Sebastien A. C. Dudok van Heel Boeken

Focusing on Rembrandt's portrayal of women, this work accompanies a major exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. It examines the women in Rembrandt's life, as well as his unique approach to depicting the female form in paintings, drawings and prints. The book features 140 works drawn from the finest collections in the world - sketches of women employed in household chores, mothers with babies and toddlers, paintings of smiling servant girls and wizened old women, studies of the female nude, pictures of goddesses and historical heroines, and his little-known erotic prints. It traces how mother, wife, mistress, maid and models appear in compositions, and followed how, throughout his life, Rembrandt combined classical and northern traditions, the personal and universal, with an extraordinary breadth of vision in his depiction of womankind. The essays by major Rembrandt scholars discuss the painter's biography in relation to the portrayal of the women in his household; the social position of women in Rembrandt's time; the artistic context of Rembrandt's nudes; the identity of the women who modelled for artists in 17th-century Holland; the significance of costume and jewellery in Rembrandt's images; eroticism in Rembrandt's works; and responses to Rembrandt's portrayal of women of later artists through the 18th and 19th centuries up to Picasso.

The Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was one of the greatest draftsman of all time. Even small and quick sketches reveal his incomparable skill in capturing compositions, figures, groups, human gestures, facial expressions and landscapes with just a few strokes. Although some of Rembrandt's drawings served as preparatory studies for paintings and etchings, most are conceptual works in which he investigated motifs of movement and expression, recording ideas for his own works and those produced by pupils in his studio. Encompassing works from Rembrandt's entire career, this compact and exquisitely produced monograph presents the full spectrum of the genres and materials used in the drawings. In addition, recent scholarship has revealed that many drawings once attributed to Rembrandt were in fact done by his pupils. Of the 126 drawings in the important Berlin collection from which this volume draws its illustrations, only 55 are still considered original works by the master. Each of these is presented here within a scholarly text by Holm Bevers. As well, a selection of 25 drawings by Rembrandt's pupils is examined in light of the most recent research.