7.16.15 Rembrandt and Lastmann

Yesterday was Rembrandt’s birthday.

André Malraux, in The Voices of Silence, talks about Rembrandt’s early work showing the influence of his teacher Pieter Lastmann. Here’s Rembrandt at the age of twenty.

Malraux talks about the “fallacy of a ‘neutral style.’”
“Its origin is the idea that a living model can be copied without interpretation or any self-expression; actually no such literal copy has ever been made. Even in drawing this notion can be applied only to a small range of subjects: to a standing horse seen in profile, for instance, but not to a galloping horse. This theory owes much to the silhouette, and underlying it is the assumption that the basic neutral style would be a bare outline. But any such method, if strictly followed, would not lead to any form of art, but would stand in the same relation to drawing as an art as the commercial or official style of writing stands to literature.”
Here’s a work by Pieter Lastmann.

Malraux continues: “A neutral style no more exists than does a neutral language; styleless pictures no more exist than do wordless thoughts. Thus the teaching of the plastic arts (apart from mere training of the hand) is nothing more than the teaching of the significant elements in a style or several styles (thus, in our own, perspective is one of these elements). Academic drawing is a rationalized style—what theosophy is to religions or Esperanto to a living tongue.… Though the life-stories of great painters show us pastiches as being the starting point of their art, none tells of a transition from the art school to genius without a conflict with some previous genius. Any more than the history of art can show us a style born directly from nature, and not from a conflict with another style.”

André Malraux, The Voices of Silence, 1953. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. p.316
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-1669
Pieter Lastman, 1583 – 1633

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Dragging the Brush

This painting started with a partial overpainting of an abandoned work, which produced an uneven, partly bumpy surface. That’s a good start. When the artist dragged his brush in that elliptical line (upper right), it skipped over the pebbly surface, resulting in a sparkling illusion. This unintended effect was so inspiring that his imagination then spun out a series of associations that can’t be confined by logic, but are compelling to look at.
The initial sparkling effect of the brush reminds me of Rembrandt. He often builds up layers of paint and then he drags his brush over the crusty surface. The brush skips over the bumps and the result may be the illusion of a gold chain, some fabric texture or embroidery. When I saw this portrait of a boy with a chain (some years ago in San Francisco), I kept stepping back several feet and then going as close as the guard would allow me. From a distance it looks like a metallic chain or strap. Up close, it’s a mess of yellow blobs created by a fairly dry brush dragged over a rough surface. He used the same technique on the collar and the hat.  Looking at Rembrandt in this back and forth way has driven me crazy many times. Crazy, as in gasping and weepy.

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-1669
Painting by Harold Bauer, oil on canvas, about 30”x24”
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
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http://katherinehilden.wordpress.com
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