CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Late Rembrandt

Exhibition: 12 February - 17 May 2015

From the museum press release

From 12 February 2015 to 17 May 2015, the Rijksmuseum will be presenting a retrospective of Rembrandt van Rijn’s later work for the very first time. In collaboration with The National Gallery in London, the exhibition Rembrandt: The Finest Years presents a comprehensive overview of the Master’s work from around 1652 to his death in 1669. The paintings he produced during these years continue to define the image people have of Rembrandt the world over. Rembrandt experimented with graphic and painting techniques and succeeded in giving his work unprecedented depth. The paintings and drawings come from leading museums and private collections in Europe and the US.

Wim Pijbes, General Director of the Rijksmuseum: ‘For the first time in over twenty years, the Rijksmuseum will again be organising a Rembrandt exhibition, giving every generation the chance to renew its acquaintance with the great Master of the Golden Age.’

From the 1650s on, the painter became one of the most individualistic of artists, achieving a totally unique, intense and free style in his etchings, drawings and paintings, with broader brushwork and more complex layers of paint, and a phenomenal emphasis on texture. In his prints, Rembrandt experimented with paper, tone and printing techniques. In his choice of subject matter too, he conceived the most moving and profound topics. With his extraordinary technique and modest figure paintings, it is this thoughtful and experimental Rembrandt who became an example to many printmakers, painters and draughtsmen of later generations.

The Rijksmuseum has organised several iconic Rembrandt exhibitions in the past 120 years (in 1898, 1935, 1956, 1969, and 1991/92).

Rembrandt: The Finest Years is on show from 15 October 2014 to 18 January 2015 in The National Gallery in London.

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