Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 105. (Budapest, 2006)
ANNUAL REPORT - A 2006. ÉV - JUDIT SEBŐ: Rembrandt 400: Etchings and Drawings
voor Oude Kunst (the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium —The Museum of Ancient Art) organized an exhibition of Rembrandt's and his pupils' drawings. An exhibition consisting entirely or almost entirely of etchings such as the one at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts was not unique. Other museums that organized similar exhibitions included the Bijbels Museum in Amsterdam, which displayed all the biblical etchings, the Kunstmuseum in Basle, which selected prints from the Kornfeld Collection and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, which arranged pieces from its own collection for an exhibition celebrating Rembrandt. Similarly, Teréz Gerszi based her conception of the exhibition on the rich collection of Rembrandt's graphics at the Museum where three quarters of his etched compositions, i.e. 220 out of 290 are preserved. Several of his compositions are represented by prints of different states showing the artist's working process; the majority of them being fine impressions. Besides etchings, six drawings attributed equivocally to the master and some other drawings were chosen. She completed the selection with two important etchings and four drawings from the Albertina, Vienna. In addition to the one hundred and seventy graphic works, a painting was also shown at the exhibition, i.e. a portrait of Rembrandt housed in the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, and regarded as a product of the artist's workshop. On the whole the works were grouped according to their chronology, and according to their themes. The small size portraits and genre scenes from the early 1630s were followed by biblical compositions, referring to the inherent drama with their sharp contrasts. A group of a few items, including the black chalk Elephant from the Albertina, represented Rembrandt's reverence for animals. In the etchings of the 1640s special emphasis was laid on landscapes. The works of the 1650s were presented in the exhibition especially in abundance, this period being the artist's most creative and thematically most variagated one. After the landscape etchings of the 1650s, by which time he had already enriched his technique with drypoint and engraving, he followed up with biblical series and portraits of his contemporaries. 8 REMBRANDT HARM ENSZ. VAN RIJN, SAINT JEROME IN AN ITALIAN LANDSCAPE. BUDAPEST. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
