THE DUTCH SCHOOL ART. PART II (REMBRANDT)

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ VAN RUN (1606
Signed and dated in 1634.
Among the chief glories of the Museum is the Rembrandt collection. Hermitage, room 254 numbering 25 paintings and almost all of his etchings, most of them being the first imprints. The collection embraces all the phases of Rembrandt’s artistic career, from the early works of his to those dated in the year of his death. Portraits, mythological and biblical subjects are represented in the collection with equal completeness. It is a series of masterpieces, probably unrivalled in any other picturegallery of the world. There are portraits of the painter’s early period.

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ VAN RUN (1606 -1669),
Danae. Signed and dated in 1636.
Though lacking psychological depth inherent to the later works of Rembrandt they still reveal his power of characterization and the high standard of his art. Such is his “Old Warrior” said to be his father’s portrait, a small canvas painted about 1630, “Portrait of a Scientist” (1631), and the “Portrait of a Young .Man” to which a companion “Portrait of a Lady” is in Lord Ellesmere’s collection, now on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland. To the early, happy period of the artist’s life belongs his “Flora” (1634), apparently the portrait of his wife Saskia appearing here in rich clothes, her head heavily garlanded with flowers. Saskia’s face, though not handsome, is presented by Rembrandt with great care, as if seen by the eyes of love. It is a joy-giving picture, indeed, fully revealing Rembrandt’s optimistic outlook of this period. There is another version of this picture — “Saskia in Arcadian Costume”, painted in 1635, owned by the National Gallery in London.
The “Danae”, another masterpiece of the collection, was painted two years later than “Flora”. The mythological subject — Danae awaiting Zeus appearing as a shower of golden rain — is treated with a freedom hitherto unknown. No golden rain is shown, but beautiful sunlight which bathes Danae’s animated face and stretched out hand, models all the rich accessories, and makes the whole canvas seem as if woven of sun rays.
“The Descent from the Cross” (1634) is a notable example of Rembrandt’s early work where the painter’s mode of distributing shade and light in the composition creates the dramatic tension of the scene and points out the central object of the painting, whether a separate figure or group. Here each figure is remarkably impressive, each face — so personal, while the interpretation of the whole scene has the psychological insight anticipating Rembrandt’s later works. Executed in 1634, the same year his “Flora” was painted, this picture testifies to the amazing range and diversity already of the early period of Rembrandt’s art.

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ VAN RUN (1606- 1669).
Portrait of an Old Man in Red.
Painted about 1652-1654.
Still greater variety of subjects and diversity of their treatment can be traced in the paintings of the 1640′s which include: a remarkable “Portrait of Bartie Doomer”, wife of a frame-gilder; “Parting of David and Jonathan”, which was acquired under Peter 1 being the first picture by Rembrandt brought to Russia, and which at once attracts attention by the beauty and subtlety of its golden-toned colour scheme and by the depth of the feelings expressed; “The Holy Family” (1645) — an interior with an infant in the cradle in the foreground and the Madonna appearing in the guise of an ordinary woman tenderly looking at her child. There is also “The Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard” (1637), in which Rembrandt touches social problems, and next to it — a simple and unaffected scene, perhaps nothing but a record of an observed fact,—the “Woman trying on her Ear-Rings”.
A series of magnificent canvases created in the 1650′s follows. These are portraits, supremely economical in machinery and striking by their psychological depth — old men and an old woman, pensive and wise, their faces and hands strongly illuminated by light whereas the rest is bathed in deep warm shadow. There is also a portrait of Jeremias Decker, a poet and a devoted friend of Rembrandt, who did not quit him even in the last lonely years of his life, painted by Rembrandt with great sympathy and affectionate comprehension. “David and Uria” (1665), formerly catalogued as “The Fall of Haman” ranks among the masterpieces of the collection too.
The impressive range of Rembrandt’s works at the Hermitage is closed up by “The Return of the Prodigal Son” which is one of the last, if not the very last picture by Rembrandt. Created by the artist in his old age it nevertheless is one of the supreme masterpieces of his, testifying to the fact that his creative activity had not ceased in the last tragic years of his life. It is in this work that Rembrandt, achieves the heights of generalization in the treatment of his favourite subject — the manifestation of human love and respect for common people.
Along with the works by Rembrandt are shown paintings by his predecessors, pupils and followers (rooms 249 — 254). Among these should be singled out “Abraham and three Angels”, “Batsheba”, and “Abraham on the Way to Chanaan” by Pieter Lastman, Rembrandt’s teacher ( Hermitage, room 253); works by the pupils of Rembrandt: “Portrait of Himself with an Etching by Rembrandt in his Hand” and the “Strolling Musician” by Aert de Gelder(room 254), and “Portrait of an Old Man” and “Still Life” by Ferdinand Bol, to name only a few of a great number of his works in the possession of the Museum (room 254); as well as “Portrait of a Scienist” by Salomon Coninck, Rembrandt’s follower (room 254).
Notable works representing different trends in the Dutch seventeenthand eighteenth-century school are also on show in the gallery running along the “Hanging Garden” (Hermitage, 1st floor, rooms 255 — 257). These include paintings by Wouwerman , of whom the Museum possesses 35 canvases, portraits by Abraham van der Ternpel, landscapes by Berchem, Weenix, Pynaker, Heyden, and a great many canvases by other well-known Dutch artists.