Rembrandt? The Master and His Workshop

Wednesday, 11 January 2006 17:59

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK.-Statens Museum for Kunst opens the exhibition year with a comprehensive exhibition on Rembrandt and the circle of artists around him. The exhibition will also reveal the results of the latest research into the authenticity of the paintings that at some point in the history of the museum have been ascribed to the master. The 4th centenary of the birth of Rembrandt van Rijn is celebrated with the most comprehensive exhibition ever staged in Denmark about the miller's son from Leiden who became one of the pre-eminent painters of all of art history. A number of truly outstanding paintings on loan from other museums supplement the Statens Museum for Kunst's own collection of graphic art and drawings to create an exhibition that ranges across the Dutch master's entire life's work. Rembrandt's enormous influence on his contemporary colleagues working in the Golden Age of Dutch art is put into perspective with works by his students and the circle around him. Rembrandt the innovator - Rembrandt (1606-69) is one of the greatest storytellers within the history of art. His unique ability to depict human beings in a wide range of emotional states and dramatic situations soon gave him the moniker "painter of souls". In his biblical scenes as well as his many portraits and self-portraits Rembrandt imbued both paintings and engravings with a hitherto unseen presence and life. A unique, uncompromising, and intense realism that remains undiminished in strength here in the 21st century. The exhibition at Statens Museum for Kunst provides a broad insight into the master's circle of motifs and into a truly remarkable process of artistic development. By e.g. showing examples of how differently Rembrandt interpreted the same motif at early and late stages of his career, the exhibition portrays an artist who never stopped setting new standards of composition, light and shadow, and spectator involvement. Rembrandt's circle - The exhibition also focuses on the circle of artists around Rembrandt. In particular, many of his students have long been a neglected chapter of Dutch Golden Age art. Studies conducted in recent decades have demonstrated that works formerly attributed to Rembrandt were in fact done by his students, prompting a substantial increase in the interest in these artists. The exhibition presents very fine examples of the kind of copies and free variations over Rembrandt's own painting which students produced at his Amsterdam workshop. Many of these student works come very close to those of their master, and the exhibition provides a rare insight into how e.g. x-ray and infrared photography can help distinguishing Rembrandts from non-Rembrandts. Rembrandt or not - The exhibition also reveals the results of the studies conducted at the museum in recent years. In co-operation with international experts, Statens Museum for Kunst has examined the works formerly attributed to Rembrandt. Who painted them, and might their number include works by the master himself?

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