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1 Rembrandt – An icon
In his book, with the Dutch title ‘Anders gekeken’ (literally meaning seen from a different angle) which provides an overview of the best and most fascinating Dutch paintings from the Golden Age, sociologist Paul Schnabel says that our vision of art is determined by our Dutch Identity. ‘Our’ meaning the visons of people from the Netherlands. In this 2021 publication, Schnabel presents his unique view of the best and most fascinating of all Dutch paintings from the Golden Age: The Night Watch. I will discuss this painting more thoroughly in one of my following podcasts.
The famous Night Watch was hung in the new Dutch national museum, the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, in 1885. The painting is located at the end of the Gallery of Honour – and many of you listeners can no doubt picture the location – and it is undoubtedly the highlight here. Schnabel writes (p. 14): ‘It has become our national icon and the whole world comes to see it.’ In his book, the author places 17th century art in the light of the time in which it was created and, as a sociologist, he adds interesting accents. That is why his book is ‘a story with a moral’ as Paul Schnabel says: our vision of art is determined by our Dutch identity. We cherish what we experience as typically Dutch. The canon of art and artists is reflected in street names, statues and stamps, referring to Rembrandt.
2 Use of a canon
To present a representative view of Dutch history, a so-called ‘canon’ is used. Although ‘to canonize’ means canonization, the meaning of the term ‘canon’ is much less compelling. A canon provides an overview of a field of study of what is decisive or representative in that field and should be known by ‘everyone’. Sociologist and art lover Paul Schnabel (Schnabel (2021), p. 54), however, rightly emphasizes that a canon does not establish a normatively binding rule of what is important, in whatever area it covers (art, medicine, etc.). A canon is not a ‘forever’ valid order of things, it is a just a practical tool to be able to make relevant choices in the multitude of information that we receive every day.
Any canon is open to change: changes in taste, in appreciation and in preference, also in comparison with which other parts that are included in the canon; these can all lead to changes. Schnabel places Dutch art in the light of the time in which it was created. As a sociologist, he presents his book as, I quote, ‘a story with a moral’, where he says: our vision of art is determined by our Dutch identity. We cherish what we experience as typically Dutch.
3 The Netherlands or Holland?
Dutch, the Netherlands, Holland, what do those terms mean? I have to explain something here because over the past 30 odd years, foreign friends and colleagues have always asked me about this. They cannot see the wood for the trees.
First: the difference between the Netherlands and Holland.
The official name for the Netherlands is ‘Koninkrijk der Nederlanden’ (Kingdom of the Netherlands). For over 200 years, it has been a sovereign state and, since 2021, it is composed of four countries: the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten. These countries are equal parts of the Kingdom, but have different political positions. It is, however, rather common to use the name ‘Holland’, which actually means only two of the twelve provinces of the country (North-Holland and South-Holland). These two provinces are located to the west of the whole country, i.e. the territory in Europe, and include cities such as Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Dordrecht – the city where I live.
Other islands, until 2010 known as part of the Dutch Antilles, are an integral part of the Netherlands as a public body: Bonaire, Saint Eustatius, and Saba. In EU matters, the European geographic region is called ‘the Netherlands’; a capital ‘T’ is not necessary. In tables ‘Netherlands’ will suffice.
The name Holland, which you see in the provinces of North Holland and South Holland, has nothing to do with ‘being a country’. In the Middle Ages, Holland was ‘Holtland’, ‘Holzland’, or ‘timberland’ and probably originally referred to a small area near Leiden. Since late 2019, however, the Dutch government has decided to refer solely to ‘the Netherlands’. In doing so, it hopes to reduce tourism in certain regions (i.e. the provinces North Holland and South Holland) and to attract it more in other regions.
Now the term ‘Dutch’. Where does this term come from? The term ‘Dutch’ comes from the old name ‘Duits’ (now meaning ‘German’ or ‘Dietsch’ for Dutch). English borrowed the word Dutch from the ‘Netherlandic’ language, at a time when the people living here referred to their language as ‘Duits’ or ‘Dietsch’. This was around the late Middle Ages, so roughly from around 1000 to 1500 AD.
As a matter of fact, the Dutch national anthem (‘Wilhelmus’) is from around 1570. It is therefore a centuries-old propaganda song to start a rebellion, led by William of Orange, against the Spanish rule. William of Orange (also William the Silent or William the Taciturn (Dutch: Willem de Zwijger) (1533–1584)) was the leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs that set off the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648). This war resulted in the formal independence of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces in 1648. The text of the Dutch hymn is written from the point of view of William of Orange himself. It begins with the line: ‘Wilhelmus van Nassouwe ben ik, van Duitsen bloed’ (Wilhelmus of Nassouwe I am, of German blood). At that time, as said, German was a synonym for Dutch.
The term ‘Dutch’ is even broader. Five hundred years ago there was still no question of any standardization of vernacular languages ??which are spoken in the current Netherlands and Belgian region. According to Flemish historian Bart van Loo, the term ‘Diets’ does not refer to a uniform language. Rather, it is an umbrella term for medieval regional languages ??such as Vlaams (Flemish), Brabants, Hollands and Limburgish. Only in the 13th century did something like a Dietse vernacular emerge. In the early days of Charles V (‘Karel V’ (1500–1558) four languages were in use: Latin (only mastered as a ceremonial language by the clergy), French (in Walloon territories used by a large part of the elite), Spanish (to become the language of secular authority) and ‘Diets’ for the other inhabitants. This is especially evident from deeds that give local units (cities) their city rights, partly as rights derived from the lords of the feudal era; see Van Loo (2022), p. 196ff., in his book on the Burgundians. Patriarchs of the Low Lands.
4 The Canon of 2020
OK, long story, but necessary to get some grip on our small country. Back to the Canon.
The ‘Canon of the Netherlands’ uses 50 windows to display the most important events, people and objects that have made the Netherlands what it is today.
The second version dates from 2020, the first from 2006. Despite general appreciation for the 2006 version, certain scientific areas (e.g. the natural sciences) felt that they were not favourably reflected in the Canon. More than ten years later – talking about change in appreciation and preference – a discussion in politics has arisen about the composition of the Canon. It led to the conclusion that the Canon was not diverse enough and that it consisted of too many men. The recalibration of the Canon by a Dutch committee (chaired by Professor James Kennedy) presented its updated Canon in 2020.
See (in English) www.canonvannederland.nl/en/
In the context of my book, this podcast ‘Rembrandt’s Money’ mainly covers events from the Canon of 2020 related to the Golden Age period. In the Canon, nine themes have been selected to represent this area. They cover political, cultural, scientific and mercantile events and leaders. One canon is nr. 18 ‘Rembrandt (A country full of painters; 1606?-1669)’.
Around 12 (out of 50) windows of today’s Canon of the Netherlands relate to the period I covered in my book ‘Rembrandt’s Money’. Let’s do some bookkeeping. Historically, the country that is now roughly the Netherlands is said to have originated around the year 300. With 20 centuries and 50 windows, the period of around the 100 years I cover in my book, would result in 2.5 windows. The Canon selects 12 of these windows. This indicates how important experts consider this period for the structure and significance of the Netherlands.
I live in Dordrecht, Holland’s oldest city. In Holland, Dordrecht was the first well-developed and economically strong settlement to receive ‘city rights’ from the sovereign ruler at that time. In my city, the ‘Rembrandt’ window from the Dutch Canon (nr. 18) has been further developed by the Dordrechts Museum where work can be seen by painters from Dordrecht who were all apprentices of Rembrandt: Ferdinand Bol, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Nicolaes Maes, Jacobus Leveck, Abraham van Dijck en Arent de Gelder. Of around 50 pupils of Rembrandt six had Dordrecht roots. This history of Rembrandt’s pupils will be covered in a later episode of the podcast. So, I would say, stay tuned.
5 Why Rembrandt?
The idea behind the choice for Rembrandt in the Canon came from the realization that the genre of Dutch painting was not dominated by only a few great masters, working in important artistic centres such as Amsterdam, Haarlem, Delft or Utrecht. To name a few: Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, and Jan Steen. Rembrandt has been chosen as the best-known symbol of the remarkable cultural flourishing of the 17th century.
However, as Gary Schwartz (Schwartz (2014), 36ff.) noted, this has not always been the case. After Rembrandt’s passing away in 1669, for over a hundred years he was considered just a common popular artist. His rediscovery was due to the multi-physician Petrus Camper. He was a Dutch physician, born in Leiden, who lived from 1722–1789. He praised the Night Watch’s sublime compositions and its typical chiaroscuro, meaning something like the treatment of light and shade in the painting. Camper also appreciated the use of a truly bold brush, portraying action and courage that appeared to be very lively.
At the end of the 18th century, in 1797, the National Council of the Batavian Republic (1795–1801) became the successor to the Republic of the Seven United Provinces. This National Council voted to accept a present which was offered by the Brabant/Flemish printmaker and engraver Lambertus Antonius Claessens (1763–1834). Claessens explained his intended gift, and I quote: ‘The first proof of a labour of three years, being an engraving depicting The Night Watch, undertaken in order to make the masterpiece of Rembrandt, that outstanding painter of the fatherland, better and better known to the Batavian people and other art-loving nations’.
The view that for some hundred years, Rembrandt was just seen as a common popular artist is, however, contradicted by the French art historian Jan Blanc. He recently published a study indicating that several French, Dutch and German authors since the beginning of the 18th century refer to the reputation of Rembrandt as a genius, to be even compared with Shakespeare, and seen – by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – as a true saint, a painter of miracles, even regarded as a wizard (Blanc 349). We must, therefore, remember that, after a period of only being known generally, Rembrandt’s political-cultural status was growing by the end of the 18th century.
6 United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830)
The geographical areas in what we now know as the countries Belgium and the Netherlands, share a history of many centuries. Between 1815 and 1830 they even formed one country. It was named the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (Het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden).
After Napoleon’s defeat in 1813, the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) was established. It is the most well-known political event with a European dimension from the early 19th century. Today, it would be called a European ‘summit’. The aim of the congress was to create a political balance of power in Europe to prevent someone else like Napoleon Bonaparte from rising again who might conquer Europe. Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg had become separate countries. The Netherlands was called the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, Belgium was called the United Dutch States and Luxembourg was a Duchy.
During the Congress, the victors redrew the borders of Europe. To prevent France from making the same mistake again, they created one powerful state on France’s northern borders: the Netherlands and Belgium were merged. However, this new politic unity would not last long. It ended in 1830, when the Southern Netherlands separated from the Northern provinces during the Belgian Revolt and the state of Belgium came into being. Belgium became independent in 1830 after an uprising against the rule of the Dutch King William I. The Belgian Revolution, generally stemmed from the desire for independence by the Catholic French-speaking bourgeoisie in the Southern Netherlands who had developing ideas of nationalism.
In her PhD awarded in 2020, Anna Rademakers describes how King William I tried to create national unity for the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, including in the arts. She notes, however, that the North and the South had different cultural traditions and painters often operated at a local level. Rademakers concentrates (in her Dutch book ‘Hometown, homeland’) on the artistic developments in the trading cities of Amsterdam and Antwerp and the royal cities of Brussels and The Hague. She found differences in art views and the attempts at integration and cooperation at a national level. These failed. Cultural life in the early 19th century was very much influenced by such notions as national identity and national awareness.
Leiden historian Otterspeer (Otterspeer (2015), 123ff.), concludes that after breaking away from Belgium in 1830 and the introduction of the Netherlands’ own Constitution in 1848, a larger section of society became directly involved in the new parliamentary system. It was not the king who governed the country, but instead the parliament with accountable ministers. A new sense of self-esteem was found in a political movement that preached romanticism and freedom, economic freedom and free institutions such as universities.
7 Rubens versus Rembrandt
With the 1839 Treaty of London (or Treaty of the XXIV Articles), Belgium’s independence as a state was warranted. One consequence of the loss of the southern provinces was that the painter Rubens was now a Belgian hero. Rubens (although born in Germany) was the Great Belgian, symbolized in a bronze statue on the prominent Groenplaats in Antwerp. The Rubens statue is from 1843. Rubens, curiously enough, carries a sword. The fact that he is a painter can only be seen from the painter’s palette that lies at his feet.
The Netherlands, too, in its renewed status, was looking for its own ‘local hero’ and also found him in a painter. A new national story requires new heroes. Rembrandt turned out to be the ideal candidate to take a stand against Rubens: Rubens was a Catholic who received his most important assignments from the clergy and nobility; Rembrandt was a Protestant and mainly served the bourgeois elite.
8 Statue in Amsterdam
In Amsterdam, the Dutch replaced Rubens with a statue of Rembrandt. It was unveiled in 1852 by King Willem III of the Netherlands on (what is now called) the Rembrandt Square (Rembrandtplein).
The choice for Rembrandt is in line with the historical-political development of the new nation. He was, of course, also a versatile artist: painter, draughtsman and etcher, with a variety of subjects: biblical scenes, historical paintings, portraits and group portraits. Perhaps his connection to Amsterdam played a role. That city was, and remained, the most important city in the Netherlands.
Gary Schwartz submits that the erection of Rembrandt’s statue should be seen in a more international context. Rembrandt’s big ‘breakthrough’ took place in 19th century France, where he was regarded as an artist whose ideas best addressed the modern (romantic) soul. As I mentioned, French art historian Blanc already found traces of such a ‘breakthrough’ in 18th century sources from France and Germany.
From 200 years prior to 1852, so around 1650, it is appropriate to disclose the role of Nicolaes Listingh (1630–1705). He had been admitted as a civil law notary in 1653 and would play a part in several transactions involving Rembrandt.
Our notary is also fond of architecture. He had plans for a number of projects: a new roof in the Burgerzaal of the town hall on Dam Square built by Jacob van Campen; a new dike construction to replace the broken Muiderdijk to the east of the city; and for a huge domed church that was to be built on the Botermarkt (‘Butter square’), which is now called Rembrandt Square.
Nearly two centuries later, on 27 May 1852, King Willem III of the Netherlands unveiled the cast-iron monument to Rembrandt. It was designed by Louis Royer (from Flanders!). It was a sponsor and promotion event avant la lettre. In the evening, a grand party was held where more than 200 works of art were raffled, as donations to finance the statue. There was also a public firework display.
Jan Schenkman (a teacher, illustrator and poet; 1806–1863) wrote: ‘There were Rembrandt sandwiches, Rembrandt shortbreads, Rembrandt cakes, Rembrandt dolls, made of sugar, plaster or wood, also silver, steel or gold, Rembrandt brooches, Rembrandt pins. To recognize a great genius, Rembrandt’s life in full was moulded to everyone’s taste’ (‘Er waren Rembrandt-broodjes, Rembrandt-moppen, Rembrandt-taarten, Rembrandt-poppen, ’t zij van suiker, gips of hout, ook van zilver, staal of goud, Rembrandt-broches, Rembrandt-spelden. Om voor een groot genie te gelden, Rembrandts leven bij de vleet, naar ieders smaak gekneed’).
Nowadays, the Rembrandt statue is the oldest surviving statue in Amsterdam. It was cast in one piece. On 17 May 1876, the city council changed the name Botermarkt to Rembrandtplein, not Rembrandtsplein (with an ‘s’), as many Amsterdammers pronounce it.
This small exhibition was held in 2019 by the RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague). It also displayed various political and other types of cartoons and unique pieces from its collection. Research (Petterson (2017), 263ff.) shows, however, that the founders’ initiative for the statue of Rembrandt mainly served to create their own national story. They wanted to create not only a patriotic hero, but at the same time also wished to display their own social status. In this case, their status in the artistic world.
9 Developing connoisseurship
Towards the end of the 19th century, knowledge of Rembrandt’s art was considerably enhanced by persons such as Abraham Bredius and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. In 1898, this resulted in the first exhibition dedicated to a single old master in the Netherlands. It was an event for which all the stops were pulled out. In addition, other experts, such as Wilhelm Bode and Wilhelm Valentiner, served as founding fathers of the art history on Rembrandt.
In 2004, Catherine Scallen (Scallen (2004), 322), concludes that the significance of these four men between around 1880 and 1930 lies ‘… in their recasting of connoisseurship as a professional activity, their shaping of connoisseurship as an activity promoted through public debate, and their development of modern modes of art historical communication’. Their valuable contribution, including a wealth of publications, is widely acknowledged.
There is also a drawback in the development of art historian research on Rembrandt. It has also been submitted that these four men in fact monopolized the field of connoisseurship for some five decades until around the 1930s: claiming superior knowledge, supporting each other’s views and stifling views expressed outside this inner circle. They also did not disclose the criteria for attribution, allowing for a strong individual appreciation, entangled with emotional, national and financial interests.
10 Authenticity and attribution
Knowledge, or more broad connoisseurship is the most important condition for arriving at a reasoned, defensible judgment. For decades, questions about authenticity and attribution of paintings to Rembrandt have been raised. I will dedicate a separate podcast to the phenomenon of attribution. Paintings that were previously considered to be an authentic Rembrandt are, decades on, now regarded as being from the school of Rembrandt or having been painted in his vicinity. Today, early 2024, let’s see where we stand.
Of all the paintings attributed to Rembrandt, Bredius (1935) concluded that 639 are authentic. Fifty years later, Gary Schwartz (1985) submitted 350 as a figure. That’s a dramatic difference! Van de Wetering (in the last 2014 volume of the Rembrandt Research Project) mentions the number 348. In 2019, Volker Manuth and colleagues describe 330 Rembrandts. An August 2019 statement made by the Groninger Museum says: ‘over the course of his life he created an estimated 340 paintings, 374 etchings and 1500–2000 drawings. The authenticity of Rembrandt’s work is still a common discussion point within the art world.
Nowadays, only 78 drawings can be attributed to Rembrandt with high certainty, thanks to their signature or contemporary sources. This core group now functions as a key in identifying his other drawings’ (see https://www.codart.nl/guide/agenda/rembrandt-4/).
And in 2022, in his Dutch book ‘684 paintings’, Jeroen Giltaij (Senior curator at the Rotterdam Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum) presents an overview of 684 paintings, I quote, ‘… that are or were in the name of Rembrandt’.
So, authenticity is an ongoing debate. In the past few years, doubts have been expressed about the authenticity of a forgotten Rembrandt rediscovered, the Portrait of a Young Gentlemen (see Six (2018)). This painting shows a beardless young man with a generous lace collar.
The debate about authenticity will continue. In 2020, the English newspaper The Guardian reported that a postcard-sized painting, named ‘Head of a Bearded Man’ (c. 1630) has been revealed as a genuine Rembrandt. The panting had been considered a fake and stored for decades in the basement of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. See https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/aug/30/fake-rembrandt-came-from-artists-workshop-and-is-possibly-genuine-ashmolean-oxford
In October 2023, discussions were ongoing about a rediscovered Rembrandt (The Adoration of the Kings (around 1628)), with an expected price of £10 to 15 million. At a Sotheby’s auction in London, early December 2023, the painting was sold for €12.8 million, including commission for the auction house. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/10/05/rediscovered-rembrandt-could-make-%C2%A315m-at-sothebys-london-this-december
This game of recognition and revaluation makes a normal person dizzy. And not just ordinary people. In 2016, Katarzyna Krzy?agórska-Pisarek (2016), 23ff, at p. 37, desperately concluded: ‘Despite fifty years of research and all the technical investigations, the confidence in Rembrandt’s connoisseurship is lower than ever.’ She complains in despair: ‘Today nobody seems to know what a Rembrandt painting should look like anymore’.
Whatever the case may be, in light of the Dutch history regarding his appreciation, it is now clearer that in 1883 an association was founded, called the ‘Vereniging Rembrandt’ (Rembrandt Association). Its main task was to provide support for art purchases by Dutch museums. Over the last 150 years, it has helped realize more than 2.5 thousand purchases. In 2022, the Rembrandt Association had close to 25,000 members and donors. The joint art collection in all Dutch museums was supported with more than €8 million: 16 purchases, 5 restoration projects, 2 research projects and 2 presentations. See www.verenigingrembrandt.nl
11 Rembrandt – An Icon
What we do know is that Rembrandt remains an icon. The Rijksmuseum had its expensive acquisition from 2022, The Standard Bearer (‘De vaandeldrager’), travel to museums in all twelve provinces. In recent years, the museum has also been searching for the ‘new Rembrandt’ in a competition for amateur painters broadcast via a national TV channel, called ‘Project Rembrandt’. And in another national TV programme ‘The Secret of the Master’, the Night Watch was painted in full size, right opposite the real national masterpiece in the Gallery of Honour. Rembrandt, the icon, is not only honoured, but also truly experienced.
As I said at the beginning of this story, sociologist Paul Schnabel writes that Rembrandt’s the Night Watch ‘has become our national icon and the whole world comes to see it’.
He also could have referred to money. After World War II, in the 1950s, the Dutch Central Bank would again succeed in issuing a coherent series of banknotes. The first of these was the series ‘testators’ by J.F. (or: Eppo) Doeve. The banknote with the highest value, a thousand guilders, was printed with the face of Rembrandt van Rijn on it. It’s based on his self-portrait of around 1640.
Rembrandt, an icon who embodies both morality and money. Thinking of Rembrandt, we see the pastor and the merchant walking hand in hand. In Dutch roots, the merchant and the pastor are the two archetypes of Dutch society.
What we know from the canon-approach is that important people or events receive a different appreciation throughout the centuries. In his book, Schnabel (p. 50) also makes a thought-provoking comment: ‘Art museums are not only the showrooms, but also the archives of taste.’ This view undeniably has a conservative effect. Changes in taste, in appreciation and in preference, are influenced by changes in society. And an icon today is not made of steel or concrete.
Has the idea of Rembrandt as an icon not become too much part of the existing official cultural heritage? For many in the Netherlands, national or international sportspersons or pop stars are their heroes. In recent decades, Dutch society has undergone constant changes: the population’s composition has been influenced by migration and age composition.
Overdue maintenance is being eliminated through a search for a better gender balance and our relationship with nature and the climate. Our economic relationships are increasingly determined by digitalization and our work and lives are clearly impacted by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Is an icon, like Rembrandt, then an outdated token or symbol in our multifaceted society? Or is there, at its core, an unstoppable desire for a national icon? I am just curious to what extent this anchoring in the past (in morality and money, in the pastor and the merchant) will indeed be influenced by the ongoing changes in our society. Are we on the threshold of calls for a new national icon?
References
References referred to can be found under Sources.
- Blanc, Jan, Why Rembrandt?, in: Stephanie S. Dickey and Jochen Sander, Rembrandt in Amsterdam. Creativity and Competition, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa/Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, distributed by Yale University Press, 2021-2022, 347ff.
- Giltaij, Jeroen, Het grote Rembrandt boek. Alle 684 schilderijen, Zwolle: WBOOKS 2022.
- Van Loo, Bart, De Bourgondiërs. Aartsvaders van de Lage Landen, Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2022.
- Rademakers, A., Moederstad en vaderland: nationale identiteit en lokale trots in de schilderswereldvan het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden (1815-1839), PhD Groningen 2020. [Groningen]: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
- Schnabel, Paul, Anders gekeken. Het beste en het boeiendste uit de Hollandse schilderkunst van de Gouden Eeuw, Zwolle: Waanders Uitgeverij 2021
- https://www.verenigingrembrandt.nl/nl/wat-we-doen/wij-vergroten-betrokkenheid/onze-acties/rembrandtjaar-2019/waarom-rembrandt
- https://www.canonvannederland.nl/nl/page/143698/rembrandt-in-dordrecht