Beyond Rembrandt

As part of its Dutch season, several works from the Condé museum’s collection are being shown for the first time. An avid admirer of prints, the Duke of Aumale built up a large collection of drypoints and etchings which reveal how Rembrandt was far from the only artist to use these techniques to remarkable effect.

The technically brilliant landscapes engraved by Jacob Van Ruisdael, the genre scenes of Dutch peasant life by Adriaen Van Ostade, the portraits by Anthony Van Dyck, the soldiers by Hendrik Goltzius, the seascapes by Reinier Nooms, known as Zeeman, and the cows and sheep by Nicolaes Berchem and Paulus Potter, all conserved at Chantilly, offer a unique insight into the collective imagination of the Dutch Golden Age, a period celebrated by contemporaries as one of exceptional prosperity and optimism.

On public display for the first time, these engraved masterpieces give a sense of the extremely rich artistic production of the Dutch Golden Age and the breadth and depth of its artists.

Although often eclipsed by the Dutch master’s dazzling reputation, Rembrandt’s contemporaries nevertheless produced works of the utmost importance. These historically and politically significant engravings bring into sharp focus every aspect of life during the revolts against Spanish rule in the first half of the century, which ended in independence for the United Provinces of the Netherlands in 1648.

These works shine a rare light on the Dutch Golden Age, the construction of a cultural identity, and the emergence of a political entity.

As it prepares to close for renovation, the Jacquemart-André museum has loaned its three paintings by Rembrandt for display in the Psyche Gallery at the Château de Chantilly.