Rembrandt’s four early works are first presented together at an exhibition in Oxford

OXFORD. Four paintings from a series of five sensory organs, one of which was re-acquired only last year, will be presented together for the first time at the exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford. Visitors will see Rembrandt’s early works depicting sight, hearing, touch and smell. The paintings were painted in the years 1624-25.

“This is the first time that the paintings will be presented at the exhibition together, this is an amazing opportunity,” says Van Camp, curator of the gallery of northern European art. “As a curator, this is what I dream about first. Even the owners of the paintings never saw them together. ”

This small exhibition precedes a larger exhibition of paintings by young Rembrandt, which is scheduled for 2019-20 years. “We thought it would be nice to have some kind of teaser for the upcoming exhibition,” Van Kamp continued.

The exhibition is particularly noteworthy in that one of the paintings depicting the sense of smell was rediscovered only last year, in the basement of a house in New Jersey. The owners of the picture had no idea what kind of treasure they possess. I did not recognize the masterpiece and the auction house, which attributed the find as a secondary picture of an unknown author of the XIX century, valuing it at 500-800 US dollars. Later, the picture caught the eye of art dealers from Paris, who saw Rembrandt’s hand. As a result, the painting was sold at auction for 870,000 US dollars, and later - for an unknown amount to New York financier Thomas Kaplan. His private collection of paintings by Dutch masters is considered one of the largest in the world.

Today, the work is fully identified as a work by Rembrandt. The fifth picture from the series about the senses has not yet been found. All works in the series are small in size, not larger than A4, and are remarkable not only by the author, but also because they are created with a great sense of humor. So, for example, the picture symbolizing touch, “The Stone Operation (Touch)”, mimics the strange practice of treating headaches with a scalpel. In the picture “A Pedlar Selling Spectacles (Sight)”, symbolizing vision, the seller of glasses offers his goods to clearly blind customers. “The Unconscious Patient (Smell)”, the sense of smell, shows us how two quack doctors try to bring the young man to his senses using ammonia after the bloodletting procedure. “The Three Singers (Hearing)”, the rumor seems to be the most innocent in the series, here we see a trio of unlucky singers who do not sing well enough because they are not able to read music.

“This series clearly proves that at the age of only 18, Rembrandt was a genius who was able to betray the human character, emotions and an amazing amount of nuances with the help of the finest strokes. Thanks to this skill, he became one of the most famous artists of all time, ”Van Camp summed up.

In place of the fifth painting, a blank canvas will be presented at the exhibition. Each visitor to the exhibition can imagine what an absent plot might look like. And not only fantasize, but also portray in any way possible, and put it on Twitter under the tag #MissingRembrandt.

“Who knows, maybe we will find him,” the insert curator Van Kamp does not lose hope. “That would be the best outcome.”

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru