The Rembrandt Book (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Rembrandt is widely considered one of the most important painters in European art history, and this large, lavishly illustrated volume reinforces that image without skirting controversy (including debates over some of his works' authenticity). Dutch art scholar and columnist Schwartz is clearly an expert on the artist, encapsulating his style in sharp bursts of insight: "Human weakness and-especially-human strength inspired him. He found it not only in heroic action but also in resignation and introspection." But the author doesn't shy from paintings considered less successful, such as the so-called "Leiden history painting," "full of portentous details that do not correspond sufficiently to any known iconography." In contextualizing these works, Schwartz is careful to explain Rembrandt's beliefs, worldview and inspiration: "The text of the Bible was however only one of the givens...along with non-biblical literary sources; models in older art...antiquarian research; knowledge of folkways...and his own imagination." It's this complete view that makes the book so insightful, but it's the personal details that will gain readers' trust: "Few artists' biographers had anything nice to say about him as a person." This detailed, down-to-earth character sketching, combined with solid biographic and historical information, that makes this book as intellectually substantial as it is gorgeous. 700 full-color illustrations.
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From Booklist

The great Dutch painter Rembrandt is not an artist whose life and work can be satisfactorily encompassed in a single volume, but Schwartz makes a heroic attempt. An American-trained art historian who has spent most of his life in the Netherlands, Schwartz offers accessible prose and solid scholarship in this maximalist survey of the artist's dazzling and occasionally scandalous career. Highlights include Rembrandt's sketchy training; his unparalleled craft (including his gift for color and his genius at capturing the subtlest of facial expressions in his portraits); his relationships with family, friends, lovers, and patrons; and the money woes that in later years led him to declare bankruptcy. The book is most valuable for its 700 color illustrations, many of which are so exactingly reproduced that you can see the very pores on the noses of the portraits' subjects. This is the next best thing to seeing the paintings in the flesh. Nance, Kevin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: "Harry N. Abrams, Inc." (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810943174
• ISBN-13: 978-0810943179
• Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 10 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #33,893 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book worthy of the artist!, December 13, 2006

By	Rico Lebrun - See all my reviews

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.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A core addition , April 9, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

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.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars rembrandt deserves better, July 18, 2008

By	taki renzaburo (antarctica) - See all my reviews

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.