The Shakespeare Club looks at Rembrandt’s palette
Rembrandt van Rijn, self-portrait. Public domain image.
submitted by Joan Gaughan, Shakespeare Club
The paintings of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) are so recognizable that we are bound to look at one of his paintings and say, “Oh, yeah, that’s a Rembrandt.” His 300 paintings include 90 self-portraits but many are also of his beloved wife, Saskia, whose death in 1642 only six years after their marriage, left him heartbroken. Ironically, that year also saw the completion of his greatest masterpiece, The Night Watch, but by then, three of their four children had also died. The last child, Titus, would survive and become a painter in his father’s style but, adding to a life already filled with grief, Titus would die a year before his father.
In her presentation to the Club on February 10, Barbara Madaj invited us to look more closely at the genius of this beloved artist. She pointed out something so obvious that it can easily be missed; that is, in many of his portraits, the nose of his subject is at the center of the portrait and then if you imagine a straight vertical line from the top of the head, through the nose to the chin, you will notice that the right side is dark while the left side carries the light. That playing with light and dark is also visible in many of his other paintings such as landscapes and Biblical subjects such as The Return of the Prodigal Son, a print of which is located at the back of the nave of St. Mary’s church here in Manchester.
It is, however, Rembrandt’s palette that makes his work so recognizable. He made his own paints so that the color, black, for instance, or his trademark, vermilion, could have many different shades depending on the substance he used to mix them. The result was that he could portray subjects with absolute subtlety and such realism that every crease on a person’s forehead, every blemish on a cheekbone, every tiny hair in a beard, or every thread on a hat would be visible. One member of the Club observed that it was like looking into the soul of the person and, perhaps because of that quality, another member finds his work “scary and fantastic.”
Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn. Public domain image.
The Shakespeare Club was founded in 1897. It meets twice monthly from late September to mid May in Manchester to enjoy informative presentations by members on varying and fascinating topics. If you are interested in learning more about the Shakespeare Club, email Joan Gaughan at allgaughan@yahoo.com.
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