Rembrandt House Museum

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The Rembrandt House Museum

The Museum Het Rembrandthuis is an art museum in Amsterdam that opened in 1911 . The museum shows etchings by Rembrandt, paintings by his contemporaries and a reconstruction of the house furnishings during Rembrandt's lifetime.

history

Rembrandt's living room and bedroom
Interior of the Museum Het Rembrandt House with paintings by Rembrandt's contemporaries
The kitchen with the maid's bunk

The museum building was Rembrandt van Rijn's house , who bought it in 1639 and lived there until his bankruptcy in 1658, after which it was auctioned. As a result, it was divided into two parts and was inhabited by different families until the beginning of the 20th century . The condition steadily deteriorated, so it was not demolished only because of its famous former resident. The occasion for further action to save the house was the anniversary year of 1906. The city of Amsterdam bought the house and handed it over to the Rembrandthuis Foundation , which was founded in 1907 and aimed to largely restore the house to its condition in the mid- 17th century . The presented reconstruction was not implemented, however, because the foundation decided on a contemporary design. The restoration , which lasted until 1911, took place under the direction of the architect Karel PC de Bazel . The opening of the museum, which housed a collection of prints, was made by Queen Wilhelmina .

The collection of etchings grew in the museum's early years as a result of donations and own purchases. The focus of the collection was based on a proposal by the painter Jan Veth , who was a member of the first museum board of trustees . Patrons of the museum included Paul Warburg and Jozef Israëls , and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam also gave the museum some etchings. It also appeared at various auctions in order to purchase additional works for the collection. In the second half of the 20th century in particular, the museum's buying policy became increasingly difficult due to the high prices for Rembrandt's works, and support from patrons and the state became even more crucial. In addition to expanding the collection, temporary special exhibitions were held at regular intervals.

Up until the 1990s, hardly any changes were made to the building. The museum's board of trustees decided to build a museum extension based on donations. The architects Moshé Zwarts and Rein Jansma designed the facade of the new building, the interior was done by Peter Sas . The extension opened on May 7, 1998. It offers space for two exhibition galleries, the administration and the library with the “Rembrandt Information Center”. The new building revived the idea of ​​the historical reconstruction of Rembrandt's house. After a long discussion about this project, an expert group was formed under the leadership of Henk Zantkuijl . The reconstruction was carried out according to the original plans and was used by the company Kneppers and Midreth performed. In 1999 the work was completed.

collection

With 260 of Rembrandt's 290 etchings, the collection provides an almost complete overview of Rembrandt's work in this genre. It also owns some of the printing plates.

Works owned by the museum include, for example, the etchings of Abraham's Sacrifice , which is 15.6 by 13.1 centimeters and dates from 1655, and The Ruins of the Old City Hall of Amsterdam . Further examples are The Flight into Egypt , David and Goliath and the fourth state of etching The Three Crosses . There are also others such as the self-portrait with bushy hair and The Landscape with the Three Trees .

  • Self-portrait with Saskia

  • The landscape with the three trees

  • Three farmhouses on a path

In addition to Rembrandt's etchings, the museum has a collection of paintings by artists who mostly worked in Amsterdam before Rembrandt moved there in 1631 and which served as models for him. There are some paintings by Rembrandt's teacher, Pieter Lastman, in the collection. Among them the painting The Crucifixion from 1616 , the picture Abraham's Sacrifice from 1612 and The Mourning for Abel , which Lastman made in 1623. Other works come for example from Jan Pynas . In addition, some works by Rembrandt students can be seen such as Christ appears to Maria Magdalena , which Ferdinand Bol painted after a painting by Rembrandt.

  • The Triumph of Mordechai by Pieter Lastman , 1624

  • Portrait of Eleazar Swalmius

The museum has a room with the Rembrandt collection. These collectibles include coins, butterflies, stuffed crocodiles, antlers, shells and more.

literature

  • Fieke Tissink: Museum - The Rembrandt House . Terra, Houten 2014, ISBN 978-90-8989-635-3
  • Fieke Tissink: Museum het Rembrandthuis Amsterdam . Ludion, Antwerp 2007, ISBN 90-76588-29-5
  • Eva Ornstein-Van Slooten, Marijke Holtrop, Jaap Van Der Veen (Eds.): The Rembrandt House: A Catalog of Rembrandt Etchings . Waanders, Zwolle 2005, ISBN 90-400-8851-9

Web links

Commons : Rembrandt House Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b History on rembrandthuis.nl, accessed on November 2, 2008
  2. ^ A b Collection history on rembrandthuis.nl, accessed on December 6, 2008

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 '9.2 "  N , 4 ° 54' 5.8"  E