D ELI GHT S| THE ART WORLD
This spring: Rembrandt, Earthly art and Egyptian Queens
T Peter Simpson
Editor’s note: given the continuing uncertainty of public-health lockdowns, before visiting be sure to check with museums and galleries as dates listed here could change.
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he name “Rembrandt” is so universally familiar that it’s difficult to believe Canada hasn’t seen a major exhibition of the Dutch master’s work since 1969, and that the National Gallery of Canada has never hosted a major exhibition of his work. Given those surprises, it’s fitting that this summer’s big show at the National Gallery is unique. Rembrandt in Amsterdam, opening May 14, will be the first exhibition “to chart the transformative central decades of Rembrandt’s career in the context of the Amsterdam art market,” the gallery says, “from his arrival in the mid-1630s to the emergence of his late
style in the mid-1650s.” The second half of the exhibition title — Creativity and Competition — points to the forces that forged “a young artist from Leiden” into a household name almost 400 years later. There’s little doubt of the ever-lasting reverence for the man in his homeland, as the Embassy of the Netherlands is an exhibition partner, and King Willem-Alexander is a patron. The exhibition will present Rembrandt drawings, prints and paintings along with works by his “friends, followers and rivals,” to re-create the feel of the thriving art market into which the young man was immersed. Works by Rembrandt will SPRING 2021 | APR-MAY-JUN
NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA
Rembrandt’s Heroine from the Old Testament (1632/33, oil on canvas) is coming to the big summer show at the National Gallery of Canada.
