kleurenpalet uitgebreid naar vijftien pigmenten. We kunnen het pigment koppelen aan slechts twee schilderijen, waaronder een van de beroemdste meesterwerken van de kunstenaar. Het pigment verandert na verloop van tijd van kleur en is mede daarom niet eerder opgemerkt. In de tentoonstelling werd, met behulp van microscopen en een reproductie met ingebouwd touchscreen, getoond hoe het is ontdekt.

Links: Rembrandt (toegeschreven), De man met de rode muts, ca. 1660, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. | Midden: Rembrandt, Jonge vrouw zittend bij een raam (Saskia?), ca. 1638. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam | Rechts: False color beeld van de ijzer-, calcium- en zwavelkaarten (Macro X-Ray Fluorescence) van Rembrandts tekening van een jonge vrouw zittend bij een raam uit ca. 1638, collectie Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Beeld: Frank Ligterink (onderzoeksteam Drawing out Rembrandt)

Speciaal voor kleine ontdekkers

In deze tentoonstelling keek je niet alleen met je ogen, maar ook met je handen! Elke jonge bezoeker vanaf 6 jaar kreeg bij binnenkomst in het museum een speciaal clipboard mee met een onderzoekskit. Aan de hand van vragen en opdrachten ging je zelf op onderzoek uit in de tentoonstelling.

Zo vond je bij het onderdeel over Rembrandts etsen de vraag: ‘Is deze ets door Rembrandt gemaakt?’ Je speurde digitaal door verschillende watermerken om uit te vinden of er een match is met het watermerk dat je voor je ziet. Zo ontdekte je uit welk jaar het papier komt, en of hierop dus door Rembrandt kan zijn gedrukt. Bij het onderdeel over Rembrandts tekeningen kon je met ganzenveren op een magic drawing board tekenen: hoeveel verschillende lijndiktes zijn er mogelijk? Ook kon je met behulp van UV-licht zien ‘wat wij over het hoofd zien’: ontdek wat je niet met het blote oog op een tekening kunt zien, maar wat er wel zit!

Deze tentoonstelling wordt georganiseerd in samenwerking met het Rijksmuseum, de Rijksdienst voor Cultureel Erfgoed | Rijkserfgoed Laboratorium, de Universiteit van Amsterdam en de Technische Universiteit Delft (tezamen verenigd in NICAS), Monumenten en Archeologie Gemeente Amsterdam, het Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Watermark Identification in Rembrandt’s Etchings Project (WIRE) en zelfstandig onderzoekers.

(left) | Rembrandt and Workshop, Man with a Sword, c. 1640-44.
Canvas, 102.3 x 88.5 cm, New York, The Leiden Collection

Man with a Sword was long regarded as a painting by Rembrandt with an excellent provenance, until scholars dismissed the attribution in 1970 and even suggested that the painting might be an eighteenth-century imitation. Recent research has revealed that Rembrandt both originally conceived of and painted the portrait, but that it was subsequently subjected to a drastic transformation by one of his pupils in his workshop. The result is the fantasy tronie that we see today. While a pupil overpainted much of the underlying portrait, Rembrandt’s hand is clearly visible in the rendering of the face, which has remained untouched and is characteristic of his work in the early 1640s.

(right) | Rembrandt, Portrait of Petronella Buys 1635. 
Panel, 79.5 x 56.3 cm, New York, The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Petronella Buys surfaced on the art market in 2017, following decades of its whereabouts being unknown. The portrait was painted in 1635, a busy time for Rembrandt. Although it bears his signature and is known to be the pendant of a fully attributed painting of her husband, Philip Lucasz (National Gallery, London), in 1989 the Rembrandt Research Project suggested that it was probably painted by an assistant. New research has led us to think differently. Rembrandt painted the work himself, but rather more loosely and swiftly than we are used to seeing. Perhaps he was adhering to a schedule: Petronella left for Batavia on 2 May 1635, leaving Rembrandt a short window to complete the portrait before the couple’s departure.

This exhibition is the second time in a relatively short period that The Leiden Collection has presented part of its collection in The Rembrandt House Museum. At the end of 2016, the spectacular discovery of a supposedly lost Rembrandt—one of his earliest works—led to the popular focus exhibition of Rembrandt’s First Painting: The Four Senses. This time around, The Rembrandt House Museum hosts the European premiere.

‘We are delighted to be the first to show these rediscovered paintings to European museum visitors. This is entirely in accordance with the position the museum has acquired over the preceding decades as the place where discoveries and research results relating to Rembrandt, his pupils and artists from his surroundings are presented. It is fantastic to have such treasures from The Leiden Collection here again.’

– Lidewij de Koekkoek, Director, The Rembrandt House Museum

The Portrait of Petronella Buys and the Man with a Sword will be displayed together with photographs and other relevant sources that bring to life the fascinating stories behind the works— from doubt and rediscovery to new research and attribution. The two paintings have not been in the Netherlands for around a century, and in the spring of 2019 they will travel on to the Louvre Abu Dhabi for the wide-ranging exhibition of The Leiden Collection.

The presentation Special Guests is on view in The Rembrandt House Museum until 2 September 2018. Update: The paintings will move on 4 September 2018 to the living room of Rembrandt’s former residence – the present-day museum – where they will remain on view until mid-January 2019. They will then depart for the Louvre in Abu Dhabi for an overview exhibition of The Leiden Collection.

The Leiden Collection

The Leiden Collection, founded in 2003 by Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan and his wife Daphne Recanati Kaplan, includes approximately 250 paintings and drawings. It represents the largest and one of the most significant private collections of 17th-century Dutch paintings in the world. Previously anonymous in its lending, the Collection was introduced to the public for the first time in 2017 through a special exhibition at the Louvre, and is presently on a world tour.

The Rembrandt House Museum

Between 1639 and 1658, Rembrandt lived and worked in this magnificent house, which is now a museum. An inventory drawn up in that period was used as the source for restoring the house with seventeenth-century furniture, art and objects. The Rembrandt House stages daily demonstrations of etching and paint-making, showing how the artist worked. The Rembrandt House Museum holds almost the complete collection of Rembrandt’s etchings, and mounts temporary exhibitions of the work of Rembrandt, his contemporaries and later artists in the modern museum wing.

Rembrandts huis was een creatieve broedplaats. Rembrandt werkte hier namelijk niet alleen; ook vele leerlingen maakten hier kunst, soms wel vier of vijf tegelijkertijd. Nu, bijna 400 jaar later, brengen we dit weer terug. Een nieuwe generatie kunstenaars krijgt de mogelijkheid om nieuw werk te maken, met een hedendaagse blik op de kunst van Rembrandts tijd en de wereld van nu. 

Iriée Zamblé en Timothy Voges

In het najaar van 2020 hielden Iriée Zamblé en Timothy Voges atelier op zaal. Zij reflecteerden op de thema’s van de tentoonstelling Leef/Tijd: ouderdom, vergankelijkheid, kracht en kwetsbaarheid. Zamblé en Voges verbleven tegelijkertijd in de tentoonstellingszaal en waren  afwisselend – soms alleen, soms samen – aan het werk en toonden bestaand werk.

Iriée Zamblé (Amsterdam, 1995) maakt geschilderde tronies en portretten van zwarte mensen. In
haar werk gaat het vooral om representatie, identiteit en aanwezigheid. Essentieel is dat er ruimte is
voor zwarte mensen om gewoon te zijn en zich bezig te houden met de dagelijkse dingen. Ze laat zich
voor haar schilderijen inspireren door mensen die ze tegenkomt, veelal op straat.

De schilderijen van Timothy Voges (Willemstad, 1993) zijn uitsneden van gevonden beelden uit de
media of oude bronnen, waarbij de context ontbreekt. Hierdoor is er veel open voor interpretatie.
Mogelijkerwijs zeer willekeurige scènes lijken soms onheilspellend, kwetsbaar, voyeuristisch of juist
nostalgisch. Dat ligt aan de kijker zelf.