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December 8, 2009–February 28, 2010 at the Getty Center
Telling the difference between drawings by Rembrandt and his pupils is a centuries-old problem. A popular teacher with more than 50 documented students, Rembrandt taught all of them to draw in his style. Together, they produced thousands of drawings, and even immediately after Rembrandt's death, there was confusion about who made them. In the last 30 years scholars have made major strides in their ability to recognize Rembrandt's drawings from those of his students. |
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Rembrandt's Workshop Drawing played a central role in Rembrandt's teaching methods. The master made drawings for his students to imitate, and he and his pupils sketched the same models and landscapes side by side. The stylistic similarities between Rembrandt's drawings and those of his students are the result of these teaching exercises. |
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Rembrandt and his pupils also made sketching trips in and around Amsterdam to capture impressions from nature. In this etching, Rembrandt evoked these outings by including a seated draftsman in the right foreground. The exhibition presents drawings of this same cottage and farm buildings from slightly different vantage points. Previously these studies were thought to be by Rembrandt himself. They are now considered to be instances of the pupils and the master drawing the same site side by side. |
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Telling the Difference between Rembrandt and His Pupils Two pairs of drawings by Rembrandt and two of his pupils depicting similar subjects demonstrate how his students carefully imitated the master's style. |
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Ferdinand Bol began his artistic training in his native Dordrecht. He left for Amsterdam in 1636 and by the following year was in Rembrandt's workshop. There are many drawings attributed to Bol, and the task of identifying them among the numerous sheets in Rembrandt's style of the 1630s is difficult. |
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If we compare gestures and expressions in the images shown above and at right, we can see the subtle differences between teacher and student. In both of the drawings, Christ, newly risen from the grave, is discovered by a shocked Mary Magdalene. |
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One of the most innovative Dutch painters of his generation, Nicolaes Maes produced paintings of women engaged in household chores that combine Rembrandtesque handling of paint and light effects with original narrative compositions ranging from solemn to gently humorous. More than 100 drawings by him survive, many related to his paintings. Like other Rembrandt pupils, Maes occasionally combined red chalk with wash for a rich pictorial effect. |
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Maes was especially receptive to the Rembrandtesque subject of old women. His image (above) is drawn with less energy than in Rembrandts drawing, which is rendered with forceful lines that change directions. Maes's fine handling of the face and headdress is only slightly more delicate than the finely spaced strokes of thin, parallel-hatched lines of her dress, creating a more uniform finish. |
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Elements of Rembrandt's Style The close working relationship between Rembrandt and his pupils is one reason for the difficulty in attributing their drawings. Another reason is that, unlike paintings and prints, drawings in Rembrandt's time were rarely signed, and later inscriptions to "Rembrandt" were often wrong. Now scholars have identified core groups of drawings that can be securely attributed to Rembrandt or to different artists who studied with him. The core groups, in turn, provide the standard against which more hypothetical attributions can be tested. |
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To verify their attributions, scholars closely investigate characteristic visual traits in Rembrandt's drawings. These traits comprise the artist's style—his handling of line, rendering of expressions and gestures, and description of light. |
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Another key feature of a Rembrandt drawing is a consistent description of nuanced expressions and gestures—even in the sketchiest of his drawings. |
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More Work to Be Done The exhibition ends with an anonymous pupil in order to show that there is still much work to be done. |
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