Rembrandt : the late works

Stunning exhibition at the National Gallery looking a work by Rembrandt in the last 20 years of his life.

It was really nicely arranged with triangular columns naming the room and lovely bronze and brown colours. However I fear the columns might become a nuisance when the show gets busy.

I loved the idea of starting with a room of self-portraits which gave you an idea not only of what the artist looked like and how he aged but also an overview of his techniques and approach as an introduction.

I had always thought of Rembrandt’s work as being various shades of mud and black but I came out of this show with a much better sense of the colour in his work and a real admiration from the brush work and radiance of the pictures.

I was fascinating to see how, even as he got older, he kept experimenting with style and technique. He seems to have been the first artist to use his palette knife to apply paint! Some of the galleries looked at the themes of his work such as everyday life, copying the masters and introspection.

I loved the picture called “The Jewish Bride” which was a portrait of a couple as Isaac and Rebecca. There was a lovely tenderness and closeness about it and a sense of they only mattered to each other, no element of presenting themselves to the world. I must admit though I could see why “The Conspiracy of the Batavians under Claudius Civils” was sent back by Antwerp town hall! That was mud on mud! “The Anatomy lesson of Dr Joan Deyman” will stay with me for a long time, a beautiful picture of a horrid subject!

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