Rembrandt: True to Life

An exhibition at the NGV Melbourne with more than 100 etchings from their collection alongside a few paintings from public collections worldwide.

Well worth a visit …light and air …..light and dark … human situations, modelling, space, texture, atmosphere…..!

The Three Trees 1643. etching, drypoint and engraving. (detail)

Rembrandt’s largest and most evocative landscape etching. A dramatic sky, the diagonal passage of rain and clouds !

Man in oriental clothing. 1635. Oil on Panel. (detail)

An elaborate tronie. Tronies were made as studies for figures in historical and biblical compositions. Rembrandt frequently dressed his sitters (and himself) in exotic or historicising dress with accessories including plumed berets, turbans and jewellery.

A blind hurdygurdy player and family receiving alms. 1648 etching and drypoint (detail)

Loved this group of figures ….A wealthy man offers a coin to a woman with a snugly wrapped baby on her back. Accompanying her is a boy and an elderly man who appears to be blind. The focal point is the act of donation contrasted by the contrast of dark and light around the giving and receiving hands..

On until the 10 September NGV International Ground Level