Rembrandt and His School: Masterworks from the Frick and
Lugt Collections
February 15, 2011, through May 15, 2011
Partial Show Extension: Works on loan from the Lugt Collection will remain on view in the Lower-Level Exhibition Galleries through May 22. See a Virtual Tour of the paintings in the Oval Room.
Introduction to the Exhibition
When Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) was asked whose talents he would most like to possess, he declared: "Rembrandt's." And as the largest individual railway stockholder in the world, Frick is reported to have said that "railways are the Rembrandts of investment." Like Frick, the Dutch art historian Frederik Johannes Lugt (1884–1970) was a great admirer and collector of works by the Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669); as a teenager he wrote a biography of the artist, illustrated with his own copies after Rembrandt's most famous works. In 2011 the Frick will present a selection of Rembrandt's works as seen through the eyes of these two renowned collectors, devoting three exhibition spaces to the work of this artist and his school.
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Rembrandt (1606–1669), Self-Portrait, Frowning: Bust, 1630, etching, 72 x 61 mm (sheet: 74 x 63 mm), Fondation Custodia, Paris |
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Of the five paintings from the Frick's permanent collection, four were acquired by Henry Clay Frick between 1899 and 1919, and the fifth by the trustees in 1943 from the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan. Three of these works are unquestionable masterpieces by the artist — Nicolaes Ruts (1631), The Polish Rider (c. 1655), and the Self-Portrait (1658). Two of the paintings — Portrait of a Young Artist and Old Woman with a Book — were acquired by Frick as Rembrandts but are today attributed to artists in his entourage. This will be the first time that all five paintings have been united in a monographic display. A selection of etchings and drawings by Rembrandt acquired by Henry Clay Frick at the end of his life will be featured. These works on paper, part of the founding bequest and therefore unavailable for loan, are rarely on display.
A loan exhibition of 66 works on paper by Rembrandt and his school from the collection of Frits Lugt, now housed in the Fondation Custodia, Paris, will also be on display. Eighteen drawings by the artist as well as a group of his prints will be accompanied by 36 master drawings by his most prominent pupils and students, including Ferdinand Bol, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Carel Fabritius, Govaert Flinck, Jan Lievens, and Nicolaes Maes. The exhibition is organized by Colin B. Bailey, the Frick's Associate Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, in conjunction with Margaret Iacono, Assistant Curator, and Joanna Sheers, Curatorial Assistant.
Principal funding for the exhibition is provided by The Christian Humann Foundation, Jean-Marie and Elizabeth Eveillard, and Melvin R. Seiden.
Corporate support is provided by Fiduciary Trust Company International.
The exhibition is also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
The catalogue is made possible by the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc. It is also underwritten, in part, by public funds from the Netherlands Cultural Services and by the Netherland-America Foundation. |
