Rembrandt van Rijn. Portrait of a Woman with a Lap Dog, c. 1665. Oil on canvas, Overall: 81.3 × 64.1 cm). Art Gallery of Ontario. Bequest of Frank P. Wood, 1955. © Art Gallery of Ontario 54/30.

From the Bader Collection at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the AGO welcomes a remarkable selection of seventeenth century Dutch paintings. Shown in dialogue with paintings from the AGO’s European Collection of Art, at the centre of this focused installation are seven artworks attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), shown together for the first time. Featuring intensely observed still life paintings, detailed interiors and mesmerizing portraits, these striking artworks offer a rare glimpse of Dutch artistry at work. This exhibition is co-curated by Adam Harris Levine, AGO Associate Curator European Art and Suzanne van de Meerendonk, Bader Curator of European Art, Agnes Etherington Art Centre.

This exhibition is co-organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University.

Opening February 17, 2024

Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo, 1658. Oil on canvas, 107.4 x 87.0 cm. Collection of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University. Gift of Alfred and Isabel Bader, 2015 (58-008). © Art Gallery of Ontario

A man wearing a black notched beret and striped brown doublet is shown in three quarter-length with both hands on his hips. Though the subject in this painting of 1658 is unknown, his dark hair may indicate a traveller from the Mediterranean. Rembrandt executed at least one painting for an Italian patron in the 1650s, and this may be an instance of a portrait commissioned during a brief stay in Amsterdam. Regardless of the man’s origins, his authoritative pose and confident gaze point to a powerful personality. Equally remarkable is the application of paint: the artist has executed the doublet through long strokes laid in with a stiff brush. Flattening form in an almost modern manner, these strokes imbue the costume with a lively texture typical of the artist’s late “ruwe,” or rough, style. The man’s face, however, displays the attentive energy associated even with the artist’s earliest likenesses. This portrait, a grand statement on the power of the human face and the act of painting alike, demonstrates the artist’s supreme ability late in his career.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Head of a Man in a Turban (Study for a Rabbi), around 1661. Oil on oak panel, 24.8 x 19.1, cm. Collection of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University. Gift of Alfred and Isabel Bader, 2007 (50-001). © Art Gallery of Ontario

Light falls on an old man from behind, brilliantly illuminating his white turban and shawl. His head and shoulders appear in profile to the right, and his face is dimly lit by a light source from that side. Rembrandt painted this small panel as a study for two figures, a rabbi and a mohel, in his 1661 painting, The Circumcision, in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. By this time late in his career, after suffering bankruptcy and declining status and popularity, Rembrandt had moved toward a thoroughly painterly handling, while continuing to express profound drama and emotion in his work. In this dazzling performance, deft strokes of thick impasto paint in the turban and shawl at once evoke light, form and texture. The locks tumbling out from under the turban are more broadly defined, while a flurry of strokes captures the wiry texture of the beard. The face, with finely controlled middle tones, conveys meditative focus in the lowered eyes and furrowed brow. Small in scale, this study demonstrates uncompromising robustness and grandeur in its effect.

Jan Lievens, Profile Head of an Old Woman ("Rembrandt's Mother"), around 1630. Oil on panel, 43.2 x 33.7 cm. Collection of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University. Gift of Alfred and Isabel Bader, 2005 (48-001). © Art Gallery of Ontario

Old age fascinated the young Jan Lievens, and he concentrated upon the physical markers of wrinkled skin, thinning hair and missing teeth in his representations. Character studies of elderly women evoked biblical pillars of piety—such as Anna, who witnessed the presentation of the infant Christ in the temple in Jerusalem—without explicit identification. The luxurious translucent scarf may have been inspired by actual cloth owned by one of Leiden’s proprietors of textile production

Abraham Susenier, Vanitas Still Life with a Portrait of Rembrandt, a Sculpture, a Skull, Feathers, an Overturned Roemer and a Portfolio of Drawings, around 1668. Oil on canvas, overall: 60.3 cm x 74.3 cm. Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Ontario (57-001.32).© Art Gallery of Ontario.

Active in Leiden, The Hague, and Dordrecht, Abraham Susenier specialized in still life. In this glimpse of an artist’s studio, drawings spilling from a well-thumbed portfolio allude to works by Rembrandt (a self-portrait now at Buckland Abbey) and by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens (a Diana and her Nymphs in Paris). Is it a coincidence that both Rembrandt and the skull are sporting feathers? These plumes allude to both pride and the futility of earthly endeavors.