Customer Reviews

How Rembrandt Reveals Your Beautiful, Imperfect Self: Life Lessons from the Master

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Part of my low rating has to do with the format of the book, likely nothing the author could control. That is the paucity of photographs of Rembrandt's paintings--and the ones that are here are in black and white, completely insufficient for a book on a painter famous for his use of colors!
That said, I did find the facts about Rembrandt's life interesting, not having known them before. Those more familiar with those facts will probably not find anything new here. The author's personal thoughts on similarities between Rembrandt's life and our modern lives are occasionally thought-provoking, as we might notice how life hasn't changed that much in over 350 years. But thost same thoughts are not very penetrating, falling under chapter titles such as "Trust your own way," "Love leads to forgiveness," and "Age will come."

I appreciate one Amazon reviewer citing how few are the reproductions of Rembrandt's self-portraits in this book. I understand as well the same reviewer's complaints that certain chapter titles seem trite. These aspects are flaws, but the whole impact of the book is hardly lessened due to these flaws. Maybe one has to grow old in order to understand what Roger Housden is saying with his exploration of the meaning of Rembrandt's self-portraits in relation to his life. He's saying that Rembrandt made a long journey in self-exploration and self-study by painting himself as a young man, then as a full-grown man and then again as an older man -- a journey which ended in as perfect self-acceptance as is humanly, perhaps even divinely, possible.

To overcome the lack of self-portraits reproduced in the book, go to the library and get a book of his reproductions and look at them carefully. That's all you need. Or visit the museums in the U.S. where his paintings are being displayed. Rembrandt shows you self-acceptance in the final end, in the middle, and in the beginning of his life when we're all full of ourselves and arrogant as hell. That's the message of Roger Housden's book. If you don't "get it," it's not the book's fault, I think. Maybe you haven't delved into the art of introspection much. Maybe you haven't "reckoned a thousand acres much," as Walt Whitman says. Maybe, just maybe, you have no flaws and feel no need for greater self-acceptance than you already have and so you give a pass on the book. Its meaning has escaped you -- for now.

There is some information on Rembrandt and how his life and work were so related. The book does give a history of his life through the paintings. In some aspect it has merit and reflects on life, but the author is short on detail in both the paintings and life. Roger Housden does a so-so job on the interconnection between life and subject matter of the paintings. A decent overview of the man and his work, but nothing really hard-hitting.