The Goldsmith (and his family)
Etching
7.6 x 5.7 cms
3 x 2 1/4 ins
3 x 2 1/4 ins
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In a sense you ask what is impossible to talk about. But let us suppose Rembrandt’s life had been one long anthem of success, then the late and more marvelous of the two self-portraits in the National Gallery could not have been painted. The Conspiracy of The Batavians must have been absolutely staggering; and those Dutch oxen refused it, telling him to take it away.And now all one has is this fragment in Stockholm. Just think of the mutilation of what must have been one of the greatest pictures ever painted. But Rembrandt was never entirely rejected because commissions did continue until the very end. Like Shakespeare, he had this tremendous genius of understanding for the human situation. And I think his hardships quickened the shaping of what didn’t matter. Like a great violinist, he no longer wavered but was able to put it down very simply. I can’t imagine Rembrandt wasting any time ever. But he was only human. I’ve no doubt that the late things would have become more profound.But I think this came about more quickly through the tragedies in his life – just as I think thatthe death of Titus; and of all those people whom he had known and loved – this whole procession of disasters that happened so comparatively quickly – eventually killed him.
He was only sixty-three when he died. And I can imagine him at the very end thinking ‘Oh blast’ and going on and on. It is impossible not to. His contemporaries threw him overboard and he died very poor. But Rembrandt knew what he had done. If he could have lived to be Frans Hals’s age or Michelangelo’s or Titian’s, there would be pictures in this world of which we can’t conceive.In relation to Rembrandt and an infinitely smaller figure, it is only the character of the man which happens to have whatever it is in Nature that makes him a genius, and the other a much smaller figure. But the quality and the feeling and the sincerity are only less to a degree, in relation to the character of the particular man. Rembrandt is so overwhelming that you cannot be an artist – any artist worthy of his salt – and not be influenced by this titanic figure. Other much smaller artists feel this tremendous vibration because of his genius and his passion and his belief.
I worship Rembrandt more than any other painter. And that is simply because I think he is the greatest genius in drawing and painting of the whole lot. And his outlook, to me, is the most marvelously humane and balanced. Yet he worked with untiring passion. Rembrandt, at the end of his life, is the same staggering fellow that he was at the beginning. He simply becomes more and more profound, richer and richer, more and more amazing, always more generous,wider and deeper. It isn’t flying from one point to another for the sake of some new idea. It is a tremendous development based upon profound study.
Albert Houthuesen from Walk To The Moon – The Story of Albert Houthuesen, by Richard Nathanson
He was only sixty-three when he died. And I can imagine him at the very end thinking ‘Oh blast’ and going on and on. It is impossible not to. His contemporaries threw him overboard and he died very poor. But Rembrandt knew what he had done. If he could have lived to be Frans Hals’s age or Michelangelo’s or Titian’s, there would be pictures in this world of which we can’t conceive.In relation to Rembrandt and an infinitely smaller figure, it is only the character of the man which happens to have whatever it is in Nature that makes him a genius, and the other a much smaller figure. But the quality and the feeling and the sincerity are only less to a degree, in relation to the character of the particular man. Rembrandt is so overwhelming that you cannot be an artist – any artist worthy of his salt – and not be influenced by this titanic figure. Other much smaller artists feel this tremendous vibration because of his genius and his passion and his belief.
I worship Rembrandt more than any other painter. And that is simply because I think he is the greatest genius in drawing and painting of the whole lot. And his outlook, to me, is the most marvelously humane and balanced. Yet he worked with untiring passion. Rembrandt, at the end of his life, is the same staggering fellow that he was at the beginning. He simply becomes more and more profound, richer and richer, more and more amazing, always more generous,wider and deeper. It isn’t flying from one point to another for the sake of some new idea. It is a tremendous development based upon profound study.
Albert Houthuesen from Walk To The Moon – The Story of Albert Houthuesen, by Richard Nathanson
In a sense you ask what is impossible to talk about. But let us suppose Rembrandt’s life had been one long anthem of success, then the late and more marvelous of the two self-portraits in the National Gallery could not have been painted. The Conspiracy of The Batavians must have been absolutely staggering; and those Dutch oxen refused it, telling him to take it away.And now all one has is this fragment in Stockholm. Just think of the mutilation of what must have been one of the greatest pictures ever painted. But Rembrandt was never entirely rejected because commissions did continue until the very end. Like Shakespeare, he had this tremendous genius of understanding for the human situation. And I think his hardships quickened the shaping of what didn’t matter. Like a great violinist, he no longer wavered but was able to put it down very simply. I can’t imagine Rembrandt wasting any time ever. But he was only human. I’ve no doubt that the late things would have become more profound.But I think this came about more quickly through the tragedies in his life – just as I think thatthe death of Titus; and of all those people whom he had known and loved – this whole procession of disasters that happened so comparatively quickly – eventually killed him.
He was only sixty-three when he died. And I can imagine him at the very end thinking ‘Oh blast’ and going on and on. It is impossible not to. His contemporaries threw him overboard and he died very poor. But Rembrandt knew what he had done. If he could have lived to be Frans Hals’s age or Michelangelo’s or Titian’s, there would be pictures in this world of which we can’t conceive.In relation to Rembrandt and an infinitely smaller figure, it is only the character of the man which happens to have whatever it is in Nature that makes him a genius, and the other a much smaller figure. But the quality and the feeling and the sincerity are only less to a degree, in relation to the character of the particular man. Rembrandt is so overwhelming that you cannot be an artist – any artist worthy of his salt – and not be influenced by this titanic figure. Other much smaller artists feel this tremendous vibration because of his genius and his passion and his belief.
I worship Rembrandt more than any other painter. And that is simply because I think he is the greatest genius in drawing and painting of the whole lot. And his outlook, to me, is the most marvelously humane and balanced. Yet he worked with untiring passion. Rembrandt, at the end of his life, is the same staggering fellow that he was at the beginning. He simply becomes more and more profound, richer and richer, more and more amazing, always more generous,wider and deeper. It isn’t flying from one point to another for the sake of some new idea. It is a tremendous development based upon profound study.
Albert Houthuesen from Walk To The Moon – The Story of Albert Houthuesen, by Richard Nathanson
He was only sixty-three when he died. And I can imagine him at the very end thinking ‘Oh blast’ and going on and on. It is impossible not to. His contemporaries threw him overboard and he died very poor. But Rembrandt knew what he had done. If he could have lived to be Frans Hals’s age or Michelangelo’s or Titian’s, there would be pictures in this world of which we can’t conceive.In relation to Rembrandt and an infinitely smaller figure, it is only the character of the man which happens to have whatever it is in Nature that makes him a genius, and the other a much smaller figure. But the quality and the feeling and the sincerity are only less to a degree, in relation to the character of the particular man. Rembrandt is so overwhelming that you cannot be an artist – any artist worthy of his salt – and not be influenced by this titanic figure. Other much smaller artists feel this tremendous vibration because of his genius and his passion and his belief.
I worship Rembrandt more than any other painter. And that is simply because I think he is the greatest genius in drawing and painting of the whole lot. And his outlook, to me, is the most marvelously humane and balanced. Yet he worked with untiring passion. Rembrandt, at the end of his life, is the same staggering fellow that he was at the beginning. He simply becomes more and more profound, richer and richer, more and more amazing, always more generous,wider and deeper. It isn’t flying from one point to another for the sake of some new idea. It is a tremendous development based upon profound study.
Albert Houthuesen from Walk To The Moon – The Story of Albert Houthuesen, by Richard Nathanson
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