Lecture by Gary Schwartz (USA/The Netherlands) "People of the East in the Works of Rembrandt"

 
05.03.2014
 
School of Arts and Cultural Heritage

Gary Schwartz is an American art historian who lives and works in the Netherlands, and is an eminent expert in Dutch art, and is one of the leading experts on the works of Rembrandt. He has contributed a great deal to the determination of authenticity to many of Rembrandt’s works in museums around the world. He has been the Director of International Council For Curators of Dutch and Flemish Art (CODART) since 1998. His research, publications, translations of archival documents, and searches in museum storerooms have brought him worldwide authority. On the basis of these, he has undertaken a reconsideration of the longstanding mythologized image of Rembrandt as a “lone genius” and has created a new portrait of an artist painted in the social-historical context of his epoch. Schwartz was the first to figure out a simple and logical question – what were the connections between the “patrons” of Rembrandt, and to which stratum of Dutch society they belonged, what they did. The result has become the most important part of Gary Schwartz’s work: Rembrandt, His Life, His Paintings: A New Biography with All Accessible Paintings Illustrated in Color (released in Dutch in 1984 and in English in 1985). His many articles (including his most recent works) can be found on his lavishly illustrated site http://www.garyschwartzarthistorian.nl