About this item
Highlights
- Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69), the son of a well-to-do miller from the university town of Leiden, was by the age of 26 Holland's most celebrated painter and has remained an artist of universal appeal.
- About the Author: Mariët Westermann is Director of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
- 352 Pages
- Art, Individual Artists
- Series Name: Art & Ideas
Description
About the Book
Whether tracing the highs and lows of Rembrandt's career or explaining the unique qualities of his paintings and engravings, Westermann illuminates Holland's most famous artist. This book is based on the latest Rembrandt research. 200 illustrations, 150 in color.Book Synopsis
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69), the son of a well-to-do miller from the university town of Leiden, was by the age of 26 Holland's most celebrated painter and has remained an artist of universal appeal. Rembrandt made his name in Amsterdam, capital of the newly independent Dutch Republic and, as the centre of a global trade empire, a magnet for merchants, writers and artists. No one understood its possibilities better than Rembrandt, or captured its personalities and landscapes more memorably.
Whether tracing the highs and lows of Rembrandt's career or explaining the unique qualities of his work, Mariët Westermann's book is always lucid and perceptive. Based on the latest Rembrandt research, it demonstrates splendidly how a contextual study can stimulate the reader's delight in the art itself.
Review Quotes
"As a rounded and well-informed short monograph on Rembrandt and his ambiance, the book will appeal to a wide range of reader, whether student, scholar in another field or art-orientated layman. And it is not excluded that a Rembrandt specialist might learn a thing or two. I did."--Christopher White, Historians of Netherlandish Art
"Westermann's prose is lively, vivid and clear. The two most important tasks an author of such a book has to undertake - the sympathetic and engaging description of individual works of art, and the synthesis and distillation of current scholarship - are carried out in ways that show common sense and judiciousness."--College Art Association
"A thorough chronological account of Rembrandt's life and art, taking into account the vast and ever-growing literature on the artist... Written in a highly accessible style."--Burlington Magazine
On the Art & Ideas series
"Art & Ideas has broken new ground in making accessible authoritative views on periods, movements and concepts in art. As a series it represents a real advance in publishing."--Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate London
"The format is wonderful and offers what had long been missing in academic studies: usable manuals for specific themes or periods... I am definitely not alone in welcoming Art & Ideas as a precious set of teaching tools."--Joachim Pissarro, Yale University
"Phaidon's series may prove to be the pick of the crop. It boasts expert but undogmatic texts and a wealth of illustrations."--The Sunday Telegraph
About the Author
Mariët Westermann is Director of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. A leading specialist in Netherlandish art, she is author of The Art of the Dutch Republic 1585-1718 and The Amusements of Jan Steen: Comic Painting in the Seventeenth Century.