Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The figures are “framed” by the table beneath them and the
top of the wood paneling above their heads, making a three-part
composition that brings this band of colleagues together. Even in
this simple portrait, we feel we can read the guild members' per-
sonalities in their faces. (If the table in the painting looks like it's
sloping a bit unnaturally, lie on the floor to view it at Rembrandt's
intended angle.)
Rembrandt—
Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul
(1661)
Rembrandt's many self-portraits show us the evolution of a
great painter's style, as well as the progress of a genius' life. For
Rembrandt, the two were intertwined.
Compare this later self-portrait (he's
55 but looks 70) with the youthful, curious
Rembrandt of age 22 we saw earlier. With
lined forehead, bulbous nose, and messy
hair, he peers out from under several coats
of glazing, holding old, wrinkled pages.
His look is...skeptical? Weary? Resigned
to life's misfortunes? Or amused? (He's
looking at us, but remember that a self-
portrait is done staring into a mirror.)
This man has seen it all—success,
love, money, fatherhood, loss, poverty,
death. He took these experiences and wove them into his art.
Rembrandt died poor and misunderstood, but he remained very
much his own man to the end.
• Enter Room 10.
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)
Vermeer is the master of tranquility and stillness. He creates a
clear and silent pool that is a world in itself. Most of his canvases
show interiors of Dutch homes, where Dutch women engage in
everyday activities, lit by a side window.
Vermeer's father, an art dealer, gave Johannes a passion for
painting. Late in the artist's career, with Holland fighting drain-
ing wars against England, the demand for art and luxuries went
sour in the Netherlands, forcing Vermeer to downsize—he sold his
big home, packed up his wife and 14 children, and moved in with
his mother-in-law. He died two years later, and his works fell into
centuries of obscurity.
The Rijksmuseum has the best collection of Vermeers in the
world—all four of them. (There are only some 30 in captivity.) But
each is a small jewel worth lingering over.
