Rembrandt House Museum
The Rembrandt House Museum is an art museum opened in 1911 in Amsterdam. The museum displays Rembrandt's etchings, paintings of his contemporaries, and a reconstruction of the house means to Rembrandt's lifetime.
History
The museum building was the home of Rembrandt van Rijn, who bought it in 1639 and until his bankruptcy in 1658 inhabited, after which it was sold. As a result, it was divided into two parts and inhabited until the early 20th century by different families. The condition deteriorated steadily, so it was not torn down only because of its famous former resident. The occasion for further action to rescue the house was the Jubilee Year 1906. The city of Amsterdam bought the house and gave it to the founded in 1907 Stichting Rembrandt House, which had the aim largely to put the house back to its state of the mid-17th century. The presented reconstruction has not been implemented, as the foundation for a contemporary design decided. The up to the year 1911 ongoing restoration took place under the direction of architect Karel PC de Bazel instead. The opening of the museum, which is housed a collection of prints was made by Queen Wilhelmina.
The collection of etchings grew in the early years of the museum as a result of donations and own purchases. The focus of the collection was based on a proposal of the first museum trustees belonging painter Jan Veth. Patrons of the museum have included Paul Warburg and Jozef Israels, and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam gave the museum a few etchings. In addition, there appeared various auctions in appearance to buy more plants for the collection. Especially in the second half of the 20th century, the purchasing policy has become increasingly difficult for the museum because of the high prices for works of Rembrandt and the support of patrons and the state even more crucial. In addition to the expansion of the collection temporary exhibitions were held at regular intervals.
Until the 1990s, few changes were made to the building. The Board of Trustees of the Museum decided to build a museum extension due to donations. The architects Moshé Zwarts and Rein Jansma designed the facade of the new building, the interior took before Peter Sas. The extension was opened on 7 May 1998. It has room for two exhibition galleries, the administration and the library with the " Rembrandt Information Center ". The new building revived again the idea of the historical reconstruction of Rembrandt's house. After a big debate about this project a group of experts headed by Henk Zantkuijl was formed. The reconstruction was carried out according to the original plans was carried out by the companies Kneppers and Midreth. 1999, the work was completed.
Collection
The collection of the Rembrandt House Museum includes 260 of the 290 etchings Rembrandt's an almost complete overview of Rembrandt's work in this genre. In addition, it also has some of the printing plates.
Among the works owned by the museum, for example, include the etchings Abraham's sacrifice, which is 15.6 × 13.1 inches tall and dates from 1655, and the ruins of the old city hall of Amsterdam. Further examples are The Flight into Egypt, David and Goliath and the fourth state of etching The Three Crosses. There are also other as the self-portrait with bushy hair and the landscape with the three trees.
The landscape with the three trees
The three crosses
Three farmhouses along a pathway
In addition to the etchings of Rembrandt, the museum has a collection of paintings by artists who mostly worked in Amsterdam before 1631 Rembrandt moved there and served as role models. So a few paintings of Rembrandt's teacher Pieter Lastman are in the collection. Among the 1616 resulting paintings The Crucifixion, 1612, the painted picture Abraham's sacrifice and Mourning Abel, the Lastman 1623 anfertigte. Other works are as of Jan Pynas. In addition, some works of Rembrandt pupils are seen as Christ appears to Mary Magdalene, the Ferdinand Bol painted after a painting by Rembrandt.
Portrait of Eleazar Swalmius