Rembrandt by himself.

271 Pages·1999·120.311 MB·English

by  Suzie Burt, Quentin Buvelot

by
Rembrandt himself
EDITED BY
Christopher White and Quentin Buvelot
/
ESSAYS
Ernst van de Wetering, Volker Manuth and Marieke de Winkel
CATALOGUE
Edwin Buijsen, Peter Schatborn, Ben Broas and Ariam van Suchtelm
NATIONAL 'GALLERY PUBLICATIONS LIMITED, LONDON
and,,
RoYAL CABINET OF PAINTINGS M auRITSHurs, THE HAGUE
Distributed by Yale University Press
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Sponsor's Preface
Fifty years ago Thames & Hudson was founded by Walter Neurath, \ The exhibition of Rembrandt's self portraits gives us at Thames
an art historian who also strongly felt himself to be a man of his own 1 & Hudson a most welcome opportunity on our fiftieth anniversary to
times. Art, for him, was not to be regarded as an 'elite' subject; the join the Gallery in supporting the brilliant plan of showing, for the
opportunity to enjoy and understand it should be offered to everyone. first time, this very special aspect of the artist's work. Rembrandt's
He acted on his dream to bring art closer to the general public and penetrating psychological curiosity about the person behind the face
to this day it is his conviction and passion that remain the guiding and its expression found liberation in self-portrayal, for that freed him
pri nci pies of our publishing house. from the expectations of a sitter or those who had commissioned him.
In chose post-war years the response from the public was immediate. Artists like Rembrandt, or for that matter Shakespeare or Beethoven,
Artists and art galleries were enthusiastic supporters of Thames seem to break through the bondage of their particular time in history
& Hudson's mission and Philip Hendy, then the director of the and reach out into a profoundly humane language which will remain
National Gallery, became a great friend as did Michael Levey who 'modern' for generations to come.
followed him. This link with the National Gallery happily continues We hope chat this exhibition and the intensity of the artist's search
in our friendship with the present director, Neil MacGregor, who into the essence of the human condition will inspire an appreciation
for many years has given us a home for our annual Walter Neur~rh of what art's function in our lives can be and we feel most privileged
Memorial Lecture. to be associated with it.
THOMAS NEURATH, Publisher
Foreword 6
The Multiple Functions of Rembrandt's Self Portraits 8
Ernst van de Wetering
Rembrandt and the Artist's Self-Portrait: Tradition and Reception 38
Volker Manuth
Costume in Rembrandt's Self Portraits 58
Marieke de Winkel
The Life of Rembrandt van Rijn ( 1606-1669) 75
Ben Broas
Note to the Catalogue 83
Christopher White and Quentin Buvelot
Catalogue 84
Edwin Buijsen, Peter Schatborn and Ben Broas
Pupils of Rembrandt 232
Ariane van Suchtelen
Notes to the Catalogue Entries 249
Bibliography 255
Concordance 262
Picture Credits 264
Index 266
Lenders 271
Foreword Anne Hawley, Ed de Heer, Christian von Holst, Ronald de Leeuw,
Tomas Llorens, Christopher Lloyd, Ekkehard Mai, John Murdoch,
The self portraits produced by Rembrandt-painted, etched and drawn - Konrad Oberhuber, Earl A. Powell III, Malcolm Rogers, Peter Schacborn,
record for posterity the artist's appearance as it developed from his earliest Bernhard Schnackenburg, Peter-Klaus Schuster, Wilfried Seipel, George
days in Leiden as a young man crying co establish himself as an artist T.M. Shackelford, Alan Shescack, Julian Spalding, Baron H.H. Thyssen
until the lase year of his life in Amsterdam more than forty years lacer. Bornemisza, Annamaria PecrioliTofani, Julian Treuherz, Bree Waller and
They arc not only universally accepted as playing a fundamental role two private owners who wish co remain anonymous. Their generosity will
in his arc, but also constitute the largest group of self portraits ever be warmly appreciated by tens of thousands of visitors.
produced by any great artist throughout history. As a resulc Rembrandt's From the very beginning Rembrandt by Himse!fhas been a joint project
face is immediately recognisable co most people today. These works were of the National Gallery in London and the Mauricshuis in The Hague.
not just occasional exercises in self-analysis, but clearly had a meaning Many dedicated people have combined co make the undertaking a success.
and purpose for Rembrandt and, we may presume, for contemporary We must express our gratitude co our colleagues for supporting our
lovers and collectors of arc. What chat significance was - and it was very requests for loans of valuable and fragile works of arc: Holm Bevers,
probably not the same throughout Rembrandt's life-remains one of Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Marjolein de Boer, Helen Braham, Gore! Cavalli
the puzzles of che history of arc. As well as giving us an opportunity, Bjorkman, Michael Clarke, Ian Dejardin, Jeroen Gilcaij, Hilliard Goldfarb,
never attempted before in an exhibition, co study che artist's appearance Antony Griffiths, Woucer Kloek, Friso Lamrnertse, Sylvie Menant, Herman
and, no less revealing, the changing guises in which he presented himself, Mildenberger, Mark O'Neill, Konrad Renger, Marcin Royalcon-Kisch,
this show attempts co provide a solution co this question. le is our hope Karl Schutz, Manfred Sellink, Chrisciaan Vogelaar and Arthur Wheelock.
chat the visitor will leave the exhibition with a new understanding of We also wish co thank Christopher Brown, formerly Chief Curator at the
Rembrandt and how he and his arc, as far as it was centred on himself. ational Gallery, and now Director of che Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
were viewed by his contemporaries. To round out our picture of the artist For acting as intermediaries, we would like co acknowledge the invaluable
and his circle, a number of self portraits by Rembrandt's pupils have help given by His Excellency A. Christiani, the Austrian Ambassador co
been included. che Netherlands, His Excellency J.T.H.C. van EbbenhorstTengbergen,
In an ideal world we would have liked co have exhibited every self portrait the Durch Ambassador co Austria, His Excellency B. de Faubournec
produced by Rembrandt, but, owing co questions of conservation and De Montferrand, che French Ambassador co che Netherlands,
individual restrictions on loans, this was clearly never going co be possible. His Excellency F.P.R. van Nouhuys, the Durch Ambassador co Japan,
Bue we are pleased co have been able co borrow such a substantial and and Egbert Haverkamp Begemann, Roman Herzig, Simon Levie and
representative group of paintings, etchings and drawings, and we are deeply Robert Noortman.
grateful co chose collections, both public and private, who have generously We are indebted co the various people who cook pare in the technical
agreed co our requests. We are especially graceful co Her Majesty Queen research on the two panels in Nuremberg and The Hague ( cat. nos. 14a-b ):
Elizabeth II, His Grace The Duke of Sutherland, Robert Anderson, Maria Ulrich GroBmann, Martina Homolka, Daniel Hess, Frank Matthias
van Berge-Gerbaud, Jecceke Bolten-Rempe, Rolf Boche, Julius Bryant, Gilles Kammel, Jorgen Wad um, Caroline van der Else, Christopher White, Edwin
Chazal, Denis Coucagne, Chris Dercon, Alexander Diickers, Erik Ebbinge, Buijsen and Adri Verburg. On 7 and 8 October 1998 both paintings were
Jan Pier Filedc Kok, Olle Granath, Jacob M. de Groot, Ulrich GroBmann, examined side by side in the conservation studio of the Germanisches
6
~ ·ationalmuseum in Nuremberg by the staff of the museum and a the scholarly preparation of the exhibition and accompanying publication
delegation from the Mauritshuis. by agreeing to our consultation of the manuscript of the forthcoming
\Ve would like to thank all those members of staff at the National fourth volume of the Corpus, which at the time was only partly completed.
Gallery in London for their tireless work on this exhibition and its When the exhibition catalogue went to press, a number of entries for the
.:atalogue. Rik van Koetsveld, Deputy Director of the Mauritshuis, Corpus were still being written and edited, so that discrepancies between the
was responsible for the organisation of the exhibition in The Hague; two publications may well occur.
he was assisted by Peter van der Ploeg, Senior Curator, and Quentin Many have worked tirelessly on the editing, picture research, translation
Buvelot, Curator. Lieke Vervoorn, Head of Communications, with Carola and production of the catalogue and we are indebted to the publishing team
\ 'isser and their staff, carried out the marketing and publicity campaign at National Gallery Publications Limited. Quentin Buvelot skilfully edited
for the Dutch venue, while Ariane van Suchcelen, Curator, was responsible the English and Dutch editions, as well as coordinating the English, French
for the presentation. Henk Douna, Facility Manager, and his staff realised and German translations. The English translation of the essays and the
the installation of the exhibition as well as overseeing the general logistics biography was in the capable hands of Michael Hoyle, while the entries
as well as the building of the Rembrandt pavilion. Albert Verhaar, Finance and Volker Manuth's essay were Auently translated by Beverley Jackson and
Manager, controlled the ticket sales and the financial arrangements Rachel Esner respectively. Jean Raoul Mengarduque was responsible for the
connected with the project. We would particularly like to thank the French translation, while Axel Ruger carried out the German translation of
exhibition's sponsors: in London, Thames & Hudson; in the Hague, the entries and biography, and Susanne Karau and Volker Manuth the
I G Group. The publication of the catalogue has also received generous introductory essays. Manuch's essay, written in German, was translated into
support from the Basil Samuel Charitable Trust. Dutch by Mari eke de Winkel.
The scholarly editing of the catalogue was carried out by Christopher The elegant design of the catalogue is the work of Isam bard Thomas.
\Vhite and Quentin Buvelot, who skilfully unified the essays and entries Finally we wish to thank Wim Waanders, ofWaanders Publishers and
written by the various authors, several of whom are leading Rembrandt Printers, and his staff, particularly Henk Diele, Henk van de Wal, Hans van
scholars. To give the catalogue a more universal appeal, every work de Willige and Marjoleine van Nielen. It was their achievement chat this
attributed to Rembrandt, which may have some reasonable claim to be book was published in time.
considered as a self portrait, whether it is in the exhibition or not, has been We thank all chose who have contributed to this unique project, and
illustrated and discussed. We would especially like to thank the authors, hope that the show will live up to the expectations of Jakob Rosenberg,
who have ensured the success of the publication: Ernst van de Wetering, in the impassioned fantasy of his famous monograph on Rembrandt
Volker Manuth, Mari eke de Winkel, Edwin Buijsen, Peter Schatborn, of 1948: 'If it were ever possible to assemble all the painted self-portraits
Ben Broas and Ariane van Suchtelen. They have produced a stimulating of the master in one exhibition, we should be surprised to find so little
and highly informative enquiry into the art of self-portraiture as practised repetition in arrangement and expression, and so consistent and intense
by Rembrandt. Rudi Ekkart, Director of the Netherlands Institute for an interest in the psychological content. The scope of Rembrandt's
Art History in The Hague, has given advice on the entries on the painted emotional life and the diversity of his moods would be strikingly
self portraits. brought out by such an exhibition and the visitor could not fail to be
We are enormously grateful to the members of the Rembrandt Research impressed by the ceaseless and unsparing observation which the paintings
Project, and in particular to Ernst van de Wetering, for their contribution to reAect.'
J.
NEIL MACGREGOR FREDERIK DuPARC
Director Director
The National Gallery, Royal Cabinet of Paintings
London Mauritshuis, The Hague
7
The Multiple Functions
of Ren1brandt's Self Portraits
Ernst van de Wetering

M
A Y MORE FACES have been erased by death and cast annually, and sometimes several times a year. In addition,
to the shadows than artists could ever have recorded it is a category that encompasses some of his most impressive
for posterity. This was true of Rembrandt's time, paintings and etchings.
although proportionately more faces were captured in a variety Rembrandt's uncommonly large output of self portraits
of ways in the Netherlands than in any other country in the does not seem to have been considered exceptional at the time.
seventeenth century. Dr Ekkart has estimated chat 50,000 None of his contemporaries who spoke about him, no author
(approximately 1.5 per cent) of the 3 million people who in the decades after this death, not even an eighteenth-century
populated the northern Netherlands over three generations writer, seems to have been so struck by this fact that he thought
probably had their portraits painted.1 Occasionally there is more it worth mentioning, let alone explaining. That Rembrandt's
than one portrait of an individual - the Prince of Orange or his contemporaries never realised that he was producing so many
wife, a naval hero, a scholar or a famous clergyman (figs. 1-3). self portraits will not surprise those who believe that these
These, though, are exceptions. were intimate documents. Why, indeed, should they have been
It seems fairly self-evident that the seventeenth-century artists aware of a phenomenon about which the author of a survey
who painted the famous, the mighty or the rich, would also have of the history of the self portrait wrote: 'Over the years,
recorded their own likenesses, and a relatively large number of Rembrandt's self portraits increasingly became a means for
self portraits were indeed made.2 The features of many artists, gaining self-knowledge, and in the end took the form of
though, are simply unknown to us. an interior dialogue: a lonely old man communicating with
Some artists made more than one self portrait, but rarely himself while he painted.'4These words express a view still
produced more than a handful. It is understandable, then, that held by many people. However, as the present catalogue will
the fact that Rembrandt's features appear in such a remarkably show, it is extremely unlikely that Rembrandt made his self
large number of paintings came as a surprise to scholars in the portraits as a personal form of self-analysis. How, then, is the
nineteenth and early twentieth century, when they began phenomenon to be explained? Different aspects of this
surveyin his oeuvre as a whole. They discovered chat he had intriguing question will be dealt with in the essays and entries
painted imself before the mirror on at least forty occasions, in this catalogue. First, though, we must reconnoitre the terrain.
had etched himself thirty-one times, and had made a handful How did Rembrandt's self portraits originate? Are they faithful
of drawn self portraits.3This segment of his oeuvre is unique in likenesses? Can one distinguish different types? It is only
art history, not only in its scale and the length of time it spans, when this has been done that one can enquire into
but also in its regularity. New self portraits appeared almost Rembrandt's motives.
Previous page
Self Portrait with Two Circles (cat.no. 83, detail).
10
Rembrandt in the Mirror
\Vhen the Dutch cineast Bert Haanstra ( 1916-97) was
commissioned to make a short film about Rembrandt in the
commemorative year 1956, 350 years after the artist's birth,
he had the brilliant idea of filming the self portraits painted over
a period of forty years in chronological order, one merging into
the next.5The eyes were always in the same position on the screen,
and it was around their gaze that the viewer saw Rembrandt's
face gradually age. The head became broader, the double chin
grew, the distinctive pouches flanking the chin became more
pronounced, the tufts of brown hair on either side of the skull
turned grey, and the wrinkles multiplied. It almost seemed, too,
chat one saw Rembrandt's personality mature before one's eyes.
The very consistency of this process, which one can also see when
leafing through this catalogue, is evidence that Rembrandt must
have examined his face very closely in the mirror.
The painter and writer on art Cornelis de Bie ( 1627-after
1711) wrote in his Gulden Cabinet of 1661 that 'anyone depicting
himself needs a mirror, in which he can only perceive himself
from the front' (figs. 4 and 5).6There were mirrors in
Rembrandt's house, as there were in many seventeenth-century
homes.Two are mentioned in the inventory made at the time
of his financial difficulties in 1656 and in the one drawn up after
his death in 1669. The 1656 inventory actually specifies 'een
groote spiegel (a large mirror)'.7 Since Rembrandt made several
monumental self portraits froi:n 1652 on, this is not without
significance, as will become clear below. In addition, a document
of 1658, the year in which Rembrandt painted his largest self
fig. 1 opposite lift
MICHlEL VAN MrEREVELT, Portrait ef Johannes
Wtenbogaert, 1632. Panel, 70 x 59 cm.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.
fig. 2 opposite centre
REMBRANDT, Portrait ef Johannes Wtenbogaert, 1633.
Canvas, 130 x 103 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.
fig. 3 opposite right
JACOB BACKER, Portrait ef Johannes Wtenbogaert, 1638.
Canvas, 122.5 x 98 cm.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.
fig. 4 above right
JOHANNES GuMPP, Seif Portrait before the Mirror, 1646.
Canvas, 88.5 x 89 cm. Florence,
Galleria degli Uffizi.
fig. 5 right
ANTONIE VAN STEENWlNKEL, Seif Portrait with
His Wife, ( n.d.). Canvas, 85 x 64 cm.
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone
Kunsten.
II