41 artworks
The exhibition prepared by National Gallery Prague in collaboration with Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud Köln is dedicated to one of the greatest painters of all time – Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leiden – 1669 Amsterdam).
It centres on A Scholar in His Study from the NGP collection. The painting was created in 1634, a period that saw Rembrandt successful in both his professional and private life. This image does not simply render the physical likeness of an anonymous man; Rembrandt expresses the dramatic spiritual life of the elder with bravura. The essence of the lasting charm of Rembrandt’s work arises from his ability to get under the surface, into the depth of humanity. Not for nothing is he dubbed the painter of the human spirit.
The story of the Scholar in His Study is set in the context of Rembrandt’s artistic career from its beginnings, through the years of his greatest success, all the way to his late period, which saw him run into financial difficulties, face rejection, and endure private tragedies. The exhibition’s leitmotiv – the portrayal of the inner life and deep emotion of the portrayed – runs through Rembrandt’s works as well as those of other excellent Dutch painters who were his contemporaries and followers, including Jan Lievens, Gerrit Dou, Ferdinand Bol, Govaert Flinck, Willem Drost and others.
Learning about Rembrandt’s art is never complete without his prints and drawings. Rembrandt is in fact one of the most original printmakers of all time, and he approached printmaking with the same intensity and creativity as painting. His prints were highly appreciated already during his lifetime both in the Low Countries and abroad. As Rembrandt never left his homeland, he was known abroad mainly as a printmaker. Artworks on paper travelled easily and quickly, and the originality of Rembrandt’s prints provoked astonishment and elation far beyond the Dutch borders.
25. 9. 2020 - 31. 1. 2021
Kinsky Palace