Online interactive guide to close comparison of drawings by Rembrandt and 10 of his students: Jan Lievens -- Govert Flinck -- Ferdinand Bol -- Nicolaes Maes -- Constantijn Daniel van Renesse -- Abraham Furnerius -- Gerbrand van den Eeckhout -- Samuel van Hoogstraten -- Johannes Raven -- Unknown Rembrandt pupil.

Rembrandt's greatness lies in his highly individual style and his consummate skill in portraying character. The style of his drawings, etchings and paintings evolved constantly throughout his active life as an artist, from 1625 to 1669, which explains the marked differences between works produced in successive periods of his career. The Louvre's collection certainly reflects the great diversity of his graphic art but it also brings out constants in his drawings and incidentally in his paintings and etchings, notably his immense power of evocation combined with a judicious selection of what truly characterized the subject and a striking and acute rendering of human feelings, even in the smallest formats.

''Contrary to our conception of Italian and Spanish drawing, figure studies are not the first works that come to mind when one imagines the panorama of Dutch drawing from Holland's flourishing period. One might think first about the quiet landscapes of Van Goyen, river views under a high sky with a ferry-boat transporting travelers, or about cattle with a shepherd in the shade of a willow as depicted by Cuyp or Potter. Another will see Ruisdael's heavy trees, Molijn's views of dunes, or the woods of Waterloo. For many the images are lively scenes at a public house by Ostade or colorful ice scenes by Averkamp; and nobody will forget the butterflies and insects, and the shells and flowers which were famous in such great numbers throughout the entire 17th century. Studies of the human figure are, initially, somewhat out of the picture. And what about Rembrandt then? Yes, those who think about his drawn cruvre see directly next to his biblical compositions, landscapes, beggars, and Orientals, nude models posing at the border of light and dark, rapid and precise figure sketches with the reed pen, sometimes four or five together on one sheet. In the extremely versatile cruvre of Rembrandt we find our first ideas about Dutch drawings corrected and now figure drawings by other artists also appear in the field of vision. Through closer observation these drawings appear in always greater numbers, in ever richer variation of type, and in unexpected colorful nuances of drawing techniques and materials. Among them one recognizes here and there one among a selection of 'One Hundred Drawings from the Golden Age', or 'Seventeenth Century Drawings from Public Collections. By now they seem to be accompanied by a whole crowd of family members, several generations that are very different from one another, all of them silent and waiting to be brought to speak.''--

Part of a comprehensive series cataloging the unparalleled holdings of Dutch drawings in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, this two-volume set includes work by Avercamp, Leonaert Bramer, Breenbergh, Buytewech, Jan van Goyen, Dirck Hals, Pieter van Laer, Pieter Lastman, Cornelis van Poelenburgh, Pieter Saenredam, Hercules Segers, Esaias van de Velde, and Simon de Vlieger. Many are landscapes by these artists of the Dutch Golden Age, but the enormous variety of the 860 drawings here reproduced also includes portraits, religious figures, genre scenes, copies after the antique, and architecture. A critical commentary by the small team of scholars involved fully discusses attribution, iconography, and technique. The two volumes are fully indexed and include an appendix of X-ray photographs of watermarks.

"Rembrandt was the most original printmaker of all time. In no fewer than 300 images he covered the full range of styles and subjects for which he is celebrated, including self-portraits, scenes from the Bible, vignettes of everyday life and character studies. The well-known 'Hundred Guilder print', the 'Three Trees' and the 'Three Crosses' are among his most extraordinary creations. He was also famously experimental, often reworking and scratching at his copper plates to improve and extend their expressive power. The results can look startlingly modern, and continue to inspire artists today. This catalogue, compiled by three leading authorities on Rembrandt and printmaking, aims to illustrate a representative selection of his finest prints. Exciting new areas of research have opened up in recent years, making it possible not only to follow the progress of Rembrandt's work on each plate, but also revealing details of his practice of revising the images at various times during his life. The different papers he used will be studied and all the watermarks reproduced. The role played by Rembrandt's preparatory drawings is also now better understood, and all these new insights are presented to a wider public for the first time in this lavishly illustrated volume"--Provided by publisher.

"Katalog zur Ausstellung der Staatlichen Graphischen Sammlung Meunchen, Meunchen, Alte Pinakothek, 5.12.2001-10.2.2002, Amsterdam, Museum het Rembrandthuis, 7.9.2002-17.11.2002"--T.p. verso.