Family portrait (Rembrandt)
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| Family portrait |
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| Rembrandt van Rijn , 1665-1668 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 126 × 167 cm |
| Duke Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
The family portrait (also Braunschweiger Familienbild ) is a painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669). The work is in the collection of the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig .
The work
The work shows an unknown couple with three children. The youngest child is sitting on his mother's knees. The two other children, a daughter holding a basket of flowers, are evidently facing each other in conversation. The figure of the father in the background of the group is holding a red flower.
The choice of colors includes mostly brown, green and intense red tones. The paint is mostly impasto with a coarse brush stroke , but was also done with a painting knife , especially when depicting the mother and her youngest child. In this section the picture looks almost relief-like .
Details of the surrounding space cannot be seen. The image is limited to depicting the people. The artist dispenses with any representative elements such as glamorous furniture or proud, self-confident poses. The atmosphere gives the impression of a happy situation.
The painting, in oil on canvas , was probably made between 1665 and 1668. The family portrait is thus one of Rembrandt's last works. The flower basket bears the artist's signature (Rembrandt f) . However, he did not date the time of completion.
Provenance and history of impact
The work was purchased by Duke Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1633–1714), the founder and namesake of today's museum. The Duke mainly bought his paintings in Amsterdam , the leading art market at the time. The painting has been documented in the picture gallery of the ducal residence at Salzdahlum Castle since 1737.
The people depicted are not identified. It is also not known whether the painting was commissioned or an independent work. Sometimes it is interpreted that it is a draft of a counter-idyll to Rembrandt's own family situation. Rembrandt's son Titus died in 1668, his partner Hendrickje Stoffels († 1663), his wife Saskia († 1642) and other children had died earlier. In the middle of the 19th century the picture was still entitled Rembrandt with his family . If, however, it was a commissioned work, it is assumed that it was not accepted by the client.
Until the early 20th century, the so-called Braunschweig family picture was considered “strange” and was even interpreted as evidence of Rembrandt's declining artistic ability. The painter Lovis Corinth , on the other hand, admired the work as a "Braunschweigisches Gem".
“ In the Braunschweig family picture, the children are extremely ugly, as if dwarfed. "
“ The strange Brunswick family picture is more a relief than a picture, made up of crimson and gold-green heap of colors. "
“ In relation to the portraits (I am thinking of the Braunschweig family picture) one could still be in doubt whether the lack of emotional expression in the mind is intentional or a sign of not being able to do more. "
“ If the Dresden gallery boasts of its Sistine Madonna, I still praise this picture of the great Rembrandt beyond all measure. Braunschweig is worth a visit for this work alone. "
Today the work is considered to be a masterful late work which, for some art historians, documents Rembrandt's reputation as “the first painter of modernity” alongside paintings such as Die Judenbraut and the later self-portraits. The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum classifies the family portrait of Rembrandt van Rijn (inventory number GG 238) as the most important of his five works by the Dutch master.
literature
- Christel Brückner: Rembrandt's Brunswick family portrait . Olms, Hildesheim 1998, ISBN 3-487-10244-7
- Silke Gatenbröcker: Family happiness - Rembrandt and his Braunschweig masterpiece . Imhof, Petersberg 2006, ISBN 3-86568-187-5
- Doris Guth, Elisabeth Priedl (ed.): Images of love: love, desire and gender relations in the art of the early modern period . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2014, pp. 139–146, ISBN 978-3-8394-1869-7
- Rembrandt and his circle . Picture books of the Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum; H. 4. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig 1973
- Joseph Eduard Wessely : Rembrandt van Rijn . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 28, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, pp. 193-197.
Web links
- Family happiness - Rembrandt and his Braunschweig masterpiece . For the special exhibition in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum from September 24 to December 17, 2006, accessed on April 2, 2017
- Family picture on Lower Saxony cultural heritage
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Dutch painting of the 17th and 18th centuries on the website of the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum
- ↑ Guth / Priedl, p. 139
- ↑ Guth / Priedl, pp. 139, 141
- ^ Ludwig Pape: Directory of the painting collection of the Ducal Museum in Braunschweig . Meyer, Braunschweig 1844, p. 172
- ↑ Brückner, p. 53
- ^ A b Lovis Corinth : The Ducal Museum in Braunschweig . In: Collected Writings . Gurlitt, Berlin 1920, pp. 76-79. ( Digitized version )
- ^ Jacob Burckhardt : New Art since 1550 . In works. Critical Complete Edition , Volume 18, CH Beck, Munich 2006, p. 582, ISBN 3-406-53134-2
- ^ Richard Muther : Rembrandt - an artist's life . Fleischel, Berlin 1904, p. 51
- ^ Wilhelm Waetzoldt : The art of the portrait . Hirt, Leipzig 1908, p. 158
- ↑ Verena Scholl: Rembrandt's biblical portraits of women. An encounter between theology and painting . Theological Publishing House Zurich, Zurich 2006, p. 51, ISBN 978-3-290-17384-5