Marijn Schapelhouman

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Enter me, 35, seeing Rembrandt Van Rijn’s final self-portrait in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, July 2014. That museum has Vermeer’s The Girl With The Pearl Earing too, but the 1669 self-portrait is the true gem of the collection. I was struck by lightning. I had seen paintings by Rembrandt before, but never one of his late works. The way he painted his hair, topped with a kind of turban or ribbon, is simply stunning. In a way, what I saw was the birth of impressionist and even expressionist painting, already in the 17th century. It took me half an hour before I could continue to the next painting, and before leaving the museum, I returned to it again. A profound delight.

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The authors do a great job of putting Rembrandt firmly in his historical context. To our eyes Rembrandt might seem old hat – he’s such a part of our visual collective subconscious – but he’s not. Even today he remains fresh and relevant, and back in the 17th century he simply was in a league of his own. The texts feature quite a lot of quotations of 17th and 18th century art historians, and they succeed in proving the exceptional, revolutionary nature of Rembrandt. And that’s not just because of his technique – his brush strokes, his command of light, etc. – but also his command of composition and emotion, and the specific, singular way he chose to portray subjects and topics that were common at the time. He was a true genius, on multiple accounts. The book also zooms in a bit on Rembrandt eventful, tragic life. It’s not a biography however, the focus is on his art throughout.

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