1606 -1669 · Leiden and Amsterdam

Groups in action, moral light and late matter make Rembrandt van Rijn the great painter of human experience.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in Leiden in 1606 and died in Amsterdam in 1669. After his training with Jacob van Swanenburg and Pieter Lastman, he opened a workshop with Jan Lievens then moved to Amsterdam. He renews it there collective portrait by making a professional meeting an event. Doctor Tulp's Anatomy Lesson, painted in 1632, organizes looks, hands and the corpse around a scientific demonstration that has become civic theater. There Night Watch, known here from Gerrit Lundens' old copy which preserves the composition before cutting, transforms a militia company into a sudden departure: light, movement and depth break with traditional alignment. In The Jewish Bride, two gestures placed on the chest and shoulder are enough to express tenderness, protection and gravity; the thick material gives the garment an almost tactile presence. The Return of the Prodigal Son concentrates all the rembrandt's late career. The father welcomes the kneeling son in a silent light, while the witnesses remain at a distance. The parable becomes an experience of forgiveness and vulnerability. Rembrandt experiences success, losses family, bankruptcy and relative marginalization, but continues without compromise paintings, drawings and etchings. His studio and influence are immense, but his strongest works remain recognizable by their capacity for transform history, the Bible and portraiture into immediately experienced human situations. The "Rembrandt van Rijn" selection notably compares The Night Watch and Doctor Tulp's Anatomy Lesson. His reading favors movement.

Rembrandt makes light a relationship: it circulates between bodies, reveals a gesture of forgiveness and transforms the group into a shared experience.