Thinking on Paper

Also yesterday, I dropped in on the British Museum (which seemed to be even more packed than usual – no doubt the half term effect) to take a look at the prints and drawings gathered for a small exhibition called Rembrandt: Thinking on Paper. One of many exhibitions planned for the 350th anniversary of the artist's death, this one brought together in one room some 65 items from the BM's own collection – etchings and drypoints in various states, drawings, and even one rare example of a surviving copper plate (below – a wonderful thing to see).

The arrangement is thematic – portraits, self-portraits, landscapes and biblical scenes – and the caption information is very useful in illuminating Rembrandt's working methods. It's not an epoch-making exhibition, but for anyone with an interest in this aspect of Rembrandt's work – and a love of drawing and printmaking at their very best – it's a must. The drawings alone – quick, spontaneous, full of life – are ample evidence that this was an artist of phenomenal natural gifts. The prints, exquisitely worked and reworked with an astonishingly sure touch, confirm how hard he worked on his art and how he never stopped developing and experimenting as an artist and printmaker. In one state of an etching of the entombment of Christ, Rembrandt has created an almost entirely black image, which yields just the faintest glimmer of its subject in one corner of the plate – an extraordinary effect.
  In the little sketch below – dashed off in minutes – a mischievous toddler succeeds in removing a man's hat. All done with a few deft strokes of the pen.