Rembrandt in America

This class will trace Rembrandt's entire career of over four decades and touch on all of the genres he mastered, without ever leaving the shores of the United States. American museums are rich in works by the artist who is sometimes described as "The deepest nature in the history of art": the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). The Metropolitan Museum in New York alone owns 16 Rembrandts, including "Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer." The National Gallery's 15 Rembrandts include one of his last self-portraits, his largest landscape, "The Mill," and the "Lucretia" which is one of the gallery's most popular works of art. The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena has three Rembrandts, the Detroit Institute of Art owns his unique "Visitation," the Frick in New York has one of his largest and most elaborate self-portraits as well as the haunting "Polish Rider," the Boston MFA owns the very early picture of the "Artist in his Studio", and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles has a youthful self-portrait of the artist laughing and a late picture of the Apostle Bartholomew as well as the rare mythological scene of the "Rape of Europa".