Abu Dhabi – For the first time in the Middle East, Louvre Abu Dhabi exhibits twenty paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), considered one of the most important painters of all times. The exhibition retraces Rembrandt’s artistic journey in Leiden and Amsterdam in 17th century and his relationships with rivals and peers including Johannes Vermeer, Jan Lievens, Ferdinand Bol, Carel Fabritius, Gerrit Dou, Frans van Mieris, and Frans Hals.
Ninety-five artworks will be exhibited, including paintings, drawings and objects from the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age. The exhibition marks the 350 years of the death of Rembrandt, the most important painter in the history of Dutch art.
Called “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age,” it showcases masterpieces from the Leiden Collection and the Louvre Museum in Paris. The exhibition in Louvre Abu Dhabi started in February 14 and runs until May 18.
The small and delicate Rembrandt’s oil sketch “Study of the Head and Clasped Hands of a Young Man as Christ in Prayer”, circa 1648-1656, was the most recent acquisition by Louvre Abu Dhabi. It is part of the exhibition and as soon as the show ends, it will go to the museum’s permanent collection.
The main painting of the show (Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes), from 1634, where Rembrandt, using noble vests. looks directly into the eye of the spectator with melancholic eyes shaded by his cap. The artist painted several self-portraits along his career.
Dutch Golden Age was a brief period during the 17th century, when the Dutch Republic, then independent from the Spanish Crown, became a world leader in trade, science, and the arts, known as one of the most thriving countries in Europe. Rembrandt and Vermeer established themselves ahead of a new art movement marked by a deep interest in humanity and the daily life.
(Continues after gallery)
Louvre Abu Dhabi
In addition to itinerant exhibitions, the museum also has a permanent or borrowed collection with more than 700 works, including an Egyptian carpet from 1450; millenary Egyptian sarcophagi and Chinese arts; the Turkish painting “Young Emir Studying” by Osman Hamdy Bey (1878), one of the most emblematic of the show; works from the Renaissance and Neoclassicism, such as Da Vinci’s “La Belle Ferronière” and Jacques-Louis David’s “Napoleon;” Post-Impressionist, Surrealist, Modernist, Cubist and Expressionist paintings by Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, Mondrian, Paul Klee, Miró, Pollock, Rothko, Basquiat, and Picasso; and even contemporary art by the Senegalese artist Omar BA (Act 1 – Repair, 2016) and “The Coffee House,” by the Iraqi artist Faisal Laibi Sahi (1986).
Opened in November 2017, the museum already received more than one million visitors, mostly Emiratis and Indians. The museum’s project is signed by the French architect Jean Nouvel. It is licensed to use the name of one of the world’s most renowned museums, the Louvre in Paris, for 30 years and six months.
The reporter had the chance to visit the venue and can say it is worthy to visit, for the architecture itself – seen from the inside, the vault is a wonder – the artworks, and the millenary culture brought together in one place.
Quick Facts
Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age
From February 14 to May 18, 2019
Tickets range from AED 30 to 60
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Saadiyat Cultural District
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
+971 600 56 55 66
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
