What makes an artist relevant 400 years after his birth? It's natural for the Netherlands to make a big deal of their native son (despite selling off most of their Rembrandt paintings in the 18th and 19th centuries), but the celebration of Rembrandt's birth 400 years ago is a worldwide phenomenon, with events taking place in a myriad of venues around the globe, including St. Petersburg, Melbourne, Barcelona, Copenhagen, and the United States. So, what makes Rembrandt's work so timeless?

Although Rembrandt van Rijn spent his entire life in the two Dutch towns of Leiden and Amsterdam, he was passionately interested in the art of both his contemporaries (especially Rubens, although more for competitive reasons!) and his European predecessors. Although he never left Holland, Rembrandt owned original prints by such Northern masters as Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, Lucas Cranach, and Lucas van Leyden. No one master has painted drama as Rembrandt did. Everything, even the smallest sketches, involve[s] the human heart.
--Odilon RedonHe also owned engravings or woodblocks by, or after, many Italian masters, including Andrea Mantegna, Raphael, Michelangelo, Lodovico Caracci, and Titian. This extensive knowledge of contemporary and past artists contributed significantly to the originality of Rembrandt's own vision. He, in turn, profoundly influenced innumerable later artists, both European and American. Solely from a print perspective, these include Francisco Goya, Vincent Van Gogh, Thomas Eakins, James MacNeil Whistler, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso, Jim Dine, and David Hockney-- to name only a few. He had a strong impact on other artists from his own day till today, and will undoubtedly influence future artists.

Odilon Redon, the French symbolist painter and printmaker said: "No one master has painted drama as Rembrandt did. Everything, even the smallest sketches, involve[s] the human heart." (1) This brings us to another reason for Rembrandt's enduring stature and fame; perhaps no other artist's work speaks (almost literally) so eloquently to the viewer. It's difficult to look at a Rembrandt portrait or self portrait and not feel that one knows the person depicted-- even the inner life of that person. The emotions one sees are instantly recognizable, almost contemporary, if contemporary artists were as interested in revealing the human psyche through the face as Rembrandt was-- the face as a mirror of the soul. Today, perhaps only a few photographers (Richard Avedon comes to mind) are able to capture human angst, joy, and ordinary human nature as well as this Dutch master did four centuries ago. Rembrandt imbues his subjects with instantly recognizable humanity in all its forms. This is what has made his work relevant and so appreciated over the years. The pathos evoked in any of Rembrandt's late self portraits is universally acknowledged. Robert Hughes wrote recently in The New York Review of Books that Rembrandt is so loved because "he was so seldom rivaled as a topographer of the human clay." (2)

Rembrandt was undeniably a genius.Rembrandt imbues his subjects with instantly recognizable humanity in all its forms. That word may be execrably overused, but occasionally it is accurate. Rembrandt was technically brilliant, supremely imaginative and inventive, and was admired, even revered, by artists and the public alike from his own time to the present. He was also a maverick, a characteristic perhaps more prized today than in his own time, but everyone's always loved the underdog! Artistically, Rembrandt reworked many well known genres such as the staid group portrait, transforming it into a dramatic exposition as in the Nightwatch. Another genre he changed was the Biblical theme. Over a third of all the etchings he produced (and many of his drawings and paintings as well) were of biblical subjects, which was unusual subject matter for an artist in 17th century Holland, where the more popular genres were portraits and still lifes, and where there was no religious patronage for art. Socially, Rembrandt's living situation with a number of mistresses after the death of Saskia was definitely out-of-step with his Calvinist countrymen. Financially, he also broke the mold of the conservative Dutch burgher, and between collecting more art than he could afford and mismanaging his finances he brought himself to bankruptcy. Yet Rembrandt never stopped creating and his talent and technique matured with his years. Genius and maverick-- an irresistible combination!

It is not surprising that many of the exhibitions presented during this anniversary year are comprised primarily or exclusively of etchings. Not only are there more etchings than works in other mediums, but Rembrandt's etchings have always been valued by connoisseurs as independednt works of art in their own right. However, it is because Rembrandt was so talented and prolific in all mediums that so many exhibitions of his work can be mounted worldwide this year. We hope you enjoy this superb collection of master etchings that we have spent several years assembling, enabling us to join the world in celebrating Rembrandt at 400.

-- Franklin Bowles

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