Group portraits
by REMBRANDT

Rembrandt van Rijn is agreed to have been the greatest Dutch painter of the seventeenth century. The most versatile of artists, he excelled in all the genres while aspiring to be recognised as a 'history painter'. Although the opportunity to paint altarpieces was denied him in the officially Calvinist United Provinces where the interiors of the churches had been whitewashed, he was able to supply private collectors with biblical scenes. More mythological and biblical paintings were produced in Holland than we sometimes think, and Rembrandt received a number of such commissions. But the bulk of his practice was in portraits, and his ambition may explain why he began to invest them - especially the group portraits of corporate bodies - with the vivid semblance of narrative. His superb pictorial imagination and unparalleled technique enabled him to introduce drama and mystery by bold contrasts of light and shadow and of texture, from the delicately translucent to the thickly three-dimensional. His surfaces, unlike those of most of his contemporaries, are as alive as the characters he portrays. Not only was he able to evoke specific emotions to suit the action depicted, he convinces us that every figure he paints has the capacity to feel.

Preview Picture Data Info
The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp
1632
Oil on canvas, 170 x 217 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague


The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (detail)
1632
Oil on canvas
Mauritshuis, The Hague


The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (detail)
1632
Oil on canvas
Mauritshuis, The Hague


The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (detail)
1632
Oil on canvas
Mauritshuis, The Hague


The Nightwatch
1642
Oil on canvas, 363 x 437 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


The Nightwatch
1642
Oil on canvas, 363 x 437 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


The Nightwatch (detail)
1642
Oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


The Nightwatch (detail)
1642
Oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


The Nightwatch (detail)
1642
Oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


The Nightwatch (detail)
1642
Oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


The Nightwatch (detail)
1642
Oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


The Anatomy Lesson of Joan Deyman
1656
Oil on canvas, 100 x 134 cm
Historisch Museum, Amsterdam


Sampling Officials of the Drapers' Guild
1662
Oil on canvas, 192 x 279 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


Sampling Officials of the Drapers' Guild
1662
Oil on canvas, 192 x 279 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


Sampling Officials of the Drapers' Guild (detail)
1662
Oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


Family Group
1666-68
Oil on canvaas, 126 x 167
Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig



Summary of works by Rembrandt
Paintings
New Testament subjects | until 1639 | 1640s | 1650-60s
Passion of Christ | Old Testament subjects
Mythological subjects | Historical subjects
Portraits | until 1632 | 1633-39 | 1640s | 1650s | 1660s
Group portraits | Self-portraits
Landscapes | Miscellaneous subjects
Paintings in the style of Rembrandt (not by Rembrandt)
Graphics
Etchings | Drawings



© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.