File:Rembrandt, his life, his work and his time (1894) (14590879370).jpg

Identifier: rembrandthislife01mich (find matches)
Title: Rembrandt, his life, his work and his time
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Michel, Emile, 1828-1909 Simmonds, Florence Wedmore, Frederick, Sir, 1844-1921
Subjects: Rembrandt Hermanszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669
Publisher: London : W. Heinemann
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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and young patricians, venerable matronsand fashionable ladies, persons of the most diverse temperament, age,and condition, had flocked to his studio, and all had been portrayedwith equal sincerity. Great as was his pleasure in fantastic costumes,plumes, weapons, and foreign stuffs, he accepted the uncom-promising actuality of Dutch costume, its somewhat monotonousseverity, its dark colours, its uniform make. But small as was thelicence allowed by such raiment, there were differences . in themanner of wearing it, from which the tastes and habits of a lifemight be inferred. It is in subtleties such as these that the trueartist manifests himself; restrictions serve but to develop hisinfinity of resource and the variety of his combinations. As in thecostume of his sitters, so in their gesture and attitude, Rembrandt REMBRANDT AS A PORTRAIT-PAINTER 145 observed the sobriety that befits the painter of an undemonstrativerace. Simple, natural, and reticent, he yet contrives to pose his models
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PORTRAIT OF J.-H. KRUL. 1633 (Cassel Museum). in a manner appropriate to their occupations and temperaments,marking with unerring instinct the most characteristic features ofvol. 1. p i46 REMBRANDT their bearing, their faces, their personality at large, and insistingchiefly upon these. He was now a consummate master of everysecret of his art—truth of perspective, correctness of drawing, vigourand delicacy of modelling, the expression of surfaces and texturesby variations of touch, harmony of colour, and the intricacies ofchiaroscuro. But though he recognised that nothing is unimportantin this difficult art, and that the great portrait-painter is he who winsthe richest result from his boundless material, he also perceived, withthe earlier masters, that the eyes and mouth are the supremelysignificant features of the human face, the features to which we lookfor the expression of life, of thought, and of the various emotionsthat stir the soul. Our other features change comparatively lit

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