Rembrandt: the Complete Drawings & Etchings

"His compositions are so eloquent, so strong emotionally and psychologically, they have this directness even in reproduction. In a way, this is the challenge for any writing about his art. Of course, there are many reproductions out there. I selected the Taschen books specifically because it’s almost a miracle the way they were made. I was a publisher for a few years, so I think I can tell what an incredible production this must have been. It has resulted in two massive volumes of drawings and paintings—Rembrandt was famously prolific—that bring us the collected works (only the ones that are ascribed to Rembrandt by the experts) in a way that dazzles. What excellent print work. There is so much work here, that it’s hard to hold these volumes in your hand! Just look, and scroll through the pages. You don’t need words. “These books are a real feat of artistic documentation. And great value, considering the range of reproductions here.” Although the paintings are the more famous, I like the book with drawings and etchings even more. It feels like holding the real thing in your hands—the scale of the work, the immediacy. These books are a real feat of artistic documentation. And great value, considering the range of reproductions here. I would have to go with one of the self-portraits. Why did Rembrandt make so many pictures of his own face? In a sense, the self-portrait didn’t really exist in the 17th century. It was just the painter depicted himself, but not in the romantic way that self-portraiture came to be understood in later centuries. Self-portraits were for sale, and lots of customers wanted to buy them. Then they could not hang ‘a Rembrandt’ on the wall, but the master himself. My favourite is perhaps the small self-portrait of the young Rembrandt, aged 22, from 1628 , which is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. For a young artist, he is experimenting, and very boldly. In this image, the light barely touches his right cheek while the rest of his face is mostly lost in shadow. But you can still make out the eyes. And when you focus on them, you realise that he is peering straight at you. Like the first Rembrandt I saw, here again his famous curls of dishevelled hair are drawn into the wet canvas with the butt end of his brush. It’s got a real air of mystery about it. This was a dramatic experiment with light and dark, placing the candle behind the head instead of facing the subject. This portrait makes me think of the mysterious character of Rembrandt himself. He was solving a problem; there was a visual puzzle that he wanted to figure out. What happens if light comes from behind the subject and falls over a face? Of course, he took himself as a model, because the painter himself is the most patient, and can sit before you for hours and do exactly what you want! The end result is wonderfully mysterious. I have seen it many times and it never ceases to inspire me. This self-portrait is in the Leiden exhibition on the work of the young Rembrandt currently, and will travel to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford at the end of February. For any readers in the UK, I would urge you to go see it. There is so much interesting work about Rembrandt that goes beyond print, too. Scholars and scientists recently analysed his anatomy from the many, many self-portraits that he left to posterity—his build, the size of his voicebox, his weight as he aged—and have recreated what his voice might have sounded like. His art is the most eloquent, but you can hear him “speak” to you in the 21st century! The funny thing is, he sounds like a ruffian. One important detail, though, that these scholars have overlooked. It’s very strange hearing him “speak”, because he talks virtually to us with an accent from Amsterdam. But of course, he’s a boy from Leiden, right?"