Rembrandt's Women (Art & Design S.) [Hardcover]

Julia Lloyd Williams (Author)

Book Description

Series: Art & Design S. | Publication Date: July 2001

Focusing on Rembrandt's portrayal of women, this work accompanies a major exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. It examines the women in Rembrandt's life, as well as his unique approach to depicting the female form in paintings, drawings and prints. The book features 140 works drawn from the finest collections in the world - sketches of women employed in household chores, mothers with babies and toddlers, paintings of smiling servant girls and wizened old women, studies of the female nude, pictures of goddesses and historical heroines, and his little-known erotic prints. It traces how mother, wife, mistress, maid and models appear in compositions, and followed how, throughout his life, Rembrandt combined classical and northern traditions, the personal and universal, with an extraordinary breadth of vision in his depiction of womankind. The essays by major Rembrandt scholars discuss the painter's biography in relation to the portrayal of the women in his household; the social position of women in Rembrandt's time; the artistic context of Rembrandt's nudes; the identity of the women who modelled for artists in 17th-century Holland; the significance of costume and jewellery in Rembrandt's images; eroticism in Rembrandt's works; and responses to Rembrandt's portrayal of women of later artists through the 18th and 19th centuries up to Picasso.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Rembrandt famously had three women in his life: Saskia, the burgomaster's daughter, who died at 30; Geertje Dircks, the housekeeper with whom he had a bitter quarrel; and Hendrickje Stoffels, the servant girl who bore him a child and loyally stood by him in bankruptcy. Part of the mystique of his art, fueled by its emotional depth, is that his female figures are portraits of members of his household. The truth of the matter is more cloudy, though, since no documented portraits of the two servants exist. But scholars are interested in many other aspects of Rembrandt's women, as this exceptional book explains in six lively essays and detailed discussions of 140 works. They range from major paintings (Susanna and the Elders, Danae) to intimate etchings and drawings of women in domestic settings.

The essays explore a variety of issues, ranging from the 17th-century Dutch notion of female beauty (was flab more attractive then?) to the significance of handkerchiefs held by women in portraits of the era. A key theme in these pages is the way Rembrandt's transformation of traditional mythological and biblical scenes featuring nude women created a new level of erotic immediacy. Scholars have unearthed some interesting answers to questions like, What sort of woman in 17th-century Amsterdam would allow herself to be portrayed nude in a work of art?

Published to coincide with an exhibition of the same name organized by the National Gallery of Scotland--on view at the Royal Academy of Arts, London through December 16, 2001--Rembrandt's Women offers an abundance of color and black-and-white reproductions in an attractive format. The fresh and far-ranging approach to the artist's life and times make the book a must for every Rembrandt lover's bookshelf. --Cathy Curtis

From Library Journal

This catalog is published to coincide with an exhibition the first to focus on women in the art of Rembrandt being held at the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Edited by the assistant keeper of Dutch art at the National Gallery of Scotland and including essays by various international scholars, the book considers how the physical features of three key female figures in the life of Rembrandt (Saskia, Geertje, and Hendrickje) might have been translated to the female figures in Rembrandt's art. The text also explores the status of the different classes of women in 17th-century Holland, showing that because the reputations of chaste women were highly valued, it was probably the prostitutes who served as the nude models for Dutch artists. A discussion of the clothing shown in the portraits concludes that many of the fanciful costumes were taken from a vocabulary of dress borrowed from previous periods in art history such as the Italian Renaissance with its velvets, brocades, and fitted bodices. Beautiful reproductions accompany scholarly catalog entries on each artwork in the exhibition. Recommended for all art collections. Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll. Lib., MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Prestel Publishing (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3791324985
• ISBN-13: 978-3791324982
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,998,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent collection., September 4, 2001

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The Artist "The Artist" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rembrandt's Women (Art & Design S.) (Hardcover)

This book is by far the most complete collection of drawings and paintings of women by Rembrandt. Very well-written and organized, the book reveals how Rembrandt perceived and expressed the beauty of the female body. Interestingly enough, Rembrandt went above the common practice of his time, that is the use of "goddess-like" proportion in painting females. At one time considered hideous by his contemporaries, Rembrandt's paintings of women are among the most beautiful, earthly, and sensual. Each painting reproduction is so vivid; readers who understand the process of painting by the Old Masters can somewhat picture how ingenius effects may have done just by looking into these plates.

A must-have for any art lover!