During the autumn of 1999 the Hofvijver area in The Hague focuses on Rembrandt. The Mauritshuis mounts a spectacular exhibition of Rembrandt's self portraits, the Museum Bredius showcases Rembrandt's works on paper and the Hague Historical Museum shows us how seven contemporary artists portray themselves.
For the first time in history there is to be a show devoted to one of the most important themes in Rembrandt's oeuvre, his self portraits. A joint project of the National Gallery in London and the Mauritshuis in The Hague, the exhibition Rembrandt by Himself brings together some 25 paintings, 20 etchings and a number of drawings. Edwin Buijsen is one of the main authors. Last year, after the publication of the bookhague Painters (Haagse Schilders), Buijsen embarked on writing the texts for the Mauritshuis catalogue. In an interview he defined the unique aspect of Rembrandt's self portraits.
He reveals that research has shown that the self portraits were largely intended for sale. Indeed remarkably few self portraits are mentioned in the inventories of Rembrandt's belongings. We also know that in certain seventeenth-century circles it was the vogue to collect portraits of famous artists. We only have to think of Duke Cosimo de'Medici, whose collection formed the basis of the famous collection of artists' portraits in the Uffizi Museum in Florence.
Rembrandt took great satisfaction in portraying himself as a renowned painter. He did this, for instance, by adopting the same pose or clothing as some of the great scholars who had been portrayed by famous predecessors such as Titian and Rafael. His message was unequivocal: I stand among the greatest.
In his self portraiture Rembrandt was not bound by the wishes of his clients, giving him free rein to experiment with his technique. This is graphically illustrated in the series of self portraits where we not only see how Rembrandt aged, but also how his manner of painting evolved.
Rembrandt by Himself
25 September 1999 - 9 January 2000
Koninklijk Kabinet Schilderijen Het Mauritshuis
Korte Vijverberg 8, 2513 AB The Hague, tel.: +31 70 3023435
Daily 09.00 - 18.00, Thursday and Friday evenings until 22.00
Tickets NLG 25
This autumn the Museum Bredius spotlights Rembrandt's graphic and drawn work in the exciting show Rembrandt on Paper, mounted in collaboration with guest curator Theo Laurentius, whose work in this field is recognised worldwide. Alongside wonderful examples of Rembrandt's work, Rembrandt on Paper also features some surprising results of Laurentius's own research.
The focus of the exhibition is the eight drawings by Rembrandt from the Museum Bredius's own collection. In addition Laurentius has selected 59 etchings from Leiden University's Print Room supplemented by several etchings from private collections.
All the drawings and prints have been studied in depth by Laurentius and the Foundation for Paper Research. One of the most important findings to emerge concerns the dating, based on the paper research of Rembrandt's famous Hundred Guilder Print, considered by Rembrandt as one of his best and most important prints. Its real title is Christ with the Sick; tradition has it, however, that Rembrandt himself had to pay 100 guilders for a good print of his etching. Until recently only prints made on seventeenth-century Japanese paper in Rembrandt's own life time were known of the Hundred Guilder Print. Recent research by the Foundation for Paper Research has discovered five impressions on West European paper with a rare watermark of a postilion. It had always been assumed that these prints were made some 20 years after Rembrandt's death. But Laurentius contested this and persevered with his research into his recently discovered postilion watermark, and he revealed that both the watermark's date and place of origin could be precisely established. It transpired that the postilion was only used in Germany at the time of the Peace of Münster (1648), which leads to the supposition that Rembrandt used a special paper for his etching. Why he did this and what significance it has on this etching, you can discover for yourself in Rembrandt on Paper at the Museum Bredius.
Rembrandt on Paper
25 September 1999 - 9 January 2000
Museum Bredius
Lange Vijverberg 14, The Hague, tel.: +31 70 3620729
Tuesday to Sunday 12.00 - 17.00. Closed Monday.
Me, Myself and I focuses on the present-day self portrait. Seven contemporary artists take themselves as model and, just like Rembrandt, they use the self portrait to experiment with techniques and skills.
Running concurrently at the Hague Historical Museum is an exhibition on Pieter de Swart (1709-1773), Prince William IV's court architect. The show is accompanied by a book by Freek Schmidt, which provides the first in-depth survey of the work of Pieter de Swart. With this valuable publication De Swart is finally accorded his due recognition.
De Swart started life as a master cabinetmaker, emerging some time later in fashionable The Hague as one of the Netherlands' most prominent eighteenth-century architects. His work is dominated by the French formal idiom that marked the transition from the style of Louis XV to that of Louis XVI.
De Swart had absorbed this style when studying in Paris from 1745 to 1747 at Jacques-François Blondel's celebrated architectural school. On his return from Paris, De Swart was almost immediately appointed court architect by Prince William IV, who that same year had become hereditary stadholder of the Seven United Provinces. In this function De Swart designed palaces that could hold their own with the enormous royal palaces elsewhere in Europe. However the majority of his designs were never executed, mainly because the Prince died prematurely in 1751. These designs are exhibited for the first time in this show.
Among his designs that were realised in The Hague is the Lange Voorhout Palace, still popularly termed Emma's palace. He also built three large hôtels on Lange Vijverberg in 1755, which today house Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder and the Museum Bredius, among others. Pieter de Swart's other famous designs include the Royal Theatre (Koninklijke Schouwburg), built in 1766 as a new palace for the Prince and Princess of Nassau-Weilburg, the sister and brother-in-law of Prince William V. De Swart's fame spread from the capital and his building activities extended from Leeuwarden to Rotterdam.
The venue for the show is unique: after looking at Pieter de Swart's designs in the Hague Historical Museum there are three of his buildings within 100 meters of the museum that are open to the public.
Pieter de Swart. Architect of the Eighteenth Century
11 September - 5 December 1999
Me, myself & I. Contemporary Self-Portraits
25 September 1999 - 9 January 2000
Hague Historical Museum
Korte Vijverberg 7, The Hague, tel.: +31 70 646 940
Tuesday to Friday 11.00 - 17.00; Saturday and Sunday 12.00 - 17.00.
MS/WJH
With grateful thanks to Edwin Buijsen, Theo Laurentius and Freek Schmidt.