05.10.2024 – 10:00
Leipzig Tourism and Marketing GmbH
Leipzig’s first Rembrandt show opened: “Impuls Rembrandt. Teacher, strategist, bestseller”
From October 3, 2024 to January 26, 2025, the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig (MdbK) is presenting an extraordinary exhibition on one of the most important painters in history: “Impuls Rembrandt. Teacher, strategist, bestseller”. With international loans from museums in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, The Hague, London, Stockholm and Vienna as well as from German museums and private collections in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt (Main), Bremen and Dresden, among others, the exhibition presents a total of 142 paintings, Drawings and etchings, including around 60 works by Rembrandt. An individual lighting concept is used, which was implemented according to the most modern museum standards.
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606–1669) is one of the most influential and important painters of the 17th century. Despite high tuition fees, his workshop attracted well over 40 students from Holland and beyond the country’s borders since the 1620s. The exhibition examines the reasons for the attractiveness of Rembrandt’s workshop, which include his success but also the quality and content of his teaching.
Like hardly any other Baroque painter, Rembrandt increased the impact of his pictures on the viewer through emotionally touching depictions. The color, the lighting, the brush application, the composition – many details are aimed at this. Rembrandt was a picture director who staged actions, often biblical stories, as dramatically and at the same time as realistically as possible. The students learned the art of emotional staging from Rembrandt.
In the exhibition, works by Rembrandt and his students are presented side by side. Even for his contemporaries it was sometimes difficult to distinguish the master’s works from those of his students. This was because the students practiced imitating Rembrandt’s artistic style in both drawings and paintings.
Part of the show is “Rembrandt’s Studio,” where visitors can sniff, feel, try on and experiment. A creative participation booklet was also designed together with the artist Anna Haifisch.
Works by Rembrandt were collected during his lifetime. After his death, demand far exceeded the existing material of authentic paintings and drawings. In Leipzig, the banker Gottfried Richter (1731-1795) brought together an important collection of the artist. His art collection, with a focus on Dutch painting of the 17th century, was the largest private art collection in the Saxon metropolis at the time. After Winckler’s death, she was scattered in all directions.
An audio guide for the exhibition in German, English and easy language can be downloaded as an app or borrowed from the MdbK. Public tours of the exhibition are available on Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. and on Sundays at 3 p.m.
Since the valuable exhibition objects react sensitively to high humidity, the number of visitors is limited. It is therefore advisable to purchase an online ticket in advance with a personally selected date: Online-Ticket – Impuls Rembrandt
The exhibition is under the patronage of His Excellency the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and takes place on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the new MdbK building. A catalog for the exhibition was published by Hirmer Verlag in a German and English edition. It is available at the museum box office (29.90 euros) and in bookstores.
Further information: www.mdbk.de
Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH Head of Public Relations/PR – Tourism Andreas Schmidt Tel.: +49 (0)341 7104-310 Email: [email protected]
