Parky at the Pictures (In Cinemas 5/4/2019)

Whereas past EOS titles have explored the rationale behind a particular exhibition or have captured the unique atmosphere of a venue, this one provides intriguing insights into Rembrandt's techniques and thought processes, while also examining how his tumultuous private life and the economic fortunes of the Dutch Republic impacted upon the kind of pictures he painted and the methods he employed. Narrated by Robert Lindsay and with readings by Glen McCready, this is an accessible introduction that also offers plenty to ponder for the specialist. 

Amidst fluent opening shots showing how the paintings were presented during the London leg, Betsy Wieseman, the Curator of Dutch and French Painting at the National Gallery explains that the event was designed to show how  Rembrandt approached form and content in his latter years, when, as the Rijksmuseum duo of Jonathan Bikker (Curator of Research) and George JM Weber (Head of Fine and Decorative Arts) concur, he was preoccupied primarily with his own style and the interior lives of his sitters. However, as Wieseman and Rachel Campbell-Johnson (Chief Art Critic of The Times) suggest, these works retain a relevance for the modern age, as they coerce the viewer into actively engaging with the subject and reveal a good deal about the mindset of the man who created them. 

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was highly fortunate to have been working in the right time and place to allow his talent to flourish. As Wieseman and Evelyn Welch (Professor of Renaissance Studies at King's College, London) agree, the United Provinces were enjoying a golden age after securing their independence from Spain and the success of their global trading empire meant that the bourgeoisie (as well as clerics and the aristocracy) came to regard art as a status symbol. Over views of Pieter de Hooch's `The Bedroom' (1658-60) and Bartholomeus van der Helst's `Family Portrait' (1652), philosopher AC Grayling also notes that the Dutch were more tolerant of religious difference than many of their continental neighbours and, as a consequence, there was a greater diversity in the breadth of subject matter. 

It was into this tolerant, thriving nation that Rembrandt was born on 15 July 1606, as the ninth child of prosperous Leiden malt miller Harmen van Rijn and his wife, Neeltgen. At the age of 14, he abandoned his studies to become an apprentice to local painter Jacob van Swanenburgh. But, while he learnt the basics of his craft during these three years, his six months with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam proved more significant. Wieseman describes how canvases like `Christ and the Canaanite Woman' (1617) honed Rembrandt's interest in biblical and historical topics, although she also highlights the influence of such near-contemporaries as Caravaggio (`The Supper at Emmaus', 1601) and Peter Paul Rubens (`Minerva Protects Pax from Mars (Peace and War)', 1629-30), with the latter's dramatic sense of storytelling combining in the young Rembrandt's eager mind with the former's sense of the everyday and his compelling use of light and shade. Bikker also mentions the fact that Rembrandt liked to think of himself as the heir to print-maker Lucas van Leyden (`Mars, Venus and Cupid', 1530), who hailed from the same city.

Painted in a studio in his parents' house, Rembrandt's first signed work, `The Stoning of St Stephen' (1625), also contained the first of many self-portraits (as a bystander) and earned him the patronage of poet and composer Constantijn Huygens, who helped the prolific newcomer secure commissions like `St Paul at His Writing Desk' (1629) and `An Old Man in Military Costume' (c1630-31), which confirmed his talent for textures and eloquent emotional expression. But Rembrandt knew he had to move to Amsterdam and, following the death of his father in 1631, he took up residence with dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh and, while producing works like `Self-Portrait in a Fur Cap' (1631), he fell in love with his host's cousin, Saskia, whom he would marry in 1634. 

Around the time that Rembrandt was seeking to establish himself, portraiture was considered a lesser genre than landscape or historical painting. However, he was soon in demand, thanks to works like `Nicolaes Ruts' (1631), `The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicholaes Tulp' (1632) and `Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert' (1633). Campbell-Johnson enthuses about the drama that Rembrandt creates as the surgeons lean in to watch Dr Tulp dissecting an arm and remarks upon the similarity between the cadaver and the onlookers. Bikker similarly points out the immediacy generated by the figure rising from his chair in `The Sampling Officials of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild' (1662). Also known as `The Syndics', this picture helps explain the concept of `ungleichheit' or `perceptibility', as the rougher texture of the tablecloth in the foreground is contrasted with the smoother brushstrokes used to depict the pages of the book so that they appear to recede into the background. 

A digression follows involving Wieseman, Weber and Nicholas Penny (Director of the National Gallery) explaining the politics and design of the jointly curated show, which is leavened by Larry Keith (NG Director of Conservation) describing the processes used in renovating `Portrait of Frederick Rihel on Horseback' (1663) and the fact that an x-ray had revealed the existence of an entirely different subject (a man in a field holding a staff) that had been inexplicably abandoned. 

We are soon back in the heart of the exhibition, however, as Robin Fox and Kate Reid's cameras glide through the various rooms to the accompaniment of Nikky French's studied score and quotations from Lucien Freud and Francisco Goya. Eventually, Wieseman wanders into shot to contemplate `Lucretia' (1666) and compare the subject's sense of resignation after plunging the dagger into her breast with a 1664 image showing her struggling with her resolve. 

Wieseman indicates the way in which Rembrandt used a palette knife to contrast the roughness of the sleeves with the smoothness of the blood-stained chemise and suggests that he almost acted like a sculptor in laying paint on to the canvas. Campbell-Johnson declares him an alchemist who could create magic from base materials, while Bikker and Weber claim that Rembrandt almost re-invented himself in his later years, as he used broader strokes and even scratched surfaces to achieve his desired effects. 

Artist Robert Twose demonstrates some of these techniques in his studio to show how Rembrandt established his tonal values before blending in the chiaroscuro and reflected light to generate a degree of three-dimensionality. Twose also discusses his use of the palette knife and various washes to capture the textures of skin and fabric and avers that few painters of this period took more risks in combining these `tricks' within a single work. 

At this juncture, Lindsay returns to chronicle Rembrandt's middle period, during which he joined the Guild of St Luke and opened his own studio. He excelled at biblical epics like `The Abduction of Europa' (1632), `The Storm on the Sea of Galilee' (1633) and `Sacrifice of Isaac' (1635) and these enabled him to acquire the finery seen in `Self-Portait in a Cap With a Golden Chain' (1633). 

Now comparing himself to the Old Masters of the Renaissance, Rembrandt built a house in the fashionable 'Breestraat' district and became engaged to the 21 year-old Saskia, who brought money of her own to the match as the daughter of the wealthy burgemeester of Leeuwarden. Three days after their betrothal, Rembrandt produced the charming `Drawing of Saskia' (1633). But some continued to believe that he was primarily interested in her dowry and he countered accusations that he was frittering her riches on debauchery in `Self-Portrait as the Prodigal Son' (c1635). 

Equally amsuingly, he alluded to Titian's `Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo (c1510) in `Self-Portrait at the Age of 34' (1640). But, while they doted on each other, Rembrandt and Saskia lost three children in infancy and only Titus survived into adulthood. So, his father threw himself into collecting artefacts to decorate his home and advertise his success. He also continued to work prodigiously, with Charles I acquiring one of his pictures as his fame spread through masterpieces like `The Militia Company of District II Under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq' (1642). Better known as the `Night Watch', this was to become his most celebrated work and Campbell-Johnson extols its sense of drama, movement and moment. 

But Rembrandt's style would change over the ensuing decade, as his private life became more complicated. Saskia died of tuberculosis at the age of 30 on 14 June 1642 and, over the next few years, he sought solace with nanny Geertje Dircx and housekeeper Hendrickje Stoffels. When the latter gave birth to his daughter, Cornelia, in 1654, she was branded a whore by the council of the Reformed Church and was barred from receiving Communion. Although the scandal had no immediate impact on Rembrandt's standing, he became less productive and more unpredictable in both his choice of subject and the styles he adopted. He also started to paint local landscapes (`The Three Trees', 1643), while the portraits he did produce demonstrated a greater introspection. 

In 1654, `A Woman Bathing in a Stream' (1654) signalled the return of his old energy and heralded a new direction. In addition to being the smallest painting in the exhibition, this is also, according to Bikker, the tenderest. He points out the elusive brushwork and the areas that appear deliberately unfinished, while suggesting that Rembrandt depicted Hendrickje in a way to counter claims of her impurity and indict the viewer for regarding her innocent activity in a lustful way. 

This period also saw Rembrandt devote more time to etching and Mansoor enlists the help of Erik Hinterding, the Curator of the Rijksmuseum, and artist Dolores de Sade to explain the techniques of drypointing and how Rembrandt used the burr produced by pressing into the copperplate or wax to form thicker scores that produce a velvety effect when coated with the ink. As De Sade works in her studio on a piece of her own to illustrate these points, Hinterding shows two versions of `The Three Crosses' (1653), which vary in action because Rembrandt returned to the plate after the initial burrs had worn down. He praises the audacity of the use of shadow to frame the scene and claims that no one of his contemporaries was capable of producing work of this complexity and finesse. 

Quotations from JMW Turner and Eugène Delacroix complement another floating tour of the galleries, with the Frenchman wondering whether posterity would eventually judge Rembrandt to be a finer artist than Raphael. Wieseman certainly rates him among the greats and looks fondly on `A Young Woman Sleeping' (c1654), as it lies in its glass case. She eulogises about the abstract quality of the brushwork and explains how the density of the paint in particular areas reveals how Rembrandt actually created the sketch. 

However, this rarely seen item was produced at a time when financial dark clouds were beginning to gather, as a combination of domestic scandal, an economic depression and changing tastes impacted upon Rembrandt's order books. Artists like Anthony van Dyck (`Lady Elizabeth Thimbelby and Her Sister', c1637) and Govert Flinck (`The Company of Captain Albert Bas and Lieutenant Lucas Conyn', 1645) were now in vogue. They used bright colours and classical contours in their idealised portraits, while Rembrandt preferred to remain boldly unconventional and grew increasingly inward-looking in works like `Bathsheba With King David's Letter' (1654) and `Portrait of a Couple as Isaac and Rebecca' (c1665).

Campbell-Johnson marvels at the fact that a picture as refined and intimate as `The Jewish Bride' could have been painted by such an irascible old man. But clients like Jacob Trip and wife Margaretha de Geer, the Syndics and Frederick Rihel became scarcer in Rembrandt's later years and he was declared bankrupt in 1656. The deaths of Hendrickje (1663) and Titus (1668) added to his woes and he suffered the indignity of having a commission returned after a year by Amsterdam Town Hall because it didn't fit in with the décor. Rembrandt cut up what had been his largest canvas and Weber highlights the details in `The Company of the Batavians Under Claudius Civilis' (1661-62) that might have offended its august sitters. 

Few artists produced as many self-portraits as Rembrandt and Laura Houliston, the Senior Curator of Collections at English Heritage, analyses `Self-Portrait With Two Circles' (c1665-69) and tries to solve the mystery surrounding the symbolic meaning of the circles. However, she is forced to concede that there is no definitive explanation, while lamenting that these works reinforced Rembrandt's reputation as a solitary character. He died on 4 October 1669 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Westerkerk, where an ornate plaque now marks his presence.  

Grayling wonders whether Rembrandt ever met René Descartes and suggests that his penchant for self-portraiture derived from the renewed interest in the Self in 17th-century philosophy and literature. Houliston believes that he used such pictures to conduct experiments and remarks upon the look of confidence in `Two Circles', as Rembrandt painted over the original image of himself at his easel to fix his gaze on the viewer while holding his palette, as if to reaffirm that he remains an artist whether he is working or not. 

Following a montage of self-portraits that comprises `As a Young Man' (c1628), `With Gorget' (c1629), `With a Wide Brimmed Hat' (1632), `With Saskia' (1636), `At the Age of 34' (1640), `Drawing at a Window' (1648), `With Beret and Turned-up Collar' (1659), `As the Apostle Paul' (1661), and `At the Age of 63' (1669), the film concludes with Campbell-Johnson declaring Rembrandt a genius who captured unchanging human truths, Weber positing that his works are timeless and Wieseman admitting that she admires him most for the fact that he was never satisfied and spent his life in pursuit of improvement. 

Smoothly edited by Clive Mattock and Adam Lavis, this is the best entry in the Exhibition on Screen series to date. The period is ably contextualised and the greater than usual emphasis on technique affords fascinating insights into the way in which so many familiar works were produced. Indeed, the many close-ups of the actual paint on the canvas creates an immediacy and intimacy that enables the viewer to look and learn without feeling lectured. 

In this regard, the accessibility of the scholarship is also to be commended, as the experts are happy to inform rather than overwhelm. The peculiar cartoons of Rembrandt at work provided by Karrot Animation are rather an acquired taste. But this is a minor demerit against a film that brings the man, his times and his work to engrossing and poignant life.