
Rembrandt Self Portrait c1628.

Rembrandt Self Portrait wearing a soft hat (1632-36).
Rembrandt Self Portrait c1628.
Rembrandt Self Portrait wearing a soft hat (1632-36).
Rembrandt’s masterpiece The Night Watch is to be restored in public at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam beginning in July 2019. The 1642 work will be restored in a painstaking process likely to take years, and all on public display. The varnish on the painting has darkened over the years, dimming the original colours. Here is a video about the the project from the Rijksmuseum.
Bartolomeo Ammannati – wax models from the 16th century are extremely rare.
The daddy of all fairs, The European Fine Art Fair TEFAF is now underway in Maastricht in The Netherlands. Distinguished by the rarity and quality this is where curators and the wealthiest collectors in the world come to buy. On the opening day the Rijksmuseum acquired an Italian sculpture from 1556. The expressive wax model of a naked young man holding a globe as a symbol of the cosmos was made by Bartolomeo Ammannati. Made for the Medici family it is a preparatory model for the fountain in the Palazzo Pitti.
Torso of a Crouching Woman by Camille Claudel
This large fair divided into a variety of sections is a hub for more than 280 of the worlds finest art, antiques and design dealers. Sculpture from across the centuries is particularly well represented this year. An extraordinary, evocative bronze piece, Torso of a Crouching Woman by Camille Claudel (1864-1943) at Daniel Katz Gallery is believed to reflect the destructive relationship between Claudel and Auguste Rodin in whose studio she worked for many years.
TEFAF Tribal is the newest section of the fair, which made its first appearance last year. Of note here is a standing statue from New Ireland, black Uli, which is shown by the Belgian dealer Bernard de Grunne. TEFAF continues until March 18.
Black Uli, a Standing Statue from New Ireland
The wall library was awarded the Grand Prix and Gold Medal at the Brussels Exposition of 1958
The Rijksmuseum is celebrating Rembrandt’s anniversary today with the online publication Drawings by Rembrandt. Born on July 15, 1606 he is regarded as one of the greatest artists in the history of art. The Rijksmuseum has the most important collection paintings, drawings and prints by Rembrandt in the world.
All drawings by Rembrandt from the Rijksmuseum collection in Amsterdam will now be available to everyone in high resolution. This is accompanied with the most up to date knowledge by Rembrandt specialist Peter Schatborn and Head of the Rijksmuseum Printroom Jane Turner. From now on, researchers, students and Rembrandt-lovers will gain new insights, knowledge and inspiration by the 64 landscapes, biblical scenes, portraits and everyday scenes of Rembrandt.
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn – Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene as a Gardener c1645 (detail)
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn – Saskia sitting by a window c1638 (detail)
A unique collection of 750 exquisite watercolours of animals, birds and plants from the late Renaissance period from TEFAF is to be exhibited at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The Natural History Paper Museum of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II was one of the most extraordinary items on offer at this year’s TEFAF and dates from the late Renaissance period. The albums were purchased by a private collector from Antiquariat Bibermuehle AG Heribert Tenschert for a seven figure sum and will be on long term loan to the museum. Compiled between 1596 and 1610 as a compendium of zoology and botany—a Historia Naturalis—by Rudolph II’s court physician, Anselmus de Boodt they have remained together for four centuries. The watercolours are still pristine.
From common domestic and farmyard animals like dogs, cats, horses and cattle to exotic creatures such as the ostrich, walrus and porcupine and extinct ones such as the dodo and even a dragon ‘drawn from life’, the compendium offers a glimpse of the range of plants, animals and birds believed to exist at the dawn of the Dutch Golden Age. Although De Boodt aimed to supply a faithful ‘scientific’ reproduction of each living thing, the animal illustrations in particular have a lively, humorous air that sets them apart from earlier models.
The general director at the Rijksmuseum Taco Dibbits said: “This was the absolute sensation at TEFAF. Rarely, if ever does something come on the market that was made for Emperor Rudolph II. The colours are particularly fresh, which makes the drawings lively and attractive to the eye. It’s great that a private collector has made it possible for everyone to admire them.”
Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702-1789) ‘A Dutch girl at breakfast’, c. 1756-57
A Dutch girl at breakfast by Jean-Etienne Liotard is to be displayed at the Gallery or Honour in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum from mid-January. An export licence for the work, recently purchased from a private collection where it has remained for more than 240 years, was granted today by the British government. Genevan pastellist Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702-1789) created it in the style of Dutch seventeenth-century masters during a long sojourn in Holland around 1756. It is one of his few oil-paintings and an important addition to a group of pastels by Liotard in the Rijksmuseum since 1885.
Taco Dibbits, General Director of the Rijksmuseum said: “A Dutch girl at breakfast radiates the same atmosphere of peace and simplicity as Vermeer’s Milkmaid. In this sensitive representation, the painter allows us to get very close to his subject. As the girl carefully opens the tap of the coffee-pot, she won’t allow herself to be disturbed by the millions of visitors who will come to see her. We are extremely grateful to the funds and private donors who made it possible to acquire this masterpiece for The Netherlands”.
In this work Liotard reveals himself as one of the earliest 18th-century artists from abroad to put his fascination with Dutch painting of the 17th century into practice. All the characteristics of Dutch 17th-century “genre” are present: the everyday scene, the intimate ambiance, the sober colours, the sophisticated rendering of textures, and the painted church-interior in the background. Nevertheless the furnishings and tableware are all from Liotard’s own time. The mise-en-scène is strongly reminiscent of the well-known interiors of his predecessors Johannes Vermeer, Gerard Dou and Frans van Mieris. Liotard appears to have kept the A Dutch girl at breakfast for himself until 1774, when he included it in a sale of his collection in London. It was bought there by his principal British patron, the 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704 – 1793), with whose descendants it has remained until now. The Earl of Bessborough is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1739 for Brabazon Ponsonby, 2nd Viscount Duncannon, who had previously represented Newtownards and County Kildare in the Irish House of Commons. The 2nd Earl was Whig politician who served as Lord of the Treasury, as a Lord of the Admiralty and as joint Postmaster General.
This summer the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is staging the first ever major retrospective of work by Adriaen van de Velde (1636-1672), one of the greatest landscape painters of the Golden Age. The exhibition features sixty paintings, preliminary studies and drawings by the talented artist, who died tragically young. They come from private collections and from museums including the Louvre, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel, Museo Thyssen Bornemisza Madrid, the Mauritshuis and the British Museum. Here is a small selection:
A Recumbent Cow and Three Sheep, Adriaen van de Velde, c. 1671
The beach at Scheveningen, Adriaen van de Velde, 1658.
Couple in a Landscape, Adriaen van de Velde, 1667.
An upcoming exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will bring together for the first time all versions of Girl in a Kimono by the Rotterdam born artist George Hendrick Breitner. Regarded as an icon of Japonism the works emerged between 1893 and 1896. The exhibition, which runs from February 20 to May 22, displays the full series of 14 paintings. Included is a hitherto unknown Girl in a Red Kimono from a private collection. The exhibition will include drawings, sketches and photographs used by the artist in preparation.
The sitter was Geesje Kwak who posed for the painter between the ages of 16 and 18. From a Zaandam family of bargees she moved to Amsterdam in 1880. Her young, innocent face and slender body contribute significantly to the appearance of delicate sensuality that characterises the entire series. She posed alternately in a red, a white and a blue Japanese kimono. From the time of his stay in Paris in 1884, where Japonism dominated the fashion scene, Breitner was fascinated by Japanese art.
George Hendrik Breitner – Girl in a red kimono.
George Hendrik Breitner – Girl in white kimono.
The excitement created by Asian treasures shipped to Holland during the Golden Age is the subject of an upcoming blockbuster show at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Asia in Amsterdam Exotic luxury in the Golden Age runs from October 17 to January 17, 2016. Lacquer work, ivory, silver, silk, ebony, jewellery and enormous quantities of porcelain poured into Amsterdam, the then bustling ‘capital of the world’, to enrich the interiors of the increasingly prosperous Dutch bourgeoisie.
Chinese blue-and-white porcelain was especially popular. It was much thinner, smoother and lighter than the earthenware made in Holland. The making of earthenware was soon refined in Delft, leading to the famous ‘Delft Blue’, with Chinese origins. Coloured Japanese porcelain first appeared around 1660, imported by Dutch East India Company officials returning from the Far East. This created another sensation and, 20 years later, the exclusive and therefore expensive Kakiemon porcelain was the big favourite among the Dutch elite. Dutch interiors changed enormously under the influence of the treasures from Asia. Porcelain was displayed on specially designed shelves and consoles. Imported silk and cotton introduced much more colour and variation in the shape of bedspreads, curtains and wall tapestries.
With 170 objects from China, Japan, India and Batavia the exhibition presents many 17th century paintings: still-lifes and portraits of citizens who had themselves painted among their newly acquired items of Asian luxury. It is being organised in cooperation with the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, USA. The loan items originate in Moscow, St Petersburg, Versailles, London, Oxford, Madrid and Stockholm.
Cat. 40b Chest. Japan, 1635–1645. Wood covered in black and red
lacquer, with gold and silver hiramaki-e and takamaki-e lacquer,
gold and silver foil, mother-of-pearl, crystal, and silver and
copper fittings.
State Historical Museum, Moscow.
Cabinet on stand. Cabinet, Japan, 1600–1630; stand, Japan,
incorporating elements from a Dutch table, 1625–1650. Oak
and Chinese arborvitae covered in black lacquer, with gold
and silver hiramaki-e, ray-skin denticles, mother-of-pearl, and
gilt copper mounts. Peabody Essex Museum, Salem,
Bedcover: Palampore. Deccan, India, 1710–1750. Cotton embroidered
with silk and metal-wrapped threads. Peabody Essex Museum, Salem,