Museum De Lakenhal will be 150 years old in 2024. The museum is celebrating that milestone with the presentation Rembrandt's Four Senses – His First Paintings.
Rembrandt created this series of paintings, comprising his earliest known work, when he was around 18 years old and living in Leiden. In addition to the Spectacles Seller (Allegory of Sight) from our own collection, the presentation features three works from The Leiden Collection, New York: Stone Operation (Allegory of Touch), Three Musicians (Allegory of Hearing) and *Unconscious Patient *(Allegory of Smell). The four paintings will be on display in the museum for 150 days.
In this series, Rembrandt creates variations on a classical theme in the arts. Particularly since the 16th century, the senses tended to be personified in art by elegant female figures, accompanied by fixed attributes. Rembrandt, however, favoured a different approach by opting for everyday scenes with which anyone could identity.
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Spectacles Seller, c. 1624-1625
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Three Musicians (Allegory of Hearing), c. 1624-1625
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Unconscious Patient (Allegory of Smell), c. 1624-1625
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Unconscious Patient (Allegory of Smell), c. 1624-1625
The works do evince the emergence of precisely those qualities that in time would turn Rembrandt into such an innovative and celebrated painter: among others, his singular use of chiaroscuro, his bold brushwork, and his unique eye for interaction between everyday people through an uncanny ability to capture their typical, characteristic expressions.
The reunion of Rembrandt’s Senses in the very city of their creation is a first, both for Leiden and for Museum De Lakenhal. They will be on display at the very heart of the permanent collection, surrounded by other works produced by the young Rembrandt, alongside several paintings by his friend and rival Jan Lievens as well as his star pupil Gerrit Dou.
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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