Rembrandt van Rijn’s painting The Night Watch is the centerpiece and climax of the recent reinstallation at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and for good reason: it shows Rembrandt at his most inventive, ambitious, and idealistic. The painting gives heartfelt life and power to a traditional formula for portraiture. To reach a deeper understanding of the work, John Walsh looks at it in the context of what the artist’s clients might have expected.

This lecture is part of the series A History of Dutch Painting in Six Pictures.



Series description:

A History of Dutch Painting in Six Pictures

Fridays at 1:30 pm

January 23–February 27

John Walsh, B.A. 1961, Director Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and specialist in Dutch paintings, offers a series of lectures that explores the art of the Dutch Republic during its extraordinary flowering in the 17th century. By focusing on a single work each week and examining its artistic, intellectual, and political contexts, the audience will become familiar with six great paintings and the artists who made them. Three of the works are on view at the Gallery and the others are in Dutch museums. Walsh examines the artists’ intentions, the role of competition in the art market, and the development of artistic styles. The lecture series coincides with the loan of 30 important Dutch and Flemish paintings to the Gallery from the collection of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo.