Norton Simon - Little Known Rembrandt Prints

The Norton Simon Museum's Intimate Celebration of Rembrandt's 400th Birthday
In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt's birth, the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California, presents Rembrandt Rarities: Etchings from the Norton Simon Museum, an intimate exhibition featuring eighteen of the artist's rare and fine etchings. The exhibit is open from April 28 through September 11, 2006.

While Rembrandt has long been celebrated as one of the great painters in the history of Western art, he is equally recognized for his innovative work as a printmaker. His reputation as a master etcher was proclaimed during his lifetime, when knowledge of his technical accomplishments spread throughout Europe and his works were enthusiastically acquired by collectors.

Then, as today, connoisseurs admired Rembrandt's mastery of the medium, especially his bold exploration of the expressive potential of drypoint and burin. In his search for a direct and emotive visual language using line, the artist transformed his compositions on the copper plate itself, sometimes over several states. Each state supplanted the former, resulting in a new, original composition. In addition, the artist experimented with various types of paper to achieve novel effects.

A Rare Etched Still Life
Rembrandt's The Shell (Conus Marmoreus) from 1650 is a striking example of a rare work. The artist depicted very few still lifes during his career, and this is the only which is etched. In addition to its novelty simply by virtue of its subject, this etching is also extremely rare because very few impressions are known to exist. Only five examples of this first state are recorded; of the second state, eleven impressions are recorded in public collections.
Sometimes an important provenance can add further cachet to a fine print.

On the verso of Rembrandt's Agony in the Garden (c. 1657) is the signature of Baron J. G. Verstolk van Soelen (1776-1845). A Rotterdam diplomat and later minister of foreign affairs for the court of The Hague, the baron assembled one of the three great collections of Rembrandt etchings in the early-to- mid-19th century. Since he rarely signed the prints in his collection, his name on this etching attests to its exceptional provenance.

Rembrandt Rarities is curated by Gloria Williams, curator, Norton Simon Museum. It is on view April 28th-September 11th in the small temporary gallery on the Museum's main level.

Public Programs
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Norton Simon Museum will be screening Alexander Korda's 1936 film, Rembrandt, in the Museum's cinema on Friday, June 23rd at 7:00 p.m. This feature film is a colorful, unromanticized, complex biographical portrait of the last three decades of the life of the 17th-century Dutch master artist (played by Charles Laughton).

About the Norton Simon Museum
The Norton Simon Museum is known around the world as one of the most remarkable private art collections ever assembled. Seven centuries of European art from the Renaissance to the 20th century are on view, including works by Raphael, Botticelli, Rubens, Rembrandt,Zurbarán, Watteau, Fragonard and Goya. The Museum features a particularly celebrated Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection, with paintings by Manet, Renoir, Monet, Degas, van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and Cézanne. In addition, there are 20th-century works by Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Klee, Kandinsky and the German Expressionists. Complementing the Western art is an outstanding collection of Asian sculpture from India and Southeast Asia spanning a period of 2,000 years.

The Norton Simon Museum is located at 411 West Colorado Blvd. at Orange Grove Blvd. in Pasadena, California, at the intersection of the Foothill (210) and Ventura (134) freeways. For general Museum information, please call (626) 449-6840 or visit www.nortonsimon.org.

Hours: The Museum is open every day except Tuesday, from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday.

Admission: General admission is $8.00 for adults and $4.00 for seniors. Members, students with I.D. and patrons age 18 and under are admitted free of charge. Admission is free for everyone on the first Friday of every month from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. All public programs, unless explicitly stated, are free. The Museum is wheelchair accessible.

Supplemental images for this story are kindly ceded by the Connecticut College Wetmore Print Collection