{"id":1770,"date":"2020-03-05T16:52:10","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T16:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2020-03-05T16:52:17","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T16:52:17","slug":"the-young-rembrandt-not-a-prodigy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/2020\/03\/the-young-rembrandt-not-a-prodigy.html","title":{"rendered":"The Young Rembrandt: not a prodigy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Self-portrait in a cap, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, 1630<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When you walk down one corridor in the current Ashmolean\nMuseum\u2019s exhibition of Young Rembrandt<\/em> you see half a dozen tiny-to-small,\nthough not quite postage stamp-size etchings, which are self-portraits of the\ntwenty-something artist. My favourite of these is a posturing 1630 \u201cSelf-portrait\nin a cap, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.\u201d You can just imagine how many hours it\ntook of him looking in a mirror and making this strange face to fix the image. It\u2019s\na face, and expression, that makes you think what an interesting character\nRembrandt must have been \u2013 an ideal dining companion; but maybe also a first-rate\nactor with rare control of his facial muscles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

         These 1630-31 self-portraits\nare the work of a master. Yet, points out the exhibition\u2019s co-curator and Director-Emeritus\n of the Ashmolean, Professor Christopher\nBrown, in Rembrandt\u2019s earliest known work \u201cThe Spectacles Seller\u201d (1624-25), \u201cwe\nfind a crude, garishly coloured painting by an artist struggling with his medium;\nbut a mere six years later he had completed an acknowledged masterpiece, \u201cJeremiah\nLamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem\u201d (1630). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

         This exciting exhibition\nbegan with a conversation between (first disclosure) my good friend, Prof.\nBrown, who is famed as an expert on Rembrandt and Dutch painting, and Dr\nChristian Vogelaar, Curator of Old Master Paintings and Sculpture, Museum De Lakenal,\nof Leiden, Rembrandt\u2019s home town, to the effect that there had never before\nbeen a major show in the UK of Rembrandt\u2019s meteoric first decade at work, from\n1624-34. The show was first seen in Leiden from November 2019 to February 2020,\nto mark the 350th<\/sup> anniversary of Rembrandt\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         Prof. Brown\u2019s\ncontention is that the study of Rembrandt\u2019s first ten years\u2019 work as an artist\nis central to understanding the rest of his career, as it was in this first\ndecade that he explored what was to become his own style, dealing with\ntechnical problems and correcting the mistakes, from which he developed his\nskills. This Ashmolean exhibition, Brown says, shows how rapid his progress\nwas, and \u201cexactly how he became the pre-eminent painter of Amsterdam and the\nuniversally adored artist he remains 350 years after his death.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

         Leiden was\nthen the second city of the Dutch Republic, 30 miles SW of Amsterdam. Rembrandt\nHarmenszoon van Rijn (1606-69) was the son of a well-off miller, who sent the\nboy to the Latin School, which enabled him to enrol at the University of\nLeiden. He did not, however, have academic aspirations, and by 1622 had begun\nan apprenticeship with the city\u2019s only history painter; and by the age of 18,\nhad already begun work on his \u201cFive Senses\u201d series, though the result was the \u201cbright\npalette, clumsy drawing and a poor rendition of space\u201d of \u201cThe Spectacles\nSeller.\u201d Though Rembrandt may not have been a prodigy, his contemporary Jan\nLievens (1607-74) had been apprenticed aged eight, and was noticed by the age\nof 12. There are 13 paintings in this show by him and other contemporaries of Rembrandt\nthat are particularly helpful to the appreciation of the greater artist\u2019s career.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Spectacles Seller (Allegory of Sight),c.1624, Museum de Lakenhal, Leiden<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

         In 1624\nRembrandt was apprenticed for six months to in innovative Amsterdam painter,\nPieter Lastman (1583-1633), and in 1625 Rembrandt opened his own studio in\nLeiden, which gave him the chance, too, to work closely with his childhood\nfriend, Lievens, economically painting each other and saving on the wages for\nmodels. His parents sat to him as well. By the late 20s the pair were \u201cengaged\nin a charged creative competition,\u201d which resulted in commissions for both,\nthough it was at this point in 1631 that Rembrandt went to Amsterdam and\nLievens to London in 1632. Rembrandt\u2019s motive force was business with the\ndealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh, who touted for commissions, especially\nportraits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in 1632 that Rembrandt met the dealer\u2019s cousin, Saskia van Uylenburgh, and they were betrothed the next year  and married on 22 June 1634. Though Rembrandt had been working from van Uylenburgh\u2019s house, he maintained the lucrative Leiden studio with his assistants and pupils such as Gerrit Dou (1613-75), who is represented by several works in this show. Leiden is Oxford\u2019s twin city (which I didn\u2019t know) and the exhibition draws on the Ashmolean\u2019s huge collection of Rembrandt\u2019s prints and drawings (which I did know). The third co-curator is Ms An Van Camp, Curator of Northern European Art at the Ashmolean, who is responsible for much of the work on paper shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         Dr Xa Sturgis,\nnow the Director of the Ashmolean (second disclosure: in his other identity as\nthe magician, The Great Xa, he entertained at our childrens\u2019 birthday parties\nmore years ago than they would forgive me for mentioning), points out that this\nis \u201cthe largest ever exhibition, and the first in this country, to focus on\nRembrandt\u2019s early years\u2026.It is not a straightforward trajectory but it is a thrillingly\nrevealing one that allows us to see the making of one of the world\u2019s great\nartists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         This\nbeautifully installed exhibition continues at the Ashmolean until 7 June, and\nlet me remind you that the stunning permanent collection is worth several\nvisits,  and that the rooftop restaurant\nthere is one of the most agreeable places to eat in Oxford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you walk down one corridor in the current Ashmolean Museum\u2019s exhibition of Young Rembrandt you see half a dozen tiny-to-small, though not quite postage stamp-size etchings, which are self-portraits of the twenty-something artist. My favourite of these is a posturing 1630 \u201cSelf-portrait in a cap, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.\u201d You can just imagine how many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36,1],"tags":[4692,4698,4682,4686,4684,4689,4693,4697,4695,4691,4687,4688,4690,4683,4696,4685,4700,4701,4699],"class_list":{"0":"post-1770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blogroll-2","8":"category-elsewhere","9":"category-uncategorized","10":"tag-amsterdam","11":"tag-an-van-camp","12":"tag-ashmolean-museum","13":"tag-christian-vogelaar","14":"tag-christopher-brown","15":"tag-director-emeritus","16":"tag-dutch-republic","17":"tag-gerrit-dou","18":"tag-hendrick-van-uylenburgh","19":"tag-jan-lievens","20":"tag-leiden","21":"tag-museum-de-lakenhal","22":"tag-pieter-lastman","23":"tag-rembrandt-harmenszoon-van-rijn","24":"tag-saskia","25":"tag-spectacles-seller","26":"tag-the-great-xa","27":"tag-university-of-oxford","28":"tag-xa-sturgis","29":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Self-portrait-1630-Ashmolean-Museum-University-of-Oxford-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2258%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-sy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1770"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1775,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions\/1775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}