From 27 January to 23 April 2017 the Rembrandt House Museum presents the work of the contemporary British artist Glenn Brown (1966) in Glenn Brown – Rembrandt: After Life. Brown is internationally renowned for his intriguing and confrontational works, which are usually very large and inspired by the work of Old Masters, Rembrandt among them. Brown appropriates and subverts the work of Rembrandt and his contemporaries with merciless audacity. He is making new work for the exhibition (paintings, drawings and etchings), which will be shown for the first time.
The Rembrandt House has long concentrated on showing Rembrandt’s influence on other artists, but this exhibition breaks new ground. Never before has the Rembrandt House staged an exhibition of work by a foreign artist of Glenn Brown’s international stature. In 1997 Brown’s work hung at Sensation in the Royal Academy of Arts in London alongside such artists as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. He is regarded as one of the leading YBAs (Young British Artists). His work enjoys wide recognition and this year was the subject of three solo exhibitions in the United States and France.
On the left: Poor Art, in progress, oil on panel, 108.5 x 74 x 2.2 cm, artist’s own collection. On the right: Joseph Beuys, 2001, oil on panel, 96 x 79.5 cm, private collection.
The Rembrandt House seeks to convey the unique character of Rembrandt’s and Glenn Brown’s art. This is best achieved by letting visitors get to work themselves. They have an opportunity to interpret Rembrandt’s work in their own way – like Glenn Brown – in workshops in the museum. The workshops are staged in collaboration with the Public Libraries in Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam. Onsite workshops are part of the Rembrandt House’s policy with a view to raising its public profile as well as appealing to visitors to the house.
From 6 May to 3 September 2017 the Rembrandt House Museum presents Rembrandt and Jan Six: The Etching and the Friendship.
The friendship between Jan Six and Rembrandt van Rijn is the subject of one of the most famous stories from the seventeenth century. This bond is expressed in an intimate portrait of Jan reading by a window, which soon proved a highlight in Rembrandt’s graphic oeuvre. The exhibition examines a friendship at the height of the seventeenth century and the sublime skill manifest in the etching. The exhibition also sheds light on the fascination surrounding the etching, the client and the artist in the centuries that followed. Jan Six and his friendship with Rembrandt in Amsterdam has come alive more than ever since the publication of the book ‘De levens van Jan Six’ (The Lives of Jan Six) written by Geert Mak, which captured the imagination of half of the reading public of the Netherlands. The Rembrandt House is joining in with a small exhibition.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Six, 1647, etching, The Rembrandt House Museum
The Rembrandt House Museum is Rembrandt’s former home and workplace, where the etching of Jan Six was made. It gives visitors a unique and relevant context for the exhibition, with loans from the Six Collection. There could be no better setting.
Rembrandt made illustrations for Jan Six’s friends’ book and his stage play, but the etched portrait is the finest example of their association. A relaxed Jan leans on the window-ledge and reads a magazine. Could it perhaps be Jan’s own house while Rembrandt was paying a visit? In any event, the 1647 etching displays the consummate skill of a successful artist, who perfectly captured the atmosphere and character of the moment. At the same time it evokes a seventeenth-century world that suddenly seems very close. This etching derives its extraordinary character from the various preliminary studies, states and etching plate, and from the many curious imitations in the Netherlands and abroad.
On the left: Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Six, 1647, etching, The Rembrandt House Museum
On the right: Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-portrait, etching, 1648, etching, The Rembrandt House Museum
On the left: Nicolaas Pieneman, Rembrandt in his workshop 1852, Amsterdam Museum
On the right: Thomas Worlidge, Edward Astley as Jan Six, 1762, Private collection
Jan Six died in 1700 and left a legacy that reflected both his artistic and his administrative qualities: as a writer and as a burgomaster. From that moment on, artists and collectors have been fascinated by the image of the nonchalant young man in an interior, and artists felt a compulsion to romanticize the two in paintings. The friendship continues to inspire imagination—always thanks to Rembrandt’s universal and timeless etching.
The exhibition presents works from the Six Collection and loans from the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdam Museum.
The exhibition was compiled by guest curator Menno Jonker. A publication with contributions by Nikki den Dekker, Erik Hinterding, Menno Jonker, Rudie van Leeuwen, Volker Manuth, Lilian Ruhe, Jan Six and Marieke de Winkel is being produced to coincide with Rembrandt and Jan Six: The Etching and the Friendship.
Information: Anita Soer at a.soer@rembrandthuis.nl | T +31 (0)20 520 04 09 | M: +31(0)6 24 61 72 52
Between 1639 and 1658. Rembrandt lived and worked in this magnificent house, which is now a museum. Based on an inventory from that time the house was refurbished with furniture, art and objects from the seventeenth century. There are daily etching and paint demonstrations in the Rembrandt House that show how the artist worked. The Rembrandt House owns the almost complete collection of Rembrandt’s etchings. Temporary exhibitions of work by Rembrandt, his contemporaries and later artists are staged regularly in the modern museum wing.
The Rembrandt House Museum receives a substantial financial contribution from Amsterdam City Council
After a succesful first selection of Rembrandt’s etchings, The Rembrandt House Museum is staging the second part of our exhibition Rembrandt’s Etchings: Highlights of the Rembrandt House collection from July 26th until September 17th 2017. A selection of some thirty etchings from the museum’s collection will give visitors insight into the artistic and technical aspects of Rembrandt’s printmaking.
After a succesful first selection of Rembrandt’s etchings, The Rembrandt House Museum is staging the second part of our exhibition Rembrandt’s Etchings: Highlights of the Rembrandt House collection from July 26th until September 17th 2017. A selection of some thirty etchings from the museum’s collection will give visitors insight into the artistic and technical aspects of Rembrandt’s printmaking.
Rembrandt is one of the greatest graphic talents of all time. A passionate etcher who left an extensive oeuvre of around 290 prints. He was admired by his contemporaries for his free drawing manner, his dramatic chiaroscuro and his bold experiments in etching technique. His prints have been a source of inspiration for countless artists, among them luminaries like Goya and Picasso, and still are today. Generations of artists have borrowed motifs and compositions from Rembrandt’s prints.
Rembrandt’s spontaneous yet assured drawing style is magnificently expressed in his etchings. The movements of his hand in this medium can be followed as precisely as in his drawings, and he endeavoured to make each print an individual work of art by varying the printing process. The Rembrandt House Museum has one of the most important collections of Rembrandt’s etchings in the world and its mission is to encourage greater interest in this extraordinary cultural heritage.
Every day there are continuous demonstrations in the artist’s former home, showing visitors how an etching is made. Enlargements of some of the prints in the exhibition illustrate the exceptional quality of the work and invite visitors to look more closely at the refinement of these works.
Left: Rembrandt, Christ preaching (‘The hundred-guilder print’), c. 1648, etching, drypoint and burin The Rembrandt House Museum. | Right: Rembrandt, Self-portrait with Saskia, 1636, etching, The Rembrandt House Museum.
Many paintings are coming together from all over the world, from museums and private collections, for this double exhibition in Amsterdam. Some of them will be back in the Dutch capital for the first time since the seventeenth century. The exhibition explores the mastery of Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck in the seventeenth century at two locations that complement one another: training at the ‘first academy of art’ versus independence in the art market
In the Rembrandt House, the place where the man who taught Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680) and Govert Flinck (1615-1660) lived and worked for almost twenty years, the emphasis is on their time with the master. Works of art transport visitors back in time to the painters’ early years and their training with Rembrandt, one soon after the other.
In the Amsterdam Museum, visitors will discover that Bol and Flinck developed into great artists in their own right. Helped by a carefully constructed and nurtured network, the ambitious painters succeeded in reaching the pinnacle of the art market. The two men, who were of an age, became formidable competitors of their former teacher – and of one another. During their lifetimes they were even more successful than Rembrandt.
In the same period, two other venues in the city, the Royal Palace in Dam Square and Museum Van Loon, will be reflecting the exhibition by presenting different facets of the two artists. The exhibition of Dutch Masters from the Hermitage will run almost concurrently in the Hermitage Amsterdam.
From 13 October 2017 to 18 February 2018, the Amsterdam Museum and the Rembrandt House Museum present the first ever exhibition devoted to the painters Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck.
Left: Ferdinand Bol, Self-portrait, c. 1647. Canvas, 93 x 83,5 cm. Private collection. / Right: Govert Flinck, Self-portrait, c. 1640. Panel, 59 x 47 cm. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (on loan from a private collection)
Two Artists, One Teacher
Bol and Flinck are Rembrandt’s two most important pupils. Their impressive work is admired all over the world, streets have been named after them – and after three and a half centuries this exhibition is at last bringing them out of their teacher’s shadow. With superb portraits and dramatic scenes based on the Bible and the Classics, Bol and Flinck met the demands of their clients, who included prosperous merchants and representatives of the country’s maritime and political power.
Another View
The exhibition, full of stories as it is, presents an opportunity to explore the Amsterdam story of the 17th century from a different point of view. Director and theatre-maker Jörgen Tjon A Fong of Urban Myth has been invited to bring his wide theatrical experience and narrative skills to bear on aspects of the 17th century that cannot usually be seen in paintings.
Book
WBooks is publishing a lavishly illustrated book on the life and work of the two artists to accompany the exhibition.
Look over Rembrandt’s shoulder. Rembrandt’s portrayal of people is at the heart of our new exhibition Rembrandt Observes People. We see loving mothers with children playing, beggars and street musicians, old people with distinctive heads. Rembrandt was a keen observer. He wanted to know what moved people, to capture their dramas, large and small. Discover daily life in the seventeenth century.
Look over Rembrandt’s shoulder. Rembrandt’s portrayal of people is at the heart of our new exhibition Rembrandt Observes People. We see loving mothers with children playing, beggars and street musicians, old people with distinctive heads. Rembrandt was a keen observer. He wanted to know what moved people, to capture their dramas, large and small. Discover daily life in the seventeenth century.
‘I find it amazing that Rembrandt never seizes to surprise. Take his etching of a man making water. The scene is so explicit. That takes guts.’
– Epco Runia, Head of Collection
Rembrandt Observes People features twenty-four etchings from the Rembrandt House Museum’s collection. Holding almost all Rembrandt’s etchings, the museum has one of the largest collections in the world. However, works on paper are fragile and extremely sensitive to light, so the selection will be changed midway through the exhibition. The first part can be seen until 27 May; the second selection will be shown from 28 May until 2 September.
A man peeing. Confrontational? More like embarrassing – even in Rembrandt’s time, when urinating in public was not unusual. People urinating and defacating outdoors were pictured regularly, outside an inn, for example, but generally as an inconspicuous detail and usually seen from the side or the back. Rembrandt took it further in his telling observation.
Rembrandt, A man making water, 1631
Etching, only state, 82 x 48 mm.
The Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam
Rembrandt, Woman reading, 1634
Etching, state II (3), 123 x 100 mm.
The Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam
The young woman does not seem to have noticed that Rembrandt was studying her. She is completely absorbed by the book she reads. She holds it close to her eyes and has tucked one hand under her jacket. An intimate gesture that did not escape Rembrandt. For him it was also a study in light and shade.
It is a little-known fact that in the nineteenth century Rembrandt was an icon for numerous French avant-garde artists, Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Great names such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon and Theodore Rousseau took Rembrandt and his work as their example. To them he was an anti-academic cult figure, an artist who shrugged off academic rules and captured the world around him with a fearless immediacy. Many French artists decided to start etching – as Rembrandt had – and there was a revival of the art form.
Rembrandt in Paris: Manet, Méryon, Degas and the Rediscovery of Etching (1830-90) opens on 21 September in The Rembrandt House Museum. This is the first exhibition ever devoted to the etching revival in France. The finest works of art will be brought together for the show: elegant French ladies, Parisian cityscapes, impressive landscapes and artistic posters.
Rembrandt: The Icon of the French Avant-Garde
‘Rembrandt in Paris’ runs from 21 September 2018
It is a little-known fact that in the nineteenth century Rembrandt was an icon for numerous French avant-garde artists, Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Great names such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon and Theodore Rousseau took Rembrandt and his work as their example. To them he was an anti-academic cult figure, an artist who shrugged off academic rules and captured the world around him with a fearless immediacy. Many French artists decided to start etching – as Rembrandt had – and there was a revival of the art form.
Rembrandt in Paris: Manet, Méryon, Degas and the Rediscovery of Etching (1830-90) opens on 21 September in The Rembrandt House Museum. This is the first exhibition ever devoted to the etching revival in France. The finest works of art will be brought together for the show: elegant French ladies, Parisian cityscapes, impressive landscapes and artistic posters.
“Hoe zien we Rembrandt terug in het werk van beroemde Franse kunstenaars? Daar gaat deze tentoonstelling over. Naast de usual suspects als Degas en Manet, willen we de bezoeker ook kennis laten maken met (in onze tijd) wellicht wat minder bekende kunstenaars als Charles Méryon en Félix Bracquemond, die sleutelfiguren in het Franse netwerk van kunstenaars waren. De tentoonstelling krijgt bovendien een lichte en frisse vormgeving, waardoor je je echt even op het Franse platteland of in hartje Parijs waant.”
– Lidewij de Koekkoek, directeur Museum Het Rembrandthuis
(Left) CharlesMéryon, Notre-Dame in Paris, 1854, etching, state 4 (8), 165 x 299 mm, Rijksmuseum. Gift of the Vroom-van Beers Family, Helmond | (Right) Edgar Degas, Woman Drying Herself after her Bath, 1891-1892, lithograph, 250 x 230 mm, Rijksmuseum. Purchase from the F.G. Waller-Fonds.
‘How is Rembrandt reflected in work by famous French artists? This is the focus of the exhibition. Aside from the usual suspects like Degas and Manet, we would like visitors to get to know artists like Charles Méryon and Félix Bracquemond, perhaps not as well known today, who were key figures in the French network of artists. The exhibition design is light and fresh, transporting you to the French countryside or the heart of Paris.’
– Lidewij de Koekkoek, Director, The Rembrandt House Museum
(Left) Rembrandt, The Three Trees, 1643, etching, drypoint and burin, only state, 213 x 279 mm., The Rembrandt House Museum. | (Right) Félix Bracquemond, Landscape with Approaching Thunderstorm and Geese in a Meadow, 1860-1914, etching, state 6 (11), 259 x 347 mm., Rijksmuseum. Purchase from the F.G. Waller-Fonds.
We can see an example of the direct influence Rembrandt’s etchings had in this work by Félix Bracquemond. The geese in his country landscape sense that rain is on the way, literally: a thunderstorm is approaching. The heavy clouds are emphasized by bright rays of sunlight. Bracquemond’s inspiration for this etching is unmistakable: he had seen Rembrandt’s famous etching of the three trees. There was an impression of this etching in the Print Room at the Louvre. Many artists visited this museum in the heart of Paris for inspiration.
Rembrandt in Paris: Manet, Méryon, Degas and the Rediscovery of Etching (1830-90) runs from 21 September 2018 to 6 January 2019 in The Rembrandt House Museum.
Rembrandt in Paris: Manet, Méryon, Degas and the Rediscovery of Etching (1830-90) is made possible by Gravin van Bylandt Stichting, Janssens Friesche Stichting and other foundations that wish to remain anonymous.
(Left) Norbert Goeneutte, Place de la Concorde, Paris, 1884-87. Etching and drypoint, 320 x 198 mm, private collection. (Right) Henri-Charles Guérard, Moon over Honfleur, c. 1890, oil on canvas, 30.2 x 84.5 cm, private collection.
Background Story: The Rembrandt Revival
The foundation of the French Academy in 1648 brought about a shift in attention to classical art. Rembrandt’s distinctive style did not sit well with the prevailing taste, particularly in France, but in the eighteen-thirties a number of French artists rebelled against the classical rules of the Academy. They discovered a renewed interest in Rembrandt. To them he was the ultimate example of a non-conformist artist who strove for realism and artistic innovation.
The artists of the Barbizon School studied his etchings in particular and were inspired by his use of chiaroscuro, his creation of several states of an etching and his experiments with different kinds of paper. This etching revival developed further in Paris, where Rembrandt’s influence is evident in works by many artists, from Charles Méryon to Odilon Redon.
The exhibitions Life/Time and Rembrandt Open Studio show old age in its many layers. From the viewpoint of Rembrandt and his followers, but also as seen by two contemporary artists making art live in the museum.
In times of corona, in which people have to keep distance from the elderly, we have to rely more on contact through our gaze. From 25 September to 29 November, The Rembrandt House Museum delivers an ode to the many-layered richness of old age, in two exhibitions. In Life/Time, Rembrandt’s etchings of old people are shown next to work by his pupil Abraham van Dijck and his great fan Aat Veldhoen. In the second exhibition room two recently graduated artists will install studios and make new work: Iriée Zamblé and Timothy Voges. With their own, individual perspective, they will look at the art of Rembrandt’s time and at the world around us. What does “old age” mean, actually?
Life/Time: Rembrandt, Abraham van Dijck and Aat Veldhoen Rembrandt was a keen and sympathetic observer – his renderings of old people are intimate, vulnerable, and at the same time powerful. They include old people dozing off in a chair. But we also see wise old men in their study chambers, or a spry old pancake baker. Life/Time shows works of art from the museum’s collection, such as etchings by Rembrandt, paintings by his pupil Abraham van Dijck and prints by the modern artist and Rembrandt fan Aat Veldhoen.
The high point of this collection exhibition is the latest acquisition of The Rembrandt House Museum: a small painting by Rembrandt pupil Abraham van Dijck. The museum purchased it last year at an auction. It is a depiction of an old man on the edge of falling asleep. Old people often served in seventeenth-century Dutch art as symbol for the transience of life. But this man is a painter, he holds a palette and brushes in his hand. The message here could be: life will end, but the painting will remain. Or otherwise: art triumphs over death.
Rembrandt Open Studio: Iriée Zamblé and Timothy Voges
Rembrandt’s house was a creative hub. Rembrandt did not namely work here alone: many pupils also made art here, sometimes even four or five at a time. Now, nearly 400 years later, we are bringing this back. A new generation of young artists will have the opportunity to name new work, with a contemporary viewpoint on the art of Rembrandt’s time and the world of today. This fall Iriée Zamblé and Timothy Voges will set up their studios in the gallery. They will reflect on the themes of the exhibition Life/Time: old age, transience, strength and vulnerability. Zamblé and Voges will at the same time be staying in the exhibition gallery and alternatively working and/or showing existing work – sometimes alone, sometimes together.
Iriée Zamblé (Amsterdam, 1995) makes painted tronies and portraits of black people. Her work is about representation, identity and presence. Of essence is that black people enjoy the space to be themselves and be busy with the stuff of everyday life. She draws inspiration from the people she encounters, often on the street.
The paintings of Timothy Voges (Willemstad, 1993) are cut out of found images from the media or older sources, where the context is missing. This leaves much open to interpretation. Potentially very random scenes sometimes appear eerie, vulnerable, voyeuristic or simply nostalgic. This depends on the viewer themselves.
