N.C. Museum of Art Celebrates Rembrandt’s 400th Birthday

Friday, 07 April 2006 11:36

Raleigh, NC - ­To celebrate the 400th birthday of famed artist Rembrandt van Rijn, the North Carolina Museum of Art presents a group of etchings by the Dutch master. The exhibition—entitled Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings, Selections from the John Villarino Collection. The exhibition includes prints made from copper plate etchings, which date between 1629 and 1654, and thus correspond with the years when Rembrandt was most actively involved with the medium. With 35 works on display, viewers will have the opportunity to see how Rembrandt experimented with inks, paper, and the reworking of the copper plates to enhance the visual impact of the imagery. As the exhibition title suggests, Sordid and Sacred is dedicated to images of beggars, subjects Rembrandt portrays sympathetically. “Rembrandt renders his beggars with the same feeling for humanity that he brought to his portraits and narrative subjects,” said Dennis P. Weller, Ph. D., chief curator and curator of northern European art. “In his hands, beggars are not contemptible or loathsome creatures, but rather individuals who demand a certain degree of respect. These etchings are significant and really beautiful, and the exhibition is a fitting commemoration of Rembrandt’s birthday.” As one of the towering figures in the history of art, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), a miller’s son from the university town of Leiden, was an artist of unmatched genius. Equally gifted as a painter, printmaker, and draftsman, Rembrandt proved himself to be as skillful at making portraits as he was at creating religious and mythological narratives. His landscapes are just as remarkable as his rare still lifes and subjects detailing everyday life. Much of Rembrandt’s work displays a crossover between various genres, and his etchings of beggars are no exception. In one of the works he inserts a self-portrait alongside a beggar couple. In another, The Flight into Egypt : Crossing a Brook, Rembrandt rendered the holy family with the same earthiness and sympathy found in many of his beggars. Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings is drawn from the John Villarino Collection, Los Angeles, Calif. and organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, Calif. The exhibition closes April 30, 2006. For more information, visit The North Carolina Museum of Art

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