Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669) is one of the most famous, [1] [2] controversial, and best expertly researched (visual) artists in history. [3] [4]
His life and art have long attracted the attention of multidisciplinary scholarship such as art history, social history, [5] cultural history, history of ideas, education, humanities, aesthetics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, literary studies, anatomy, medicine, religious studies, theology, Jewish studies, [6] Oriental studies (Asian studies), [7] globalization studies, [8] [9] and art market research. In Rembrandt scholar Stephanie Dickey's words:
[Rembrandt] earned international renown as a painter, printmaker, teacher, and art collector while never leaving the Dutch Republic. In his home city of Leiden and in Amsterdam, where he worked for nearly forty years, he mentored generations of other painters and produced a body of work that has never ceased to attract admiration, critique, and interpretation. (...) Rembrandt's art is a key component in any study of the Dutch Golden Age, and his membership in the canon of artistic genius is well established, but he is also a figure whose significance transcends specialist interest. Literary critics have pondered "Rembrandt" as a "cultural text"; novelists, playwrights, and filmmakers have romanticized his life, and in popular culture, his name has become synonymous with excellence for products and services, ranging from toothpaste to self-help advice." [4]
For a visual artist in general and an Old Master in particular, Rembrandt (i.e. his life, art, and circle) has been the subject of a vast amount of literature that includes both fiction and nonfiction works. The field of Rembrandt studies (study of Rembrandt's life and work, including works by his pupils and followers)—as an academic field in its own right with many noted Rembrandt connoisseurs and scholars—has been one of the most dynamic research areas of Netherlandish art (or art of the pre-1830 Low Countries) history. [3] [10] In the history of the reception and interpretation of Rembrandt's art, the great 'rediscovery' of the Dutch master in 19th-century France and Germany decisively helped in establishing his lasting fame in subsequent centuries. [11] [12]
The following is a list of works about Rembrandt. A longer bibliography is at [13]
Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achievement when Dutch painting became highly popular.
Jozef Israëls was a Dutch painter. He was a leading member of the group of landscape painters referred to as the Hague School and, during his lifetime, "the most respected Dutch artist of the second half of the nineteenth century."
The Hague School is a group of artists who lived and worked in The Hague between 1860 and 1890. Their work was heavily influenced by the realist painters of the French Barbizon school. The painters of the Hague school generally made use of relatively somber colors, which is why the Hague School is sometimes called the Gray School.
Jacob van Loo was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, chiefly active in Amsterdam and, after 1660, in Paris. Van Loo is known for his conversational groupings; particularly his mythological and biblical scenes generally attributed to the genre of History painting. He was especially celebrated for the quality of his nudes to the extent that, during his lifetime, particularly his female figures were said to have been considered superior and more popular than those of his Amsterdam contemporary and competitor Rembrandt. In 1663, three years after fleeing to Paris, Jacob van Loo was accepted into the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.
Simon de Vlieger was a Dutch painter, draughtsman and designer of tapestries, etchings, stained glass windows. While he is mainly known for his marine paintings he also painted beach scenes, landscapes and genre scenes.
Jan Lievens was a Dutch Golden Age painter who was associated with his close contemporary Rembrandt, a year older, in the early parts of their careers. They shared a birthplace in Leiden, training with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, where they shared a studio for about five years until 1631. Like Rembrandt he painted both portraits and history paintings, but unlike him Lievens' career took him away from Amsterdam to London, Antwerp, The Hague and Berlin.
Belshazzar's Feast is a major painting by Rembrandt now in the National Gallery, London. The painting is Rembrandt's attempt to establish himself as a painter of large, baroque history paintings. The date of the painting is unknown, but most sources give a date between 1635 and 1638.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history. It is estimated Rembrandt produced a total of about three hundred paintings, three hundred etchings and two thousand drawings.
Ernst van de Wetering was a Dutch art historian and an expert on Rembrandt and his work.
Meijer Isaac de Haan was a Dutch painter. In French the name was written Meyer de Haan.
Jacob Adriaensz Backer was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He produced about 140 paintings in twenty years, including portraits, religious subjects, and mythological paintings. In his style, he was influenced by Wybrand de Geest, Rubens and Abraham Bloemaert. He is also noted for his drawings of male and female nudes.
Cornelis or Cornelius Ketel was a Dutch Mannerist painter, active in Elizabethan London from 1573 to 1581, and in Amsterdam till his death. Ketel, known essentially as a portrait-painter, was also a poet and orator, and from 1595 a sculptor as well.
The Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) was an initiative of the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), which is the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. Its purpose was to organize and categorize research on Rembrandt van Rijn, with the aim of discovering new facts about this Dutch Golden Age painter and his studio. The project started in 1968 and was sponsored by NWO until 1998. Research continued until 2014. It was the authority on Rembrandt and had the final say in whether a painting is genuine. The documentation generated by the project was transferred to the Netherlands Institute for Art History and renamed the Rembrandt Database.
Self Portrait is an oil on canvas painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt. Painted in 1652, it is one of over 40 painted self-portraits by Rembrandt, and was the first he had painted since 1645. In composition it is different from his previous self-portraits, depicting the painter in a direct frontal pose, hands on his hips, and with an air of self-confidence. It was painted the year that his financial difficulties began, and breaks with the sumptuous finery he had worn in previous self-portraits. Art historian Christopher White has called it "one of the most magisterial and sombre of these (late) pictures". It is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Self-Portrait with Two Circles is an oil on canvas painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt, painted c. 1665–1669, one of over 40 painted self-portraits by Rembrandt.
The dozens of self-portraits by Rembrandt were an important part of his oeuvre. Rembrandt created approaching one hundred self-portraits including over forty paintings, thirty-one etchings and about seven drawings; some remain uncertain as to the identity of either the subject or the artist, or the definition of a portrait.
Abraham Serving the Three Angels is a 1646 oil-on-panel painting by Rembrandt. The scene depicts Abraham, it is based on an episode from the Book of Genesis and it has Mughal influence. Today it is in a private collection since it was bought in an auction in 1848 for £64. Before that its owners were Ferdinand Bol, a student of Rembrandt, the Dutch art collector and Mayor of Amsterdam, Jan Six as well as Benjamin West, an American artist.
The Preacher Eleazar Swalmius is a 1637 oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt. It is currently owned by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The painting has been certified a real Rembrandt. The painting was listed in 1727 in the catalog of the Duke of Orléans collection, as a portrait of an Amsterdam mayor by Rembrandt. It remained in the noble family's possession until 1792, when Duke Louis-Philippe-Joseph sold the entire collection to finance his political career and pay off debts. The painting passed through several English collections into the hands of the Bourgeois brothers, art dealers from Cologne, who sold the painting as an original Rembrandt to the museum in 1886. The painting was stored away for a long time due to doubts cast over its authenticity.
Rembrandt Laughing is a c. 1628 oil on copper painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It is an elaborate study of a laughing face, a tronie, and, since it represents the painter himself, one of over 40 self-portraits by Rembrandt, probably the earliest elaborate one. The painting, which was only recently discovered, is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California.
Paul Solman (2004): "[Rembrandt] The most famous brand name in western art. In America alone it graces toothpaste, bracelet charms, restaurant and bars, counter-tops and of course the town of Rembrandt, Iowa just halfway around the world from the Rembrandt Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. Funny thing is Rembrandt might have been quite pleased with such widespread notoriety."
Rembrandt scholar Stephanie Dickey (2006): "One thing that really surprises me is the extent to which Rembrandt exists as a phenomenon in pop culture. You have this musical group call the Rembrandts, who wrote the theme song to Friends—"I'll Be There For You." There are Rembrandt restaurants, Rembrandt hotels, art supplies and other things that are more obvious. But then there's Rembrandt toothpaste. Why on Earth would somebody name a toothpaste after this artist who's known for his really dark tonalities? It doesn't make a lot of sense. But I think it's because his name has become synonymous with quality. It's even a verb—there's a term in underworld slang, 'to be Rembrandted,' which means to be framed for a crime. And people in the cinema world use it to mean pictorial effects that are overdone. He's just everywhere, and people who don't know anything, who wouldn't recognize a Rembrandt painting if they tripped over it, you say the name Rembrandt and they already know that this is a great artist. He's become a synonym for greatness."
Algis Valiunas (2006): "Alongside Leonardo and Michelangelo, Rembrandt is one of the three most famous artists ever, with whom the public is on a first-name basis; and the name Rembrandt has lent the cachet of greatness and the grace of familiarity to sell everything from kitchen countertops to whitening toothpaste to fancy hotels in Bangkok and Knightsbridge."
In The Film Daily's biographical sketches of directors (July 1, 1928), DeMille was already being credited with "the first developments in lighting and photography." While shooting The Warrens of Virginia (1915), DeMille had experimented with lighting instruments borrowed from a Los Angeles opera house. When business partner Sam Goldwyn saw a scene in which only half an actor's face was illuminated, he feared the exhibitors would pay only half the price for the picture. DeMille remonstrated that it was Rembrandt lighting. "Sam's reply was jubilant with relief," recalled DeMille. "For Rembrandt lighting the exhibitors would pay double!"