Rembrandt’s light:
a scholarly approach to expression of emotion

Self portrait in a flat cap, 1642, Royal Collection, UK.
As displayed at the Rembrandt’s Light exhibition, Dulwich Picture Gallery London, 2019.

In 2019 the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London marked the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death with a major exhibition, “Rembrandt’s Light”. Visitors (including me) marveled at 35 of his paintings, etchings and drawings which the Gallery had brought together from the world’s great collections (Dulwich Picture Gallery: Rembrandt’s Light exhibition 2019). I remember being stopped in my tracks when walking into the last, entirely black room showing a number of the paintings lit from above: a stunning display (see photo above) which minimised any interference with the light painted by Rembrandt. The Dulwich Picture Gallery couldn’t have shown more clearly that he treated light in a very special way.

By the way, the room was so dark as the walls had been painted using ‘Black 3.0’: the blackest black developed by the artist Stuart Semple.

In the early 1600s Rembrandt embarked on a life-long journey exploring the dramatic and emotional potential of light and shade in his paintings. He was not alone as his colleague Jan Lievens also played with this concept after other Europeans, notably Caravaggio, had done so a few years earlier. Rembrandt and his Dutch contemporaries were able to explore their craft to their heart’s content: portraiture underwent a rapid development in technique and expression in 17th century Holland, with the increasingly wealthy middle classes buying paintings to show off their good taste.

The book published in conjunction with the exhibition examines Rembrandt’s use of light and in particular, the manipulation of light to express the emotion, mood, inner struggles and personality of the sitter. This became a centrepiece of his work, which he perfected through obsessive study and experiment: oil studies, sketches, etchings, paintings. It is therefore important to see Rembrandt as a scholar rather than a craftsman: investigating light anew.

So many self-portraits

Rembrandt produced a baffling number of self-portraits. It becomes clear why: breaking away from his contemporaries, in the 1630s he started to explore and deeply understand the effects of light on the human face, studying facial expressions and emotions. What model was more available than himself?

Other ways to experiment and study

To further study the human figure Rembrandt and his pupils drew and painted models, a service which in this century was provided by prostitutes and servants. Unlike his contemporaries however Rembrandt’s focus was not on anatomy, musculature, proportion, perspective or even creating a flattering painting, but on correctly showing light and shade. He was criticised by the painter Houbraken for inviting women an men of all body shapes and ages into the studio: “…sickening displays..” and “…perverse in his selection of what to paint.” (see Rembrandt’s Light, p 55).

How did Rembrandt use light to express emotion?

We’re very familiar with one method Rembrandt used: darkness with a bright focus/isolation of his sitter’s face. This, together with highlighted details or amplified highlights, helps to bring the sitter into extreme proximity with the viewer, bringing about an intimate moment and an emphatetic response. As described in the book, two hundred years later Van Gogh called it tapping into the ‘superhuman infinite’.

A great example of this is the Gallery’s own masterpiece Girl at a Window (see below). Her face and sleeves are brightly lit, bringing her close to us, and details such as water on the window sill further enhance this. We’re drawn to the points of highest tonal contrast and the composition leads our eye around the painting. Light and highlights on the girl’s face help express her mood.

 
Girl at a window, 1645.
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Study of  a woman in a white cap, 1640.
Leiden Collection, New York

Rembrandt portrayed a number of elderly people as well. He managed to give these subjects a certain dignity through carefully painting their hair and wrinkled skin and setting them in a soft light. He seems to have had a true compassion for them as well, which is visible in his work. Study of a woman in a white cap (Leiden Collection, New York, above) for example is an informal portrait of a servant. Her wrinkles are visible, her skin is soft, you can see that time has passed; Rembrandt has painted her soul, and it seems that he has achieved this by painting the softest light.

Further reading and references:

Dulwich Picture Gallery: Rembrandt’s Light exhibition 2019
Rembrandt’s Light, 2019. Scott, Hillyard, De Witt and Gottwald. Philip Wilson Publishers for the Dulwich Picture Gallery. ISBN-10: 1781300933
The Leiden Collection, New York
Netherlands Institute for Art History
Rembrandt Database