Rembrandt's depictions of women I Curator's Corner S3 Ep5

Curator Olenka Horbatsch explains how Rembrandt's naturalistic depictions of women caused controversy in the 17th century.
To find out more visit the British Museum blog: goo.gl/UYWbZ5
#CuratorsCorner #womeninart

[@redrock1963]

I am so impressed with the British Museum reaching out into the world via the internet to expose, not only it's self to future museum goers but also to expose to the world the beautiful contents and treasures to people who otherwise would never see them. And all this presented by curators who clearly have knowledge and passion for their work. Many thanks to The British Museum.

[@LordInter]

tbh the museum has so much stuff I live about 20 minutes away and wouldn't get to see it all in 1,000,000 trips 😊

[@censusgary]

In “Woman Sleeping” drawing, it’s amazing how much information Rembrandt conveys in so few brushstrokes. It’s truly the work of a master.

[@huw3851]

I liked that one as well. To my ignorant eye there was something elegantly Japanese about it.

[@nelsonx5326]

And the thick black line on the lower left only there to balance the image.

[@edgeeffect]

@@huw3851 yes, I was thinking it was almost oriental in it's minimalism.

[@JustReadable]

What is so refreshing and attractive by all these curators is their combination of knowledge, dilligence and joy in learning about and presenting wonderful things.

[@barirwin8559]

And their youth

[@Hope-Truth-Light]

I feel the same way

[@ingeborg-anne]

More people need to see these videos. They're so good! Thanks as always, British Museum folks

[@briane3657]

When I first saw "Woman Sleeping", it made me wonder if Rembrandt had seen any Japanese watercolors and/or prints. I was lucky to be in London this last July when they were exhibiting many of Rembrandt's drawings and etchings for a few weeks for the public to enjoy.

[@paulmanson253]

Hmm. Funny how memory works. Just had one surface. Charles II was sent a matched set of samurai swords by whoever was the leading daimyo of Japan. Now that would have been many years later than mentioned here,but the Dutch were the chosen traders for Chinese silk and other imported goods. So your guesstimate has validity. No reason why not. A Dutch merchant bringing home rare but lightweight prints ? Rembrandt being given access to examples ? He was known to be fascinated with textures,and curiosities. A completely different artistic convention ? He would have been fascinated by that alone. So sure,why not ? When did the Dutch successfully contact the Japanese islands ? No doubt Wiki has a listing. Must have a look at that.

[@somedutchguy7582]

@@paulmanson253 The Dutch had been trading with Japan since the early 1600's, so it is very likely Rembrandt would have been exposed to, possibly even posessed, some Japanese art. Whether in the form of woodprints, laquerwork or porcelain I couldn't tell, but I'll check next time I visit his house.

[@paulmanson253]

@@somedutchguy7582 Please do. I read a biography of him,many years ago. He had a bankruptcy, I thought. He had filled his house with curiosities and things with different textures,many expensive. How much of the contents is actual to him ?

[@somedutchguy7582]

@@paulmanson253 Yes, he did indeed go bankrupt. Which is fortunate for us, because a complete inventory of his house was made. This inventory survived and was used to restore and refurbish the house to a state as close to the situation in Rembrandt's days. Visit their website: rembrandthuis.nl They also have a KZbin channel: kzbin.infovideos

[@peterlewerin4213]

Artists are liars, but the "Woman Sleeping" seems to express so much affection. One night I came home after working a late shift, and my girlfriend was sleeping. She had left some lights on so that I could move around, and in the soft light she was so precious. I forgot how tired I was, and sat down and made a drawing of her, the best drawing I've ever made. I am to Rembrandt like a sneeze to a hurricane, but in trying to interpret into lines on paper the sanctity and mundanity of a loved one's resting body we are colleagues.

[@anomalyp8584]

This actually is so cleverly thought up. It's the next step to keep musea alive! I applaud this channel!

[@msjoanofthearc]

Thank you so very much Olenka for such a lovely and detailed history of these fascinating treasures. I was hooked immediately by your pesentation!

[@tudormiller8898]

Beautiful video, very informative. Thanks Olenka. Watching from London.

[@trcooperiv]

I could listen to her talk about Rembrandt for hours. Great piece :)

[@arsaeterna4285]

she speaks VERY clearly, I really enjoyed listening how often do you get a distillation of years of someone's study

[@michellebeissel3937]

Excellent content and presentation. I will watch again several times to make sure I didn't miss any goodies. I loved how your passion and warmth waxed throughout. Thank you.

[@airingcupboard]

Fascinating. One of the best videos so far. The second drawing is one of my favourite drawings. The economy and suggestive feel for the subject is incredible. Thanks so much.

[@Syrkyth]

Rembrandt's study for the Drunkenness of Lot is one of my favourites. Just by itself, stripped of title or story, it's an incredible depiction of humanity. It's a shame the finished work was lost.

[@PatMcDonald41]

Beautifully presented. Thank you.

[@AgnesLupumpkinee]

Like the second drawing of the sleeping woman!!! Simple brush strokes!!!

[@iaincaillte3356]

Thank you, Olenka. Excellent explanations and a fine choice of selections. Hope to see more from you.

[@cumulus888]

Very nice. Enjoy very much and appreciate your explanation of the art.

[@heatherrose3863]

Wonderful! I very much enjoyed this ep.

[@seamusoluasigh9296]

Beautifully presented, great series.

[@nickoforesta5788]

I love these videos and have such admiration for the people who present them. They are all so bright and insightful.

[@forestdwellerresearch6593]

Thanks for explaining. I never knew much about Rembrand but simplicity in that work is obvious. ....as in most beatiful things i guess.

[@josearamirez2018]

Thank you, best Rembrandt class ever!

[@MerricMaker]

As I'm watching all these videos I start to realize how young these curators are... and now I'm old.

[@thekingsdaughter4233]

Now that you mention it... where have the years gone, and what did I do with my life? 😭

[@flamencoprof]

In '96 I toured Europe and its galleries. Rembrandt and Velasquez were my favourites.

[@rafaelcarvalho3928]

Great vídeo. Thank you for your dedicated work!

[@chris92S]

This was awesome nice job I love these British museum videos :D

[@chegeny]

I love how the hand of Curator Olenka Horbatsch describes the lines of Rembrandt's Diana, as only someone who has surrounded themselves with this exquisite art.

[@ubik459]

Ty for your work....beautiful drawings.

[@athenassigil5820]

This is what the world needs more of....beauty and its appreciation.

[@vinzent1992]

Wow now I understand why Rembrandt is such a well-known name, his genius is obvious even to someone like me who's not an art expert.

[@steve154life]

What beautiful drawings. Makes me want to keep drawing myself,

[@cuentosdemedianoche2408]

Amazing explanation, Literature and Art sure go hand in hand at times and I needed to know more about Rembrandt for my class. Thank you!

[@jimflammer9370]

Wonderful explanations.

[@user-nt2vy8vr5b]

Great video, enjoy this kind of presentation. Nether know that story about small elephant;) I'm the real fan of the Curator' Corner.

[@josefx1389]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[@julyol119]

That was very pleasant to watch and interesting information :)

[@syzer3921]

Awesome! Now I wanna hear more about Rembrants work.

[@cynnx7500]

her voice

[@sparks2749]

Kudos to the museum for sharing,... as a student of art all my life (so far, I'm 61) and a graduate of CalArts, I have had the opportunity to study up close the masters of light and shadow, Rembrandt being one of my fav's. However, when I hear people "Gushing accolades" about the detail and economy of strokes to convey a figure, I am shocked these words are not tempered with a side note that there were actually MANY who were doing the exact same quality of art. Back then, and today. Yes he was a pioneer, but so were many others, many today in fact (those who step away from the digital world) and utilize a pencil and a nice sheet of vellum could counted among the masters.

[@pansepot1490]

Masters get always blindly praised rather than objectively assessed, especially by critics and people who don’t have a clue about the technical aspects of art. Rembrandt was actually criticized by his contemporaries for his lack of skill in drawing figures, especially when he couldn’t use live subjects.

[@censusgary]

During that introduction, I was pretty impressed with how clearly Ms. Horbatsch can speak without opening her mouth or moving her lips.

[@semperludens9241]

I am trying to admire Rembrandt's women but I can't help but stare at alternate universe curator Jean Grey

[@sergiogrima8331]

@JV Harbin And a really prepared and capable professional, as it seems. Years of study and research and she gets that kind of comments. I guess other sites will better cater to your needs, Mr Harbin.

[@MrMAC8964]

@@sergiogrima8331 lighten up curator groupie , i`m sure she wouldnt care .

[@YourCrazyOverlord]

@@MrMAC8964 Because unasked for catcalling is DEFINITELY cool and not at all creepy. /s

[@hyacinthlynch843]

@@sergiogrima8331 Agreed. Ms Horbatsch's expertise in her field is what truly matters to those who have a genuine interest to learn.

[@patricksaucier1203]

Thank you. I am a KZbin surfing dilettante and I am very glad to happen upon your video. I am hooked, the drawings you selected as examples are amazing.

[@jimmyclendenin3553]

Wow thank you much for the video 😻😻😻

[@stevepartridge2959]

Wonderful presentation, superb presenter.

[@gretelisbibalo9136]

Thanks for the video about Rembrants women...

[@CraigSpannier]

I think something that's interesting about Rembrandt's Adam and Eve is that they look as if they could be most people parents.

[@men_del12]

Lol they are.

[@KarlaJTanner]

Great job!

[@jaffasholva7738]

Mesmerizing. Those pictures are pretty cool too.

[@LordInter]

this is so cool! I didn't know you guys had a load of his works!

[@mueffe1357]

Everyone: Draws depictions of handsome and beautiful Adam & Eve figures Rembrandt: Draws Adam & Eve like normies. Rembrandt was doing historical revisionism before it was cool.

[@itscoffeeoclocksomewhere3075]

There is something so attractive from an intelligent woman such as this lovely curator Mrs. Horbatsch. Respects from the other side of the world.

[@user-ug7pq7to8p]

Оленка, було дуже цікаво, дякую!

[@MrGyges]

Well done

[@clayz1]

I touched The Night Watch when I was six years old. Decades ago. More than half a century.

[@lynnblack6493]

My sister created an "Eve" in clay many years ago. She definitely would not have been trying to replicate Rembrandt! Great minds...

[@DumbledoreMcCracken]

Horbatsch provided a fantastic analysis

[@dmoats8695]

I

[@dennismason3740]

The wash sketch of his wife is weepy good.

[@ScoriacTears]

I imagine this picture influenced Goya's Dreamer drawing.

[@WillN2Go1]

When discussing the drawings or sketches of a particular artist, or a particular work: How is it similar to the work of their contemporaries (or antecedents)? Next, obviously, what's different? More remarkable, or less so? Less so is also important. What does a working sketch of Ingres's furniture arrangement plan look like? Maybe he completely lacked a conceptual spatial view, but could draw like a camera.) What's similar to and different from a painting by the same artist? Here in Adam and Eve facial expressions are clear and understandable, as they are in many of Rembrandt's best portraits. Adam's lecturing; Eve's clearly about to tell him the part he's missed. Or maybe she's afraid. (Paul Ekman could probably say a great deal about Rembrandt's work. ) Anybody can wax about this and that, a little more breathless, some hyperbole and voila you've created a tautological masterpiece. It's a masterpiece because it's spectacular! It's spectacular because it's by a master! No one's learned anything. The result is crowds trying to get a selfie with the Mona Lisa, while two galleries over is the much more amazing Rembrandt portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels all alone. Third, where does the context of the period, the culture and artist interact? Did Rembrandt decide to draw a pudgy Eve, for theological reasons or was he so enamored of Saskia, and later Hendrickje Stoffels that they would always be his Eve? Was Botticelli more conventional, or just obsessed with a different person? Kenneth Clark and all that aside, a lot of naked art is the porn of its day. So much of it is submissive, as is scripted in many male sexual fantasies. But take Rembrandt's Eve, she's got some moxie. She's giving as good as he's trying to give her. Whether she's arguing or fearful, she is not going to say, 'yes, husband,' nor is she going to stupidly violate the lease, she's his equal. I think this is why this depiction of Adam and Eve is special.

[@lorisutherland7728]

How did they do so small of pictures in those times on the rings

[@merindymorgenson3184]

That second drawing of the woman sleeping looks to me like a forerunner of Impressionism.

[@fleetingmoment]

His representation of women may have elicited fierce criticism, but Rembrandt will still be remembered when his critics are long forgotten.

[@steve154life]

Wat is tha name of elephant again.

[@steve154life]

It iz amazing they haft survived through da century s

[@Persphonefallen]

I always found his works ugly beautiful. One thing the subjects are detail but not in a flattering way. Maybe more realistic and un ashamed. Yet always thrown in shadows so their is this hidden part. Neat how he saw the world.

[@OVTraveller]

Visited the Rembrand Museum last year and asked to be admitted without charge as my mother's maiden name was Van Rijn. Was told the artist died

[@OVTraveller]

in great debt and would I please pay twice the usual charge. Who said the Dutch lack a sense of humour?

[@paulmanson253]

This woman gets paid money to study images created by Rembrandt . Not bad,not bad at all. Good for her.

[@josephskiles]

really love these videos, she has a lot of interesting things to say I only wish ahe could have cut back on saying umm so frequently ( it's a habbit I had to break myself of and still have to focus on when speaking to keep from doing).

[@prouteric1360]

Rembrandt, Sargent and Monet the best to EVER do it.

[@williambeaumont1312]

We don’t know what the conversation was between them but Rembrandt has Adam telling Eve, “I told you, we’re not supposed to eat of it. Never mind what the serpent told you.”

[@aaronjaben7913]

Olenka ❤️

[@katiekat4457]

In the 1st one of Diana taking a bath, I just can’t see the tree with hanging bones in the background. I see there is a sketching there but it doesn’t look like a tree and bones hanging to me. 2:20 does everyone else see it very easily? I’m usually good at seeing things like that but not this time.

[@aleaparicio3284]

It's a bow and quiver

[@trojanette8345]

Where would Rembrandt have been during the last years of his life? Curious to know if there are / were any surviving paintings that he did during the time of the Great Fire of London? The reason why I ask is that I once read in an account regarding the "Great Fire" that, the flames from the fire were so prolific and so intense that there were parts of Europe that could see the fire from certain other countries.

[@jannetteberends8730]

Rembrandt is Dutch. He lived in Amsterdam.

[@7ajhubbell]

Thank you for this interesting information. Avoiding the verbal pauses in the future will improve the efficacy of such messages. Thank you.

[@petrfrizen6078]

…Voluptuous, precise, graphic et con amour…

[@gerardtrigo380]

I notice that he fell on the omphalos side of the argument about Adam and Eve.

[@Qwayeasn]

Imagine you're drawing people, and it doesn't turn out great, and you go like "oh well" and put it away... and then 400 years later some art critics are like OMFG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER BECAUSE HE DREW THEM SO UGLY!!1 lol

[@TheSaneHatter]

I feel that the text is misleading: while this video provides an overview of several of rembrandt's works, it does not explain why they caused controversy, but only mentions it in passing.

[@antipodesman]

I thought I recognized a Canadian voice. Did a google search and sure enough.

[@patchesohoolihan666]

10/10 would take apple if offered

[@SabraMagdalena]

She looks like she stepped out of a Wes Anderson movie

[@TraitorVek]

Red Hair - Very Observed

[@alison2649]

Hey! She’s American! ♥️☺️

[@RainbowRanchFarms]

She's Canadian.

[@Bonzulac]

I'm also a keen observer of the everyday. You overtweeze. This may sound like an attempt to shame, but it's good advice.

[@lordilluminati5836]

why are al these curators cute!?

[@MrMAC8964]

Because the big cheese boss curator is a middle aged man.

[@JiveDadson]

Rembrandt's women all look alike. Saskia was definitely his type.

[@fellowcitizen]

[@blurgle9185]

Not really comprehending why the elephant was so significant to the last painting. Rembrandt put it there because he for brief or longer spell was an elephant aficionado? "Hmmm, well into this painting, I think what I really wanted to paint was a wee and little Hansken right here…. just so" It's a great little elephant though, aside from its artistic function. I enjoyed it.

[@klausolekristiansen2960]

Hansken came to Amsterdam in the 1640s. This drawing is from 1638.

[@leftyfourguns]

The elephant is significant to the painting because it's in the painting. If it wasn't a significant addition it wouldn't be there in the first place. Obviously we can only speculate as to WHY Rembrandt put it there. Either way it's a sort of hidden Easter egg you might not have normally noticed which the curator was pointing out.

[@somedutchguy7582]

@@klausolekristiansen2960 nonsense, she arrived in The Netherlands in 1633.

[@pansepot1490]

Interesting to see these drawings but the commentary is more laudatory than accurate. For instance the fact that Rembrandt draws an arrow quiver to identify the naked woman as Diana not only is not remarkable but is the established convention. Naked women (then as today) were a popular subject but it was socially accepted only when the nude was disguised as mythological (Venus, Diana, etc.) or biblical (Eve, Susannah bathing, etc.)

[@BobMarley-vl5gl]

Clearly a man who likes his distilled woman

[@matthewhuttle5445]

Well, shit....I just fell in love again. Her voice, her passion, I’m done in. 😍😍😍😍

[@retepish]

I would ask her out if I could. She would say no I would expect, but still...

[@chambzors1]

I find her voice annoying and fake. I couldnt even watch the whole video

[@jayawilder3835]

What was it about Rembrandt's depiction of women that people of his day didn't like?

[@zeroman614]

jaya wilder it was too realistic. Idealism was the fashion.

[@jayawilder3835]

@@zeroman614 Well, yeah. Same old, same old. Rembrandt's personal taste in women seemed to be for "Real Women", warts and all (or if not actually warts, at least wobbly bits.) The love he had for podgy Hendrickje Stoffels glows from the canvas of "Woman Bathing in a Stream." Makes me cry, it is so beautiful.

[@trinelangohr6661]

This Adam and Eve picture is so cool. They look a bit like Neanderthals. Or definitely generic cavepeople. And Eve's sly expression of "but I wanna eat it and I'm going to!" is hilarious (I see it every day in my toddler...).

[@noahway13]

I hope that place don't catch on fire.

[@NeonsStyleHD]

Sublime: I see an opportunity for education here. Do a series talking about the top 25 most important paintings in History and why they are so important. Most people don't get exposed to this, and just see art as something they like or dislike, and you have an opportunity here to pour knowledge into that ignorance.

[@petrfrizen6078]

26 most important paintings?.. Or 27?.. Or: 28 most important works of fine art?..

[@NeonsStyleHD]

Paintings or sculptures. Not interested in installations.

[@CanalTremocos]

The internet doesn't have enough top 25 lists. It also needs more pornography.

[@grcfrank]

Humans have endless lines of curvature that hide the beauty of the body.

[@jbtechcon7434]

That's clearly Judy Greer.

[@_artorical_]

Misspelling of surname in description: “Horbatsch“