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Vol. 27
ART TIMES
March/April 2011
No. 5
Rembrandt at The Frick By RAYMOND J. STEINER “REMBRANDT NEVER PALLS” — so I began a review of his works at Vassar College’s Loeb Center back in June of 2006, and the sentiment still holds true as I revisited his works at The Frick, an exhibition that combines the collections of both the Frick and of Frits Lugt of Paris. Appropriately titled “Rembrandt and His School: Masterworks from the Frick and Lugt Collections”* the exhibit features paintings, drawings and etchings of the great Dutch master and his followers, the ensemble arranged by the combined efforts of Colin P. Bailey, Peter Jay Sharp, Margaret Iacono, and Joanna Shers with support from the Christian Humann Foundation, Fiduciary Trust Company International, the Robert Lehman Foundation, the
(Photos Courtesy of The Frick Museum)
Netherlands Cultural Services, and the Netherland-America Foundation. There are, in fact, only five paintings featured from the Frick’s collection — three by Rembrandt (including the regal and recently restored Self-Portrait painted in 1658) and two by his followers or “school” — along with a wealth of prints, drawings and etchings (some sixty-five from the Frits Lugt Collection (Paris) along with those of The Frick’s permanent (and rarely seen) collection. It is difficult for me, whenever I view Rembrandt’s works, to comprehend the modern stance against the need of present-day art students of studying the art of draftsmanship. To my eyes, it is precisely Rembrandt’s use of line that permanently seats him in the halls of
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) Self-Portrait, 1658 Oil on canvas (The Frick Collection, New York)
great artistic geniuses. As skillful as he may have been with the brush — and assuredly he was — it was his use of the pen and the burin that forever sets him apart — and it is assuredly this assessment of mine that reveals my own prejudice for his etchings over his admittedly glorious paintings.
I had my first “up-close-and-personal” encounter with Rembrandt’s work in 1992 at the exhibition “Rembrandt: The Master and His Workshop” at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, a show that was mounted shortly after the Rembrandt Research Project had drastically
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www.arttimesjournal.com 845-246-6944 Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) Christ Preaching (The Hundred Guilder Print), c. 1643–49 Etching, drypoint, and burin on cream-colored Japanese wove paper (state II of II) (The Frick Collection, New York)
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