The Louvre Abu Dhabi unveils a new acquisition a masterpiece by the great Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn, as part of the exhibition
” Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age” exhibitionThis rare oil sketch will feature in Louvre Abu Dhabi’s forthcoming exhibition Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age, before being displayed in the museum’s permanent galleries.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi team installs the museum’s latest acquisition, Head of a Young Man, Hands Clasped: Study for the Figure of Christ by Rembrandt, ahead of the opening of its new exhibition on Thursday February 14.
Louvre Abu Dhabi / Photo Seeing Things – Ismail Noor
Paris, February 12, 2019 – Last December, the Louvre Abu Dhabi acquired a rare oil sketch – Head of a Young Man, with Clasped Hands: Study of the Figure of Christ (c. 1648-56) – by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), one of the greatest artists of the Dutch Golden Age. Painted on oak panel and attributed to the artist in the 1930s, this painting is part of a series of oil sketches of Rembrandt’s Faces of Christ .
This is the first time that a Rembrandt masterpiece has joined a public collection in the Gulf region. The painting has recently been featured in exhibitions at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Rembrandtshuisde in Amsterdam. At the Louvre Abu Dhabi, it will first appear in the exhibition Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from the Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre (February 14-May 18, 2019), then join the museum’s permanent collection.
The acquisition of this extremely rare treasure follows the 11 new acquisitions for Louvre Abu Dhabi’s permanent collection unveiled in October 2018. Reflecting the museum’s mission to encourage intercultural dialogue in a variety of forms, last year’s acquisitions include objects from the Gulf region and the rest of the world, including a monumental Chinese Buddhist sculpture (11th-12th century) four tapestries from the French Royal Manufactures illustrating Les Chasses de Maximilien, as well as an Ottoman horse armor (15th-16th c.).
Manuel Rabaté, Director of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, said: ” Recognized as one of the greatest storytellers in the history of art, Rembrandt had an exceptional gift for revealing the human soul in his paintings. Thanks to this recent acquisition, the very first Rembrandt to join the collection of a Gulf museum, our visitors will be able to experience the profound power of his work, first in our first exhibition of 2019 and then in our permanent galleries. This masterpiece joins the museum’s collection of 650 works from cultures around the world, an ode to humanity’s universal creativity. ”
Dr Souraya Noujaim, Scientific Director in charge of conservation and collections at Louvre Abu Dhabi , added: ” Each addition to the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s growing collection is made with great care and rigor to enrich and deepen the museum’s universal narrative. This exceptional work reflects the new cultural perspectives that emerged during the Dutch Golden Age as a result of the expansion of international trade and the exchange of ideas. It also demonstrates this great master’s ability to capture the fragility and intense spirituality of the human condition, which inspired so many artists after him. ”
The Dutch Golden Century corresponds to a brief period in the 17th century during which the Dutch Merchant Republic, recently freed from the Spanish Crown, became the most prosperousstatein Europe. World trade led by the Dutch East India Company, combined with military advances and new artistic and scientific developments, gave the then Netherlands (then the north-western European coastal region covering present-day Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) a considerable advantage in Europe and the rest of the world. Major commissions placed Vermeer and Rembrandt at the forefront of a new artistic movement in which the Protestant working class developed new themes and iconographies favoring realistic depictions of scenes from everyday life.
This Head of a Young Man shows the face of a dark-haired man coming to life through broad flat tints of paint, appearing as if illuminated. The same model appears in a series of studies and works created by Rembrandt around the same time as his famous Supper at Emmaus (Paris, Musée du Louvre, ca. 1648).
Of the seven surviving oil sketches from Rembrandt’s Heads of Christ series, This Head of a Young Man is one of the most impressive. Admired as a whole, these sketches reveal the artist’s gift for finding the best angle or profile of his model and using light to depict Jesus “from life”, with a model probably drawn from the local Jewish community.
The portrait and its subject represent something new in the Christian world. The clasped hands, sketches, illustrate a narrative imperceptible at first glance. And Rembrandt chose to depict a man at prayer, rather than a king, expressing – ecumenically – man’s humble humanity.
The exhibition Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from the Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre is curated by Blaise Ducos, Chief Curator, Flemish and Dutch Paintings at the Musée du Louvre, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, Curator of the Leiden Collection and expert in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art.
The exhibition will be open from February 14 to May 18, 2019 at Louvre Abu Dhabi. Access to the exhibition is included in the museum admission ticket. Admission is free for children under 13.
For more information on the exhibition or to reserve your tickets, please visit the museum’s website: http: //www.louvreabudhabi.ae/.
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