Exhibitions
National Galleries of Scotland to 14th October
Last month, I surmised that the paintings of the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age were probably Britain’s favourite Old Masters. Despite strong competition, Rembrandt would surely top the poll for favourite artist among them. He has featured prominently in British collections since Charles I acquired a self-portrait in 1633. Our artists have been as enthralled by him as our collectors, and the inclusion of contemporary work in this show is fully justified, as it so rarely is in exhibitions that use it only to prove their ‘relevance’.
The show includes fifteen Rembrandt paintings that are fully accepted, with two attributed and two from his workshop. As important for the show’s theme are fifteen drawings and more than twenty prints, since prints and drawings were essential to the growth of his reputation and expansion of his influence.
All have been in British collections at some time. In 1911, for instance, The Mill was sold by the Marquess of Lansdowne to the American millionaire Peter Widener for £100,000, an immense sum for the time, after it had been in Britain since the dispersal of the Orléans Collection in 1792. It has been lent by the Washington National Gallery.
This was a key painting in the misperception of the artist, as its gloom was held to reflect his depression at his bankruptcy. However, cleaning in 1977 proved the ‘gloom’ to be due to discoloured varnish, in the same way that The Night Watch got its popular name.
The paintings include such favourites as Girl at a Window from Dulwich,
Belshazzar’s Feast and A Woman Bathing in a Stream from the NG London, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt from Dublin, and the Scottish NG’S own A Woman in Bed.
While Rembrandt’s reputation fluctuated in France and even the Netherlands until the 20th century, he always had admirers and imitators in Britain. His only portraits of ‘British’ sitters – in fact, painted in Amsterdam of a Dutch couple who lived in Norwich – are here, as are four attributed drawings of English subjects dated 1640, including Windsor and St Albans. They do not prove a visit – in Yorkshire, he is also believed to have been in Hull during 1661 – but are further evidence of his interest in the British market.
In 1752, a catalogue of the etchings was published, detailing the different impressions and helping collectors to identify copies and fakes, such as Captain William Baillie’s impressions from the worn plate of the Hundred Guilder Print.
This brought renewed attention from artists. Throughout the 18th century, painters including Hogarth, Hudson, Allen, Wright of Derby, Raeburn, Lawrence and, most obviously, Reynolds, were inspired by the self-portraits and prints. Reynolds’s Rembrandt collection was one of the most notable in the country, and his A Man in Armour (Achilles), painted in 1655, is on loan from Glasgow.
Their 19th-century successors turned to the landscapes and, here again, The Mill played a large part. Then, Rembrandt prints were a major factor in launching the extraordinary 1920s etching boom.
Contemporary artists who have borrowed from and paid homage to the master include Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach, John Bellany and Glenn Brown who has painted, drawn and etched variants after Rembrandt since the 1990s. All these artists feature in the show – testament to the master’s enduring power.