Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 Leiden – 1669 Amsterdam) was the most important Dutch painter of the seventeenth century. A large number of pupils worked in his atelier for decades. By imitating his style, they contributed to his fame and the establishment of the Rembrandt “brand”. Rembrandt’s teaching was innovative in many respects.
With around 140 paintings, drawings and etchings by Rembrandt and his pupils, the exhibition Impulse Rembrandt offers insight into the artist’s creative work and one of the largest workshop operations of seventeenth century Dutch painting. It explores Rembrandt’s fascinating ability to pass on idiosyncrasies of his painting style and at the same time promote the artistic individuality of his pupils. Between 1625 and 1665, Rembrandt attracted more young artistic talent from Holland and Europe than did any other painter in Amsterdam.
Aert de Gelder (1645-1727), Ahasuerus Receives Mordecai in the Presence of Esther 1685
Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig
The exhibition is based on the museum’s own collection, which includes works by Rembrandt’s pupils and contemporaries such as Jan Lievens, Ferdinand Bol, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Aert de Gelder and others, but no paintings by Rembrandt himself. Only one confirmed drawing along with etchings by the artist are in the MdbK’s Collection of Prints and Drawings. It is thus all the more delightful that, thanks to generous loans from museums in Amsterdam, London, Stockholm, Vienna and Paris as well as German collections, around 60 paintings, drawings and etchings by Rembrandt can be presented.
Jan Victors, (1619-1679), Woman in a Window, 1640
Musée du Louvre, Paris
In the eighteenth century, important paintings and drawings by Rembrandt could be found in the large private art collections in Leipzig, such as the Gottfried Winckler Collection, and were later dispersed through auctions in all directions. Some of these works will return to Leipzig for the duration of the exhibition as a reminder of the splendor of Leipzig’s art collections in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The exhibition is under the patronage of His Excellency the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is taking place to mark the 20th anniversary of the new MdbK building. The catalogue (Ger/Eng) will be published by Hirmer Verlag and includes contributions by Julian Galla, Dagmar Hirschfelder, Jan Nicolaisen, Sven Pabstmann, Louise Charlotte Schmidt and Stefan Weppelmann.