This and that on Rembrandt. . .

I visited the exhibition, Rembrandt in America last Friday at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC, meeting up with artist friend, Brenda Behr, to enjoy the exhibition with and commiserate about living as an artist!  Brenda is one of the most sought after and productive artists I know...find her here at www.brendabehr.com.  She has a blog and a weekly newsletter...you can connect to all from her site; Brenda's honest writing often drills down to the bottom line of an artist's thoughts and she offers it up with a healthy sense of humor too.  

If I had to come up with just one word that kept bouncing around in my head while looking at Rembrandt's work, it's SUBTLETY.  Back to this in a moment. . .

This exhibition is all about the frenzy of attribution, where America eventually became the lead actor. . .many paintings accepted as "Rembrandt's" (with hefty prices paid) have now been removed from his complete body of work!  The question:  How to tell a true Rembrandt?  As I strolled the exhibition, taking in the "false vs. authentic" and listening to the audio giving speculations as to how the experts arrived at their conclusions, I grew weary.  Truth be told, I wanted to simply absorb. . .to see into the heart of things without all the explaining.  Lesson learned:  no more audio tours!  My visual brain needs priority.

My favorite of the exhibition is featured above. . .deigned to be a "true" Rembrandt, it is the "Portrait of Anthonie Coopal" from a private collection.  In the museum it is featured on a wall by itself and lit perfectly.  There are few photos of this particular painting to be found, and the one above seriously doesn't do it justice.  The shadows, the background, the treatment of light, all draw you in, and I was totally mesmerized by it, kept going back to it.  To paraphrase Brenda's remark, the shadows could have been our very own, standing before the painting!  Fully expecting to fall in love with one of his self-portraits, this painting spoke to me instead.

Back to subtlety - with a limited, dark palette (so relates to my melancholy side!) the fine distinctions of light, texture, lost edges create the beautiful, mysterious quality of less is more.  Truly masterful and lovely to see in person.  While driving back from Raleigh I mused over the fact that these paintings were created in the 1600's...a profound fact. 

 My soul was in search of history and beauty, and I found some in Raleigh last week.  

Rembrandt in America is in Raleigh until January 22, 2012.  It will be at the Cleveland Museum of Arts,  February 19 - May 28, 2012, and then on to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, June 24 - September 16, 2012.  It features 27 original autographed paintings by Rembrandt, with nearly 50 paintings total, the remaining paintings being those thought to be by Rembrandt when they entered American collections.  The comparisons are interesting, and I agreeably found my search for beauty didn't preclude some of the non-authentic.