Comments on: Rembrandt’s face discovered in Jan Lievens paintings http://flyingfox.jonathanjanson.com/2009/02/03/rembrandts-face-discovered-in-jan-lievens-paintings/ Words from the Essential Vermeer.com Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:08:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ARech http://flyingfox.jonathanjanson.com/2009/02/03/rembrandts-face-discovered-in-jan-lievens-paintings/comment-page-1/#comment-2912 ARech Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:55:49 +0000 http://flyingfox.jonathanjanson.com/?p=1151#comment-2912 The question could be turned vice versa: Did Rembrandt ever depicted Jan Lievens' likeliness say in one of his early Biblical scenes? Certainly not, although both young aspiring artists, who, by the way, learned with the same teacher in Amsterdam, Pieter Lastman, worked closely together, used the same models and competed in the painting of similar themes. Instead, Rembrandt, as a kind of Narcissus, painted and drew numerous self-portraits in all stages of his life and in all facettes ever possible. It should be reminded, that it was Constantijn Huygens, http://www.essentialvermeer.com/history/huygens_a.html secretary to Prince Frederick Henry of Orange and one of the most cultured and influential figures in Holland in that times, who acted as the true discoverer both of Jan Lievens and Rembrandt. In his autobiography (1631) he describes a visit to their shared studio in Leiden in 1628. The artists made a deep impression to him. Huygens found Lievens the more open-minded and deeply inventive of the two, while Rembrandt was rather able to communicate intense emotions in his work. Huygens commissioned Lievens to paint his portrait (now Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) and Rembrandt to paint his brother's Maurits (now Kunsthalle Hamburg). For some years he closely followed the career of both artists, even acting as a sort of agent for their works. With his close connections to the English court Huygens assisted Lievens in his move to England, seeking a fortune there as court portraitist. To Rembrandt he secured a number of commissions from the Princely court in The Hague for its newly established art gallery, among them a five part series of the Passion of Christ (now in the Alte Pinakothek Munich). For both painters Huygens's tireless support marked the true begin of their artistic career – how different it came out at the end for both of them. It is an invaluable merit of this outstanding exhibition finally to release Jan Lievens and his art from Rembrandt's overpowering shadow and to bring this remarkable artist back to the mind and interest of all earnestly engaged in the Dutch art of the Golden Age. AR The question could be turned vice versa: Did Rembrandt ever depicted Jan Lievens’ likeliness say in one of his early Biblical scenes? Certainly not, although both young aspiring artists, who, by the way, learned with the same teacher in Amsterdam, Pieter Lastman, worked closely together, used the same models and competed in the painting of similar themes. Instead, Rembrandt, as a kind of Narcissus, painted and drew numerous self-portraits in all stages of his life and in all facettes ever possible.

It should be reminded, that it was Constantijn Huygens, http://www.essentialvermeer.com/history/huygens_a.html
secretary to Prince Frederick Henry of Orange and one of the most cultured and influential figures in Holland in that times, who acted as the true discoverer both of Jan Lievens and Rembrandt. In his autobiography (1631) he describes a visit to their shared studio in Leiden in 1628. The artists made a deep impression to him. Huygens found Lievens the more open-minded and deeply inventive of the two, while Rembrandt was rather able to communicate intense emotions in his work. Huygens commissioned Lievens to paint his portrait (now Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) and Rembrandt to paint his brother’s Maurits (now Kunsthalle Hamburg). For some years he closely followed the career of both artists, even acting as a sort of agent for their works. With his close connections to the English court Huygens assisted Lievens in his move to England, seeking a fortune there as court portraitist. To Rembrandt he secured a number of commissions from the Princely court in The Hague for its newly established art gallery, among them a five part series of the Passion of Christ (now in the Alte Pinakothek Munich). For both painters Huygens’s tireless support marked the true begin of their artistic career – how different it came out at the end for both of them.

It is an invaluable merit of this outstanding exhibition finally to release Jan Lievens and his art from Rembrandt’s overpowering shadow and to bring this remarkable artist back to the mind and interest of all earnestly engaged in the Dutch art of the Golden Age.

AR

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