Customer Reviews

The Rembrandt Book

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This is a very beautifully produced book. There are a profusion of images through out with a very broad representation of paintings, etchings and drawings. The text is excellent as Schwartz has a lot of information but never loses the flow. Many of the images were a bit on the smallish size, but considering the scope of the book, that is easily overlooked. I look forward to the day when a book of his images alone is produced in a larger format. That doesnt cost a fortune. And stays in print long enough for me to buy it. I digress. This is an excellent treatment of a very large subject.

For an artist, the main reason to buy an art book is for the reproductions, not the text. The reproductions in this book are of high quality, but unfortuneately the vast majority are quite small, about the size you would expect for a typical entry in an exhibition catalogue. The exceptions are the wonderful full-page plates that precede each chapter; they really show what this book could have been if the focus had been Rembrandt's art and not the author's text. A further problem with this book is the inclusion of numerous etchings and drawings, intended to show the full scope of Rembrandt's output in a single volume. Its an admirable idea, but Rembrandt's graphic work has already been amply covered in the fine editions from Dover and its inclusion here feels unnecessary and takes valueable space away from the paintings. What Rembrandt really deserves is a large, high-quality book devoted to showing all his paintings with numerous details of each. Something similar to the excellent monographs from Taschen on Leonardo and Michelangelo.

Compiled and written by one of the world's leading experts on the life and work of Rembrandt von Rijn as part of the 400th anniversary of his birth, "The Rembrandt Book" is a 384-page compendium of biography and history of the Dutch master's life and art. Beautifully and visually enhanced with 700 full-color illustrations, "The Rembrandt Book" also provides interested readers with an introduction and analysis of all the various controversies and debates over Rembrandt in terms of just how many paintings and drawings can be accurately and definitively attributed to him. A core addition to personal, community, art school, and academic library Art History reference collections, "The Rembrandt Book" is most especially recommended to the attention of art historians, art students, art enthusiasts, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the colorful life and personal mysteries involving one of Europe's most famous and influential painters.

"The Rembrandt Book" is a welcome reprise of Schwartz's now out of print "Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings." Published to coincide with "Het Rembrandt Jaar" (the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt's birth) this new volume is probably the best general introduction to Rembrandt available in English. Schwartz, an American who has lived in Holland for decades, was a student of the great Leonard Slatkes and has contributed to the academic study of Rembrandt both through his work as a writer and as a publisher. (He runs the Dutch academic press Sdu.) He also knows how to appeal to a general audience: he produces a regular column on cultural matters for one of the Dutch daily papers. "The Rembrandt Book" gives readers all of these sides of Schwartz at once: the scholar, the popularizer, the creative book designer (the book has a wonderfully dynamic layout). Schwartz offers a very accessible and largely narrative approach to Rembrandt, but he does not shy away from connoisseurship issues, and he has the authority and credibility to weigh in on some of the more hotly disputed attributions. Every student of Dutch painting should read this book.

The book arrived sooner than I had anticipated. The condition had been described as Very Good, and I would say it was Very, Very Good. Minimal dust jacket mars had been noted, but they did not detract from a very fine volume.

When reading Gary Schwartz first book about Rembrandt 'Rembrandt, his life, his paintings' I appreciated his method of research by looking from many points of view and taking in account all recent research. Also his courage to have certain personal opinions, but always with a certain humility.
However I was a bit disappointed that he laid so much stress upon the background of Rembrandt life,as if(!!)all what Rembrandt did was copying and what he painted was much influenced by what was demanded of him.
However in this book we find again a very comprehensive view, but this time he leaves the question "Who is Rembrandt?" more open. And somehow he manages that Rembrandt comes to the fore, by referring for example to St Paul that he could be a Jew, a Greek or whatever and still be himself.
No wonder this book is called 'The Rembrandt Book' and even if you have read his first book, this one is better, although many items are already mentioned in his first book.

Excellent book. I think it is the definitive book on Rembrandt if you're looking for something that covers much of what Rembrandt did.

Rembrandt is probably the most famous artist of all time. And this book, celebrating the 400 years since his birth is at once a tribute to the man and his life, and his work.

A great deal of information is available about Rembrandt. There are some five hundred documents covering various aspects of his life. But there are still many conflicts. We are not sure just when he was born, docoments say 1605, 1606 and 1607. We are not sure how many paintings he produced - of the 400 or so usually attributed to him, at least 150 are in doubt. Likewise the number of etchings - about 285 -- and drawings maybe half of the 1575 suspected.

In this book the author presents the story of his life, as can be best determined intermixed with the story of his art. The author is considered to be one of the leading Rembrandt experts and the views presented here are well reasoned and as close to being definite as possible.