Lecture on Rembrandt by Dr. Arthur Wheelock On the evening of November 9th, 2006, the second lecture of this season’s Bermuda National Gallery, PartnerRe Art Lecture Series was held at the Bermuda National Gallery.

The lecturer was Dr. Arthur Wheelock, curator of the Northern Baroque at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., who spoke on: “Strokes of Genius: Rembrandt and the Human Experience”.

The lecture focused on Rembrandt’s etchings, particularly on the etchings that are presently being exhibited in the Watlington Room of the Bermuda National Gallery. Wheelock provided background information that helped enlarge our understanding of these prints and also of Rembrandt himself.

For example; it is known that of all Rembrandt’s artistic production, about ten percent is self-portraiture.

With just that piece of information, one could understandably assume a considerable vanity on the part of the artist, but an overview of his self-portraits will indicate something quite different.

Some self-portraits show the artist with horrific expressions, which, we learned from Dr. Wheelock, Rembrandt sometimes used in his story painting and etchings. As it turned out, Rembrandt used his own face as a laboratory to find out how to depict certain emotions.

His face was a learning tool for him as he needed various expressions in the telling the stories that appear in his works, especially the many Bible stories. One example of his using his own face is in Rembrandt’s etching “the Descent From the Cross”.

One of the individuals helping with this task of lowering the dead Christ is Rembrandt himself. It is also known that Rembrandt, at the height of his success, had a huge collection of many different items that were used in depicting backgrounds and details of his paintings and prints.

What was new to me and I suppose others as well, was the extent and range of his art collection. We learned that Rembrandt owned works by Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Rubens and D|0xfc|rer and that he actually used certain poses from these works in creating his own.

It may come as a surprise that artists frequently appropriate the works of others to help in making their own creations, but this is a long-standing practice that is perfectly acceptable.

It is not considered to be plagiarism, for the artist takes it, recreates it and gives it his own stamp or touch.

Dr. Wheelock also told us that Rembrandt collected Indian Mughal paintings and that these were useful in recreating the exotic clothing seen in his Biblical paintings. Another interesting matter is the papers on which Rembrandt produced his etchings. He apparently used many different types of papers, including Japanese papers.

This was at the time in the 17th-century when trade with Japan was beginning to be restricted; the Dutch, however, somehow managed to continue trading.

It seems that Rembrandt was constantly experimenting, including the use of different types of papers for making etchings.

Dr. Wheelock’s lecture was not only informative, it was also very practical.

Several students from Bermuda College were there and I know that they found it to be useful, especially in regard to their art history classes.