November 19, 2021, through April 3, 2022
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669), Self Portrait with Saskia, 1636, etching. Purchase: Rodale Print Fund, 1966. (1966.146)
Rembrandt’s Return: A Complement of Prints is the counterpoint to the spring 2021 Rembrandt Revealed exhibition, which celebrated the reattribution of the Allentown Art Museum’s painting Portrait of a Young Woman (1632) and explored its history, provenance, and conservation. Through a selection of Rembrandt van Rijn’s etchings from throughout his lifetime, Rembrandt’s Return: A Complement of Prints contextualizes Portrait of a Young Woman within the larger framework of the artist’s subject matter, while celebrating the unique impact of his work in print.
The exhibition features portraiture and character studies, including examples of the artist’s penetrating and revealing self-portraits, and selections of Rembrandt’s psychologically attuned interpretations of biblical subjects. Rembrandt’s Return: A Complement of Prints presents prints from the Allentown Art Museum and other area collections.
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669), Portrait of a Young Woman, 1632, oil on panel. Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961. (1961.35)
The power of Rembrandt’s prints—their sensitivity and intimacy as reflected in etched and gouged lines of varied delicacy and depth, the drama inherent in their extremes of light and darkness—parallels the artist’s remarkable ability to portray the essence of his subject in paint. Indeed, printmaking was, for Rembrandt, a significant form of artistic practice and one through which his creativity and innovation found sublime expression.
In the News
- Morning Call: Allentown Art Museum’s Rembrandt painting returns in new exhibit
- WFMZ-TV: Allentown Art Museum takes deep dive into the world of Rembrandt
Rembrandt’s Return is supported through the generosity of Senator Pat Browne and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, County of Lehigh, the Audrey and Bernard Berman Family Fund, and the Leon C. and June W. Holt Endowment.