Rembrandt And His Circle

"This book owes its genesis to a series of conferences held in 2009, 2011, and 2013 at Queen's University's Bader International Study Centre at Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, UK." (Acknowledgements).

Throughout his life, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was considered an exceptional artist by contemporary art lovers. In this highly original book, Ernst van de Wetering investigates why Rembrandt, from a very early age, was praised by high-placed connoisseurs like Constantijn Huygens. It turns out that Rembrandt, from his first endeavours in painting on, had embarked on a journey past all the 'foundations of the art of painting' which were considered essential in the seventeenth century. In his systematic exploration of these foundations, Rembrandt achieved mastery in all of them, thus becoming the 'pittore famoso' that count Cosimo the Medici visited at the end of his life. Rembrandt never stopped searching for ever better solutions to the pictorial problems he saw himself confronted with; this sometimes led to radical decisions and alterations in his way of working, which cannot simply be explained by attributing them to a 'change in style' or a 'natural development'. In a quest as rigorous and novel as Rembrandt's, Van de Wetering shows us how Rembrandt dealt with the foundations of his art and used them to try and become the best painter the world had ever seen. His book sheds new light both on Rembrandt's exceptional accomplishments and on the practice of painting in the Dutch Golden Age at large.

Contents 1. Rembrandt Self-Portraits: The Creation of a Myth - Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., National Gallery of Art, Washington 2. Reconstructing Rembrandt and His Circle: More on the Workshop Hypothesis - Walter Liedtke, The Metropolitan Museum of Art 3. Rembrandt at the Threshold - Susan Donahue Kuretsky, Vassar College 4. Comments on Rubens' Coup de Lance: Its Iconography, Style, and Importance for Eugène Delacroix - J. Richard Judson, Prof. Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 5. Rubens, His Patrons and Style - Walter Liedtke, The Metropolitan Museum of Art 6. Gender Issues in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Portraiture: A New Look - Alison McNeil Kettering, Carleton College 7. Remarks on Love, Woman, and the Garden in Netherlandish Art: A Study in the Iconology of the Garden - Sara M. Wages, The University of Maryland 8. The Strange Case of Jan Torrentius: Art, Sex, and Heresy in Seventeenth-Century Haarlem - Christopher Brown, The National Gallery, London 9. The Soothsayer by Jan Lievens in Berlin: An Attempt at an Interpretation - Maarten Wurfbain, Oegstgeest, The Netherlands 10. Ludolf de Jongh's The Refused Glass and Its Effects on the Art of Vermeer and De Hooch -Roland E. Fleischer, Prof. Emeritus, The Pennsylvania State University

"Rembrandt was the most famous painter of the Dutch Golden Age, and the opportunity to work in his studio attracted young artists for nearly four decades, until the artist's death in 1669. This catalogue explores the workings of Rembrandt's studio in the form of drawings made by the master himself and fifteen of his pupils. Rembrandt and his students would often depict the same subject matter as an exercise and make drawings of the same nude models. In his later years, Rembrandt also made sketching trips outside Amsterdam to create his innovative landscapes of the Dutch countryside. His students followed this example, sometimes depicting the same sites." "Organized chronologically, Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference is a groundbreaking study that presents more than forty works by Rembrandt and related works by his pupils. It explores the scholarship of recent decades that has brought new and more systematic criteria to bear on determining the authenticity of Rembrandt drawings, and defines the styles of his pupils and followers with ever-greater precision. In so doing, this volume demystifies the sometimes-baffling exercise known as connoisseurship and seeks to re-enact the daily practices that Rembrandt used to teach his students and bring them to artistic maturity." "This is an essential book for anyone interested in the Dutch Golden Age or the lives and careers of Rembrandt and the artists in his immediate circle. A major exhibition of these drawings will be on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from December 8, 2009, to February 28, 2010." --Book Jacket.