At the Williams College Museum of Art, a small, one-room exhibition of six prints by Rembrandt from the museum’s permanent collection surrounds the walls along with examples of similar subjects by Rembrandt’s contemporaries, Goltzius, Van de Velde, and Ruisdael. This exhibition is a companion to my tutorial class Rembrandt: Controversial Issues and Themes, taught by Professor Filipczak.
While my tutorial centers on themes, techniques, and issues surrounding Rembrandt’s works, requiring extensive research and analysis of reproductions, there is nothing like seeing a Rembrandt in person. Academic readings inform what you see, but cannot replace a visual assessment of the work, and reproductions never do the work justice. Seeing an original piece makes everything else pale in comparison. It gives insight into the artist’s technique as well as conveys feelings or ideals that are not apparent in reproductions.
For this class, I read about Rembrandt’s technique of using etching, carving lines into wax on a copper plate and then having acid bite into the marks, and drypoint, adding additional details with a needle directly into the plate. I looked at multiple analyses of Rembrandt’s experimentation with these two forms and learned how different it was from his contemporaries. But seeing the works side-by-side is an entirely different experience. To be able to examine each line of the print and to see how the different kinds of marks create a form or shading, is remarkable. Physically seeing the differences between these original works is striking in a way that reading about the difference could never convey. As my professor said, we are amazingly lucky that our college museum would have high-quality Rembrandt prints because there is nothing like seeing an original.
Paige Wilkinson is a sophomore at Williams. She plans to major in art history and economics.