Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
The Windmill1641

Not on view

No image

Artist or Maker: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Northern Netherlands, 1606-1669
Title: The Windmill
Place Made: Holland
Date Made: 1641
Medium: Etching with touches of drypoint
Dimensions: Sheet: 5 3/4 × 8 1/4 in. (14.61 × 20.96 cm) Image: 5 3/4 × 8 1/4 in. (14.61 × 20.96 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Schoemann
Accession Number: M.79.13.5
Classification: Prints
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: Nicknamed “the Little Stink Mill,” this building was only about thirty years old at the time Rembrandt reproduced it in print, the artist intending to imbue his composition with an idyllic pastoral quality through the inclusion of plant life and aged edifices. Rembrandt also decentered the windmill, using an expanse of negative space to give the scene qualities of quiet and stillness. These compositional strategies allow the etching to stand as a meditation on the windmill as a natural part of the landscape outside of Amsterdam. Harmoniously nestled among the adjacent cottages along the bulwark, Rembrandt’s windmill seems far from the active industrial structure that it would have been in reality. The artist most likely sketched its finer details en plein air, translating select textures and surfaces of the natural environment into a composition evoking agrarian tranquility.

Claire Spadafora Baes

2023
Selected Bibliography: Hollstein, F. W. H. Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700. Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1949.
Bartsch, Adam von. The Illustrated Bartsch. New York: Abaris Books, 1978.
Zumaya, Diva. The World Made Wondrous: the Dutch Collector's Cabinet and the Politics of Possession. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2023.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
The Windmill1641

Not on view

No image

Artist or Maker: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Northern Netherlands, 1606-1669
Title: The Windmill
Place Made: Holland
Date Made: 1641
Medium: Etching with touches of drypoint
Dimensions: Sheet: 5 3/4 × 8 1/4 in. (14.61 × 20.96 cm) Image: 5 3/4 × 8 1/4 in. (14.61 × 20.96 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Schoemann
Accession Number: M.79.13.5
Classification: Prints
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: Nicknamed “the Little Stink Mill,” this building was only about thirty years old at the time Rembrandt reproduced it in print, the artist intending to imbue his composition with an idyllic pastoral quality through the inclusion of plant life and aged edifices. Rembrandt also decentered the windmill, using an expanse of negative space to give the scene qualities of quiet and stillness. These compositional strategies allow the etching to stand as a meditation on the windmill as a natural part of the landscape outside of Amsterdam. Harmoniously nestled among the adjacent cottages along the bulwark, Rembrandt’s windmill seems far from the active industrial structure that it would have been in reality. The artist most likely sketched its finer details en plein air, translating select textures and surfaces of the natural environment into a composition evoking agrarian tranquility.

Claire Spadafora Baes

2023
Selected Bibliography: Hollstein, F. W. H. Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700. Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1949.
Bartsch, Adam von. The Illustrated Bartsch. New York: Abaris Books, 1978.
Zumaya, Diva. The World Made Wondrous: the Dutch Collector's Cabinet and the Politics of Possession. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2023.