More than 120 of Rembrandt’s prints, rarely shown together, follow the Dutch master at his most spontaneous, from portraits of his family to scenes of Christ.
More than 120 prints by Rembrandt, the 17th-century Dutch painter, fill the Sackler Wing at the Royal Academy of Arts in Mayfair from Friday 9 April 2027. The Academy organised the exhibition with the Petit Palais in Paris.
Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leiden in 1606 and worked in Amsterdam from the early 1630s until his death in 1669.
In his day an etcher worked a copper plate with needles and acid baths, carefully, so the image could be printed again and again. Rembrandt took risks with the process and kept his mistakes. His sketchy lines gave his prints the life and weight of his paintings.
The prints are rarely displayed all at once, and they range from scenes of Christ to portraits of his family and studies of ordinary people in his city. Among them are The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds from 1634, The Goldweigher from 1639 and The Shell from 1650.
Two self-portraits from 1630 show him wide-eyed and open-mouthed, as if shouting. Friends of the RA preview the exhibition on 7 and 8 April, and it closes on Sunday 19 September 2027.