Rembrandt – From Darkness to Light

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) is world-renowned for his paintings. Yet, as the late art historian Ernst van de Wetering of the Rembrandt Research Project observed, it is in his etchings that his true genius reveals itself most clearly. It was these etchings, often printed by Rembrandt himself during his life, which got his name known all throughout Europe. While his paintings are beyond the financial reach of us ordinary mortals – nor are they ever on the market anyway, an authentic self-printed Rembrandt etching is still obtainable and affordable today. Even for those who cannot count themselves among the super-rich.

This exhibition has come to Zutphen thanks to Charlotte Meyer. Her grandfather, a devoted admirer and collector of Rembrandt, assembled an extensive collection of his etchings in the early twentieth century. Meyer’s grandfather kept his art and coin collection securely stored in a vault in Amsterdam.

For a long time, the objects remained safely locked away and were gradually forgotten. After Charlotte Meyer inherited her grandfather’s collection, it took several years before the Rembrandt prints were finally brought into the light.

Today, she devotes herself to researching and expanding the collection. Thanks to her efforts, these etchings may be admired for the first time in more than a hundred years.

We hope that both the exhibition and the accompanying magazine will achieve what collector Charlotte Meyer hopes for: to inspire as much enthusiasm as possible for the Amsterdam master’s nearly 400-year-old works of art!

We are delighted to have secured funding from various funds and grants for this unique project. Our special thanks go to Cultuurfonds, Mondriaan Fonds, and the Municipality of Zutphen.

A moving storyteller, a bold innovator, and the creator of an unparalleled body of work, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) has fascinated and inspired art lovers for more than four hundred years. Even during his lifetime, his prints were highly sought after. He explored this relatively new medium with great intensity, depicting both everyday and dramatic narratives, portraits and landscapes in a vivid interplay of lines. He truly mastered the technique like no other. His etchings captured remarkable atmospheres and moods, or revealed the subtlest nuances of human expression. In his compelling use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), Rembrandt pushed the technical possibilities of the art of etching to their limits. By cleverly positioning the light source in his works, he created striking contrasts that draw the eye to the central elements of a scene.

His depictions are remarkably lifelike, and his prints are dynamic and expressive. His own life, too, was eventful, marked by extreme highs and lows. Even in his own time, he was regarded as an icon. Yet his success and prosperity were followed by economic decline. At a young age, he lost three of his children and his wife, Saskia. His rich artistic life came to a bitter end, and Rembrandt was buried in anonymity.

The immense influence of Rembrandt van Rijn brought about a shift in artistic practice: instead of an idealised representation of the past, the focus turned to an unvarnished, realistic view of the world and its violence, lust, faith and poverty. In keeping with this raw portrayal of reality, this exhibition makes room for another side of Rembrandt; his unpolished side. Not just the elusive genius, but Rembrandt the man, with all his imperfections.