MMaxi Madeiraman

Photo: MMaxi09

Random words and thoughts

Laser 3.14

Love it.

Photo:MMaxi09

Artist
Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne

Technique
Engraving

Year
17th C.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Using vigorous lines Rembrandt has drawn a corpulent man leaning across a table-top with his arms crossed. The man's floppy hat tilts forward slightly, casting a shadow onto his podgy face. Rembrandt used brown gallnut ink - a type containing iron - and this has run in most places in the portrait. He used his finger to smear the ink to indicate shadow. The subject is Willem Ruyter, an actor who features in several of Rembrandt's drawings. On this occasion Rembrandt portrays him as a peasant, wearing a smock and a shapeless hat. Ruyter may have performed frequently in the 'boertigheden', popular burlesques with a country yokel in the principal role, a favourite at Amsterdam's theatres.

Title Pierrot (Oudezijds Achterburgwal)

Year 1889

Artist James Abott McNeill Whistler

Technique Ink on paper/Dry-point and etching

Dimensions 22,9 x 16,1 cm





The back of a house reflected in the water of an Amsterdam canal. There are two people in the doorway on the waterfront: a man leaning against a post (a dreamy figure, perhaps the Pierrot of the title?) and a woman leaning over the water. The building and the water are rendered with rough areas of hatching which leave large areas of black. A vague reflection of the two figures is visible in the water. James McNeill Whistler made this print in 1889, when he spent two months in the Netherlands. In fact, the artist visited this country several times. He found the rivers and canals inspiring and was especially enthralled by Amsterdam. In a series of prints he recorded his favourite parts of the city: the picturesque canals of the slum areas with their delapidated houses and rows of washing lines.

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