To support the effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art will temporarily close effective 14 March and will remain closed likely through 30 April. 

Rembrandt’s Titus in a Monk’s Habit (1660) is coming to Hartford, Connecticut. On loan from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the painting will be on view at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art from 1 February through 30 April 2020. R

It has been fifty-three years since this painting has been on view in the United States making this a rare opportunity for visitors to experience a late portrait by the Dutch master among the collection of Baroque art at the Wadsworth renowned for its standout paintings by Rembrandt’s southern European contemporaries, Zurbarán, Oratio Gentileschi, and Caravaggio. While this painting has been infrequently seen in America, it exemplifies the dramatic use of light and dark to express human emotion for which Rembrandt’s late works are especially prized.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) painted his teenage son in the guise of a monk at a crucial moment in his late career when he was revamping his business as a painter and recovering from bankruptcy. While this painting has been infrequently seen in America, it exemplifies the dramatic use of light and dark to express human emotion for which Rembrandt’s late works are especially prized.

Titus, born in 1641, was the fourth and only surviving child of Rembrandt and his first wife Saskia who soon died. Within a few years, Rembrandt’s family life turned destitute and hard. In the painting, Titus is draped in a dark brown hooded cloak, his eyes downcast, his face bathed in light. It is a superb example of a visual expression of quietness, tranquil meditation, musing recollection—a portrayal of a whole cluster of human emotional tones.

Lectures, gallery talks, and films

The museum planned a range of events around the presentation of Titus in a Monk’s Habit, including lectures by CODART members Christopher Atkins and Oliver Tostman. For more information about these events see: www.thewadsworth.org/rembrandts-titus/