Ron Weaver's Painting Blog

I was greatly moved by this painting last week in Amsterdam.  It's another of Rembrants's paintings that evokes artistic and humanistic emotions in me.  Rembrant's painting of Lucretia (in Minneapolis) is another of these great accomplishments.

 Despite my disclaimer about not posting mediocre reporductions of great paintings, I'm going to offer at least a hint of the visual experience available in this painting. (And if I can find a fairly good reproduction of theLucretia painting, I'll post it too.

I took some of my own photos of the Jewish Bride at the Rijksmuseum last week but the poor lighting (even for viewing) forced me to stand in locations that distorded the perspective.  But some of these photos add a little insight into the paint handling and therefore the profound content of the painting. 

The Jewish Bride, Rembrandt van Rijn, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

(Detail photo talem last week)

 

 

(Detail photo taken last week)

 

(Detail photo taken last week)

 

Lucretia, Rembrandt van Rijn, (Minneapolis Art Museum)

Everytime I see a fine show or a great collection, I don't want to own the catalogue since the reproductions never come up to the experience of the real painting.  So you can imagine that I don't really want to post some of the images that I shot with my little Canon Elf digital camera in Haarlem and Amsterdam last week.  First of all the lighting in some of the galleries at the Rijksmueum and the Franz Hals museum was not ideal for photography nor for viewing for that matter.   But perhaps I can make a point concering Franz Hals with this reproduction of a fragment of one of his large group paintings.

It seems to me that Hals had the same painting instincts that the French Impressionists had (but for the difference in how to deal with color).  Let me simply say (for the time being) that they were both......immediate and direct. (just look at the left hand on the right of the figure).  And of course the face of the man is also quite matter of fact, quite in the moment.  What a pleasure it had to be for Hals to know that he had that kind of talent and just go ahead and enjoy it as a way of life.

 

 

 

We returned from Amsterdam last night. I have much to say and to show concerning the paintings we were delighted to see. But jet lag dominates us at the moment so I'll begin in a few days.