Rembrandt and the soul of the Dutch landscape

The Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn was born in 1606 as son of a miller is seen as the most important painter of the golden age, but that hasn’t always been the case. Rembrandt experienced a lot of problems and was in a constant fight to keep to his ideals.

Rembrandt, who is internationally famous for his painting “The Nightwatch” in which he painted his figures in an unconventional way for that time, kept himself busy with more than painting only.

As a drawer and maker of etches he was very innovative and influenced a lot contemporaries and later generations of artists. This was expressed not only in his portraits and figures, but in his landscapes as well.

With Rembrandt a landscape is never only a registration of what is seen, but more a transformation of what is felt in a poetical way.In the second way the landscape was an excuse for Rembrandt to experiment with light-dark effects, the so-called Claire–obscure. In many landscapes we see a low horizon with enormous clouds in which the observer is left to his own imagination.In that way Rembrandt can express the Dutch landscape in a sober way with simple elements such as an old tree or a mill.

In this way Rembrandt opened our eyes for the beauty of the Dutch landscape.

Koos Lukkien, nov.2009

Rembrandt opened our eyes for the beauty of the Dutch landscape

The Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn was born in 1606 as son of a miller. He is seen as the most important painter of the Golden Age, but that hasn’t always been the case. Rembrandt experienced a lot of problems and was in a constant fight to keep to his ideals.

Rembrandt, who is internationally famous for his painting “The Nightwatch” in which he painted his figures in an unconventional way for that time, kept himself busy with more than painting only. As a drawer and maker of etches he was very innovative and influenced a lot contemporaries and later generations of artists. This was expressed not only in his portraits and figures, but in his landscapes as well.

With Rembrandt a landscape is never only a registration of what is seen, but more a transformation of what is felt in a poetical way. Besides that, the landscape was an excuse for Rembrandt to experiment with light-dark effects, the so-called Claire–obscure. In many landscapes we see a low horizon with enormous clouds in which the observer is left to his own imagination. The open air, accompanied by simple elements such as an old tree or a mill, expresses the famous Dutch landscape in a sober but effective way, that invites us to imitate and vary in our own way.

Koos Lukkien, nov.2009