Willem Drost (1633–1659) was one of Rembrandt’s most gifted pupils, and he is also considered one of the most mysterious. This book, the first ever devoted to this exceptional artist, unravels many of the mysteries of Drost’s life and career. Curator and art historian Jonathan Bikker offers not only new archival evidence of the artist’s date and place of death, but also a new assessment of Drost’s place in the Rembrandt workshop and in the Venetian art world of the mid-seventeenth century. Drost emerges as one of Rembrandt’s most talented imitators and, despite his short career, an artist with a variety of faces. The book features a meticulously researched and fully illustrated catalogue raisonné with 38 paintings now attributed to Drost (several formerly attributed to Rembrandt) and 35 other paintings today known only from old sale catalogues or reproductions. The author also discusses 32 paintings he rejects as Drost’s work.

Willem Drost: A Rembrandt Pupil in Amsterdam and Venice

Arts & Photography

Bikker, Jonathan

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

The first book to focus exclusively on the extraordinary paintings, drawings, and prints that Rembrandt produced in the most innovative part of his career From the mid-1650s until his death at age sixty-three, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) generated a remarkable body of work as he searched for a new, painterly, and expressive style. His later works demonstrate his mastery, skillfulness, and exceptional ability to render the effects of light, and they have since defined his image as an artist. Rembrandt gleaned inspiration from his direct study of nature, exalting the humble, the mundane, and even the ugly, particularly in his self-portraits and works based on his everyday surroundings. His intimate pictures of figures from history, often portrayed in austere or introspective attitudes, are created with extraordinary sensitivity. This handsome volume includes superb reproductions of some of Rembrandt’s most recognizable paintings, alongside etchings and drawings in various media that demonstrate his mastery of the graphic medium. Through a series of thematic essays, the authors draw on new research to examine Rembrandt’s iconographic, stylistic, and technical innovations and underscore how his work in one medium influenced his work in others. This captivating book is the first to focus exclusively on the paintings, drawings, and prints that Rembrandt produced during the final, most creative phase of his career.

Rembrandt: The Late Works

Weber, Gregor J.M.

National Gallery London

This spectacular slipcased two-volume set is the first in a series of four catalogues that will showcase the holdings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which owns the world’s largest and most representative collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. Focusing on 445 works by such masters as Hendrick Avercamp, Balthasar van der Ast, Hendrick ter Brugghen, and Esaias van de Velde, Volume I presents the work of some 100 painters who together provide a comprehensive overview of the dawn of 17th-century Dutch art.  An up-to-date biography is provided for each artist as is the complete known provenance for each painting. The paintings have been fully researched and described, and all are reproduced in full color. An appendix of photographed signatures is also included. For every admirer of the Dutch masters, this set is both a treasure trove of information and a delight to the eye.

Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: Volume 1: Artists Born Between 1570 and 1600

Dibbits, Taco

Kok, Jan Piet Filedt

Wuestman, Gerdien

Bruijnen, Yvonne

Altes, Everhard Korthals

In 2019, on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the death of Rembrandt (1606–69), Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is honoring the artist with an unprecedented exhibition, appropriately titled All the Rembrandts. The “Year of Rembrandt” also brings us Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel, an authoritative biography of the Dutch Master written by acclaimed Rembrandt scholar Jonathan Bikker and designed by Irma Boom. The Rijksmuseum’s collection of Rembrandt’s paintings offers a coherent overview of the artist’s life―from his early Self-Portrait as a Young Man (c. 1628) to his late Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul (1661)―and Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel fills in the context around these and other works, painting an unparalleled picture of Rembrandt as a human being, as an artist, as a storyteller and as an innovator. Jonathan Bikker (born 1965) has worked at the Rijksmuseum since 2001 and has been Curator of Research since 2006. He studied Art History at McMaster University and Queen’s University in Canada. In the Rijksmuseum’s Fine Arts department, he primarily works as writer and editor-in-chief of a series of catalogs of 17th-century North Dutch paintings. He has also contributed to a number of Rijksmuseum exhibition catalogs.

Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel

nai010 publishers

The Rijksmuseum is home to the world’s largest collection of paintings by Rembrandt (1606–69), including the legendary works The Night Watch, The Jewish Bride, The Syndics and the great portraits of the couple Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit. The museum also boasts a vast collection of Rembrandt’s drawings and etchings. In this volume, for the first time, all 22 paintings and 60 drawings―as well as 300 of the most beautiful etchings in the collection―are presented together. Designed by Irma Boom, Rembrandt × Rijksmuseum is both compactly sized and―at more than 800 pages―vast in scope, offering a thrilling and attractive new experience of the artist in book form. Rembrandt × Rijksmuseum is published on the occasion of the Rijksmuseum exhibition All the Rembrandts, in what has been officially designated as the Year of Rembrandt 2019. The paintings, drawings and etchings gathered here offer an unparalleled perspective on Rembrandt the artist, the human being and the storyteller.

Rembrandt x Rijksmuseum