Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669)
Rembrandt Laughing, about 1628
Oil on copper. 8 3/4 x 6 5/8 in.
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Getty Museum aquires works by Rembrandt, Canaletto The J. Paul Getty Museum announced the acquisition of ‘Rembrandt Laughing’, about 1628, by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn and ‘The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola’, about 1738, by Canaletto.]]>
May 11, 2013, source: J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu
“Rembrandt Laughing”, about 1628, by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669) is an early self-portrait, depicting the artist—who would have been about 22—dressed as a soldier, in deep violet and brown clothes and sporting a gleaming steel gorget. The young man leans back, smiles broadly and catches the viewer’s eye. His animated features are captured in this spontaneous moment of lively exchange with expressive, short brushstrokes. After centuries in private collections, this painting emerged on the market in 2007. Previously known only through print reproductions, it had been attributed to a contemporary of Rembrandt. Scholarly analysis and scientific testing, made possible once the painting entered the public sphere, led many experts, including leading members of the Rembrandt Research Project, to re-attribute the work to Rembrandt himself.
In the 18th century, Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (Italian, 1697-1768), was the leading star among Venetian painters. For “The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola” (18 1/2 x 30 5/8 inches), Canaletto selected a scene in the upper reaches of the Grand Canal, near the entrance of the Cannaregio Canal, with the viewer placed on a vessel in the middle of the waterway. Palazzo Flangini, bathed in sunlight, anchors the composition at left. Next to it, the lantern crowning the dome of the church of San Geremia juts out above the pale, unadorned frontage of the Scuola dei Morti, followed by the gabled rectory of San Geremia. Trees and shrubbery appearing over a garden wall mark the corner of the Grand Canal and the Cannaregio Canal, which branches off to the left. Throughout the scene, people go about the daily business of Venice: from a balcony, a female figure surveys the canal, while a nobleman in a wig stands in the doorway of the palace, either about to board or having just alighted from a gondola moored at the steps.
“It is extraordinary to be adding two such rare and outstanding works to the collection at the same time, each of which will greatly enhance what are already highly distinguished areas of our paintings collection,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “The Getty Museum possesses the most significant collection of early Rembrandts in the United States, and if you had asked what addition would best cap it off, the answer would have been a self-portrait, which many regard as his greatest and most sustained achievement. But the chances of finding such a work seemed negligible—until the rediscovery of this painting in 2007. It is unquestionably one of the most remarkable works of art to become available in recent memory.”
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