Rembrandt and Saskia: a love story for the ages // Restoration of Rembrandt's Night Watch begins

By Dilip -
It is 350 years since Rembrandt died at the age of 63, destitute, his decline as dramatic as his rise. His rough magic had fallen out of fashion with the Dutch, and he was buried, like Mozart, in a pauper’s grave. But his resurrection as the outstanding chronicler of the human face, daily altered by experience, and of the heart’s journey through love, grief, despair and every imaginable emotion, was almost immediate; and it is never-ending. Van Gogh, who once wrote that he would give a decade of his life just to sit in front of The Jewish Bride for a fortnight, spoke for mankind: “Rembrandt says things for which there are no words in any language.”..

Rembrandt drew Saskia van Uylenburgh for the first time three days after their engagement, in the summer of 1633. His future wife is a picture of spirited allure. She smiles back at him from beneath the brim of a wide straw hat, lips shining, hair tousled, eyes glowing with intelligence and humour. In her hand is a flower; round her hat are several more, perhaps gifts from her lover. Soon she will marry this prodigy, who is sitting so close to her on the other side of the table – the most famous artist in Amsterdam.
Rembrandt’s Self Portrait as a Young Man, also known as Self-Portrait with Dishevelled Hair, c1628, left, and Half-length Figure of Saskia in a Red Hat, 1642, right
Courtesy of The Bridgeman Art Library/Alamy

Saskia is posing on this June day in the gallery of Hendrick van Uylenburgh, her much older cousin and Rembrandt’s principal dealer. The painter is actually living and working on the premises. Several of his early masterpieces have already been painted in this grand four-storey building on the Amstel canal, including the shattering The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp,with its gathering of medics in white ruffs leaning carelessly over the poor dead body, only half aware of their own mortality. 

This first huge commission had already brought its maker wealth and renown; and once married, Rembrandt and Saskia will not stay with cousin Hendrick for too much longer. As soon as he has mustered the colossal sums required, Rembrandt will buy the ruinously extravagant house next door, in what is now Jodenbreestraat 4. There he will draw and paint Saskia over and over again, in the agonisingly brief span of their marriage... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/dec/30/rembrandt-350th-anniversary-saskia-portraits-netherlands-exhibitions

Restoration of Rembrandt's Night Watch begins
The restorers, data experts and art historians at the Rijksmuseum call it Operation Night Watch. “Because it is like a military operation in the planning,” said Taco Dibbits, the museum’s general director. At 9am on Monday, as the doors of the Amsterdam museum open to the public, the largest and most elaborate public art restoration in history will begin.

In a specially constructed seven sq metre glass chamber, a team of 12 experts will work to bring back to its former glory one of the world’s most spectacular paintings: The Night Watch by Rembrandt.

The process will not only be performed in front of the public, in the building built in 1885 as a “cathedral of the arts”, where The Night Watch occupies the “high altar” in the museum’s gallery of honour, but will be livestreamed to millions around the world... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jul/05/restoration-rembrandt-night-watch-begins-rijksmuseum-amsterdam



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