SASKIA VAN ULENBURGH
In the Gallery at Cassel, Germany
A fine gravure reproduction of this painting appears in The Mentor, Number 28.
It seems that not only was Rembrandt and his art misunderstood in his own time, but that he is still misunderstood at the present time. This is in measure due to many pictures which are mistakenly attributed to him. One need not be an expert to find it strange that of twenty pupils of Rembrandt, who painted more or less in his style, there remain hardly twenty pictures apiece, and of some of them not even one. What paralyzed their hands or destroyed their works? What became of their pictures? You begin to get a glimmer of light when you understand that to Rembrandt there are assigned a thousand or fifteen hundred examples; that these are painted in fifteen or twenty different styles, though all superficially resembling Rembrandt’s style. Almost everything that is Rembrandtesque, or even casually resembles Rembrandt, has been signed up and sold as his since the master came back to popular favor. The name is one that now brings thousands of dollars in the auction room, and what wonder that it is often misused!
These Rembrandtesque pictures were done by other hands than his, are pupils’ works, or school work or copies, or, in a few cases, forgeries. Rembrandt’s work has never been critically studied as that of Leonardo or Giorgione (jore-joe´-nee). Strange, again, is it not, that Leonardo and Giorgione in the final analysis should have less than a dozen pictures apiece left to them, while Rembrandt should still be given his thousand? Northern art has not had a critical searchlight turned upon it, as had Italian art thirty years ago. When it does, the present catalogue of Rembrandts will crumble. In the meantime, the art student would better accept Rembrandt only in his best authenticated works, such, for instance, as are reproduced in this number of The Mentor. Half of the so-called Rembrandts in the European galleries are now to be taken with a grain of salt. They may be, and often are, exceedingly good pictures, but they are not by Rembrandt.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
| GREAT MASTERS OF DUTCH AND FLEMISH PAINTING | Bode |
| London, 1909. | |
| OLD MASTERS OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND | Fromentin |
| Boston, 1882. | |
| THE DUTCH SCHOOL OF PAINTING | Havard |
| London, 1885. | |
| REMBRANDT | Michel |
| New York, 1894. | |
| REMBRANDT | Verhaeren |
| (Les Grands Artistes), Paris. | |
| REMBRANDT | Vosmoer |
| Paris, 1877. | |
| REMBRANDT | Valentiner |
| (Klassiker die Kunst), Stuttgart. | |
| REMBRANDT, A STUDY OF HIS LIFE AND WORK | Brown |
| New York, 1907. |
⁂ Information concerning the above books and articles may be had on application to the Editor of The Mentor.