CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.-“Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher”, which began on February 14 will continue through May 9, 2004 in the Rice Building, among Galleries 262-72. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) is one of the most celebrated artists in history. With more than 200 works from all periods of his long career—20 paintings, 33 drawings, 153 prints, and 7 copper plates taken from major collections here and abroad—this is the first American exhibition to explore Rembrandt’s astonishing range and variety of activity as a brilliant etcher seen in the context of his paintings and drawings.

Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) had a gift of visual invention that spawned his productive and successful career. A master across three media, he radically redefined the technique of etching by bringing to it the freedom and spontaneity of painting and drawing.

Rembrandt’s Journey explores the dynamic evolution of the artist’s extensive and richly varied work in printmaking within the context of his paintings and drawings. In the exhibition, the three media are alternately presented as intertwined or parallel developments. Following a broad chronological arc, the installation presents certain themes to which Rembrandt repeatedly returned with fresh insights and interpretations: biblical illustration, portraiture and self-portraiture, daily life, landscape, and the nude. His choice of subject matter was unusually wide, and his work demonstrates a Shakespearean mixture of moods ranging from earthy comedy to somber tragedy.

In certain cases, objects from different decades are juxtaposed to highlight changes in Rembrandt’s artistic thinking. These developments are so dramatic that it almost seems the Rembrandt of the 1630s—with his emphasis on robust physical action, calligraphic line, and undulant Baroque rhythms—was a wholly different artist from the Rembrandt of the 1650s, with his more serene and meditative moods, controlled and economical use of line, and stable, almost architectural structures. Regardless, the artist remained a master storyteller whose literary inventiveness equaled his visual talent. The works on view display a constant interchange between direct observation of reality and vivid imagination.