On October 26th, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, (MFA) premiered "Rembrandt's Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher," the first American exhibition in several decades to explore the illustrious career of one of art history's greatest masters - Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn. Featuring over 200 of his portrait pieces, landscape sketches and biblical scenes, the show examines the emergence of Rembrandt's realistic, candid style and trademark attention to detail. While Rembrandt's works may appear rather traditionalist, even conservative, to today's contemporary audience, the exhibition reveals how Rembrandt radically redefined the creative process through the increased spontaneity and expressiveness within his sketches that transmitted into his subsequent finished pieces. "Rembrandt's Journey" is an exhibition rich with historical art information but lacking in its overall ability to effectively maintain the attention span and interest of an average museum visitor.
Upon entering the first room of the exhibition, displaying a single self-portrait, it is clear Rembrandt was taking unprecedented directions in the field of art during his lifetime. Not only does he remarkably and realistically capture his own physical features in "Self-Portrait" (1629), but he also explores the natural fall of light and shade across his face in the painting. The exhibition continues to show how the Dutchman revolutionized the role of illumination and realism in art throughout his career in his famous works "The Visitation" (1640) and "Self-Portrait" (1659). As seen with his biblical series "The Presentation in the Temple" and "Christ at Emmaus," Rembrandt often produced a sequence of etchings to assess the extent to which light and shade could influence the narrative and emotional impact on his art. In his oil-on-canvas works, Rembrandt's use of gold for ornamentation almost becomes an additional light source within the pieces as witnessed in his "Daniel and Cryus before Bel" (1633).

While the pieces throughout the exhibition vary in size, medium and subject matter, Rembrandt's interest in everyday human emotion and interaction is evident from his earliest etchings to his later self-portraits. One of the more unique aspects of Rembrandt's career was his interest in role-playing, dressing as a scowling courtier or an impassioned bohemian in order to examine the effect of human emotions within portrait works. Furthermore, Rembrandt, like most Baroque artists of the 17th century, was interested in the drama of biblical subject matter. Yet he also realistically portrayed characters from more everyday life, from the wearied poor in his "Standing Beggar" (1630) to the expressions of his own mother in "An Elderly Woman" (1629).

The show does a sufficient job of tracing the stylistic progression of Rembrandt's art through his use of a variety of mediums and subject focuses. The exhibit displays how Rembrandt's interest in aesthetic texture and outward emotion in his early portrait works is replaced by a more painterly composition and shift toward internal introspection by the end of his lifetime in the 1650s. His organized, serene sketches of the divine from the 1620s progress against biblical scenes set into complex architectural settings full of great danger and action. What becomes problematic is that "Rembrandt's Journey" attempts both a chronology of the artist's life as well as stylistic development, forcing the viewer to work hard in order to follow the flow of the exhibition.

"Rembrandt's Journey" left me in a state of overwhelming awe at the artist's incredible skill and talent at depicting the nature of human expression. However I am hesitant to recommend this particular show to the average college student looking to peruse the MFA or to explore all the cultural opportunities Boston has to offer. While Rembrandt's art unquestionably deserves to be marveled at, the majority of the pieces in the exhibition are inconveniently small in size for an exhibition that will most likely continue to draw sizeable crowds. In an exhibition where many of the pieces are even tinier than the width of a dollar bill, I repeatedly had to wait in line for several minutes to be able to catch a glimpse of Rembrandt's renowned works, such as "The Artists in his Studio" (1628) and "The Three Crosses" (1653). Furthermore, the smaller size of Rembrandt's works often required increased visual effort on the part of the viewer in order to comprehend and appreciate the significance of his art. Many museum-goers brought or purchased magnifying glasses offered especially for the exhibition in order to catch all the minute details hidden within Rembrandt's intricate sketches. The time and energy necessary ito examine over 150 minute landscape drawings and small self-portrait sketches left me feeling more exhausted than excited.

Secondly, I would allot an hour and a half minimum in order to go and fully appreciate the exhibition without becoming too rushed or overwhelmed by the immense size and number of works in the show. Not to take away from Rembrandt's importance, but an hour and a half is a lot of time to spend on one artist if you are trying to go through the entire MFA in an afternoon. Though "Rembrandt's Journey" comprehensively explores the life and art of this artistic prodigy, it's an exhibition that would most likely be best appreciated by avid art enthusiasts or fans of 17th-century history.

Rembrandt's Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher
On display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from October 26, 2003 through January 18, 2004. Tickets for students with I.D. are $5 Monday-Friday and $20 on Saturday-Sunday. Admission to MFA Boston's permanent collection for Brandeis students is free.