Rembrandt in America @ The Cleveland Museum of Art
Reviewed by Laura Kennelly
The light, finding it, enjoying it in its brief summer season or, most often in Northern climes, as thrown by candles and lanterns, plays a huge role in the works by Dutch artist Rembrandt (who, like Madonna, etc. is famous enough to just go by one name) displayed in “Rembrandt in America: Collecting and Connoisseurship,” the Cleveland Museum of Art’s latest major exhibition, on view through Mon 5/28.
Light, of course, still makes an artistic point today, as Lisa DeJong’s recent Plain Dealer photo of Chardon’s vigil makes clear in this touching portrait of a mother and daughter holding a candle against the darkness. But imagine capturing images photo-perfection clear without a camera the way Rembrandt van Rijn did. For this viewer, what’s most amazing about this new CMA show is just how clearly Rembrandt observed his world and translated it into paint. Fine details, how light flashes off lace, skin, hair, eyes (especially the eyes) show why this 17th-century master still commands his own exhibit.
And as this show makes clear, it’s easy to understand that just because you can afford to buy a Rembrandt doesn’t always mean you’ll get one — as many American collectors and the museums they donated works to discovered. After strolling through the CMA galleries where paintings are grouped according to degrees of certainty (the first room is for “Yes, these are for sure by Rembrandt,” the following rooms display works produced by his studio and paintings identified as “Nice, but probably ‘fake’ Rembrandts”) you, too, will be able to better recognize what’s by the master and what’s likely not.
Portraits of people who paid Rembrandt to paint them (after all, he had to earn a living) and portraits of historic figures at moments of intense drama (Roman matron Lucretia just after she stabs herself to preserve her honor) make up most of the show. There’s also a display of various modern methods of examining paintings to see what’s under them, how they were over-painted, and more.
Works in the show are from private collections (imagine having one in your home) as well as American museums such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The show was organized and presented by the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.