CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Drawings by Rembrandt, His Students, and Circle from the Maida and George Abrams Collection

Exhibition: 15 April - 8 July 2012

From the museum’s website, 16 April 2012

Drawings by Rembrandt, His Students, and Circle highlights choice works from one of the finest private collections of Dutch drawings in the world, assembled over five decades by Maida and George Abrams. The exhibition features drawings by Rembrandt and also explores the role of drawing in Rembrandt’s studio and wider circle. Many of the sheets on view have never been exhibited or published.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669), one of the most renowned and inventive of all Dutch artists, was a prolific draftsman. For Rembrandt, drawing documented the artist’s thinking, stimulating his imagination and conveying his skills as a keen observer of humanity and the world around him. The exceptional breadth of the Abrams Collection provides an opportunity to examine the diversity of Rembrandt’s style.

The exhibition includes landscape studies executed en plein air on Rembrandt’s walks outside Amsterdam and spotlights his use of both chalk and ink. The show and its accompanying catalogue investigate the functions of drawings in Rembrandt’s studio and their value for him as a teacher. Throughout his 44-year career, his brilliance drew many artists to him, and he influenced workshop assistants, colleagues, and followers. Organized by the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, Drawings by Rembrandt, His Students, and Circle features artists including Jacob Backer, Ferdinand Bol, Govaert Flinck, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Jan Lievens, and Nicolaes Maes.