CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Rembrandt, der Zeichner

Rembrandt as a draughtsman: the Berlin collection Exhibition: 4 August - 5 November 2006

Rembrandt, Saskia as the artist's bride of three days, 1633. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

Rembrandt, The artist’s bride of three days
Silverpoint on prepared vellum, 18.5 x 10.7 cm
Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

Museum information, by Holm Bevers

The collection of Rembrandt drawings in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett is one of the best in the world. It includes many subjects and types of drawing, historical (biblical) scenes, genre scenes, model drawings, drawings after other works of art, landscapes and portraits. The most famous drawing is the charming silverpoint portrait of Rembrandt’s wife Saskia from 1633. Other types of drawing are missing, animal and nude studies. While other important collections of Rembrandt drawings have been published recently – Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (1985), Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam (1988), Louvre Paris (1988-89), British Museum London (1992) and Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden (2004) -, the Berlin holdings have not been studied thoroughly since the catalogues by Bock / Rosenberg (1930) and Otto Benesch (1954-57).

The Berlin holdings will be exhibited and published in 2006. Questions of authenticity will predominate since the work of the master was imitated by his pupils and by followers. It seems to turn out that more than 50 per cent of the drawings in the Kupferstichkabinett that were accepted by Benesch are not by Rembrandt. The catalogue will led to a reduction from 130 sheets to about 60. Many drawings can be reattributed to pupils, others will remain anonymous.

The critical catalogue will include all accepted Rembrandt drawings. Some drawings that can now be given to pupils like Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Willem Drost or Aert de Gelder will by discussed in an introductory essay. These sheets will be published in a second volume, devoted to the drawings of the Rembrandt school in the Kupferstichkabinett, that will be published later, hopefully in 2009-10.

The exhibition will take place at the same time as the Rembrandt exhibition of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie.

Catalogue

Rembrandt, die Zeichnungen im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett: kritischer Katalog

Holm Bevers
Catalogue of exhibition held in Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett) in 2006
27.5 x 23.5 cm., 238 pp., fully illustrated
Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen in Berlin) and Ostfildern (Hatje Cantz) 2006
ISBN-10: 3-7757-1817-6
ISBN-13: 978-3-7757-1817-2

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