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Rijksmuseum researchers discover new painting by Rembrandt van Rijn

138 points by ohjeez 8mo ago

apt-get 7mo ago
... with a high-resolution scan of the work itself available for download, to boot. I really appreciate whenever museums go out of their way to share those publically! Much better than many paintings only officially available as some 400px thumbnail.
- microtonal 7mo ago
  Obligatory link to the hi-res viewer of the Nachtwacht (Night Watch): https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/stories/operation-night-watch/story/ultra-high-resolution-photo https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/stories/operation-night-watch/...
- celaleddin 7mo ago
  Yes! I visited Rijksmuseum a few years ago with a close friend and I liked the painting "The Gulf of Naples with the Island of Ischia in the Distance" very much. I downloaded the high quality scan from the painting's museum web page[1] and got it printed onto a canvas to hang in our apartment. We really enjoy its presence with my wife! [1]: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/The-Gulf-of-Naples-with-the-Island-of-Ischia-in-the-Distance--104b3075d6a26f58f1780a3dabb7173b https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/The-Gulf-of-...
  - neduma 7mo ago
    > got it printed onto a canvas to hang How, Care to share the steps. I'm thinking of the same thing.
ChrisMarshallNY 7mo ago
It’s a cool story. As a [former] artist, myself, the thing that comes to mind, is the model must have been in real discomfort, after about 3 minutes.
- Nevermark 7mo ago
  Yeah. Even with an "air" book! A couple support canes could help.
forinti 7mo ago
I'm currently reading Heretics by the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura. The plot centers around a Rembrandt stolen from a Jewish family that tried to flee to Cuba in the 1930s and a big part of the story follows a young Jewish artist that takes up a kind of apprenticeship with Rembrandt. Padura seems to like stories that span many decades and even centuries as in this book. Anyway, the book does a good job of describing Rembrandt's life even if the story is mostly fiction.
Tepix 7mo ago
The Rijksmuseum is amazing, reserve a day on your next visit to Amsterdam and take it all in! I also like their tech stack, they let you use your own phone + headphones for the guided tours.
- ghaff 7mo ago
  Yes. Don't know if I'll make it again on my upcoming trip--missed the Van Gogh last time because it was sold out but have tickets this time. It always amazes me how quickly schedules fill up. Doesn't help that I'm also working.
- derektank 7mo ago
  Beautiful building too. The busker playing the accordion in the tunnel was a kind of magical addition to the experience
- drob518 7mo ago
  Definitely. This museum is great if you love Dutch masters, particularly Rembrandt. Highly recommended.
- JoshTriplett 7mo ago
  The Rijksmuseum is incredible, but also huge; the kind of museum you pick a small fraction of to see in any given trip. There are also several smaller museums that you can see in a day. The Mauritshaus is a small museum in a converted manor, containing an incredible number of famous paintings, notably by Vermeer and Rembrandt. Folks here might also appreciate the M. C. Escher museum.
- ninalanyon 7mo ago
  You need more than one day, more than one visit, for even much smaller art collections. Trying to take all that in in such a short time is just a recipe for visual, emotional, and intellectual indigestion.
wewewedxfgdf 7mo ago
"What's this painting here behind the couch? Did any of you guys put this here? Hey, wait, what...... this is a Rembrandt!"
crote 7mo ago
Re-attributed, to be more accurate. The painting wasn't exactly unknown: its existence was reasonably well-documented and it was included in a variety of Rembrandt catalogues. However, in 1960 it was decided that it wasn't a Rembrandt, so people mostly stopped caring about it. This discovery is a re-analysis of the painting using modern methods, which revealed that the 1960 "not a Rembrandt" decision was a bit premature.
- skrebbel 7mo ago
  > However, in 1960 it was decided that it wasn't a Rembrandt, so people mostly stopped caring about it. I'll never understand this about the art scene. Like, if Rembrandt was a shit painter, his works wouldn't have been so valuable today. But then, suddenly, one random painting of his is only interesting if it was actually made by him? If we can judge his entire oeuvre on quality, why couldn't we do the same with this one painting? How is it possible that people stop caring about a painting just because it wasn't made by Rembrandt? I mean, is it a good painting or not? If not, why do we suddenly care now? If it is, why didn't we before?
  - odyssey7 7mo ago
    Works of art are the original NFTs? Pricing is meme-like, though over longer timescales.
  - loloquwowndueo 7mo ago
    How art is valued is entirely illogical and irrational. Like - that time an entire art installation was confused with trash and thrown out. https://i-d.co/article/museum-cleaners-thought-this-art-installation-was-trash-so-they-threw-it-out/ https://i-d.co/article/museum-cleaners-thought-this-art-inst...
    - kleiba 7mo ago
      Similarly to why you can pay 7-digit prices for a watch.
techpulse_x 7mo ago
[flagged]
cubefox 7mo ago
Unrelated, but I have never before seen that "ij" ligature in the title.
- jvdvegt 7mo ago
  IJ is a seperate character (?) in Dutch There are more like this: ei, eu, ui, oe, ch (and I'm probably forgetting some others)
  - cubefox 7mo ago
    It's a ligature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligature_(writing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligature_(writing) A specialized font glyph but not a special Unicode character.
dmix 7mo ago
That's a pretty amazing painting, I like how they attached a high quality jpg of it. Rembrandt is my favourite for sure.

138 points by ohjeez 8mo ago

... with a high-resolution scan of the work itself available for download, to boot. I really appreciate whenever museums go out of their way to share those publically! Much better than many paintings only officially available as some 400px thumbnail.

microtonal 7mo ago
Obligatory link to the hi-res viewer of the Nachtwacht (Night Watch): https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/stories/operation-night-watch/story/ultra-high-resolution-photo https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/stories/operation-night-watch/...
celaleddin 7mo ago
Yes! I visited Rijksmuseum a few years ago with a close friend and I liked the painting "The Gulf of Naples with the Island of Ischia in the Distance" very much. I downloaded the high quality scan from the painting's museum web page[1] and got it printed onto a canvas to hang in our apartment. We really enjoy its presence with my wife! [1]: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/The-Gulf-of-Naples-with-the-Island-of-Ischia-in-the-Distance--104b3075d6a26f58f1780a3dabb7173b https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/The-Gulf-of-...
- neduma 7mo ago
  > got it printed onto a canvas to hang How, Care to share the steps. I'm thinking of the same thing.

ChrisMarshallNY 7mo ago

It’s a cool story. As a [former] artist, myself, the thing that comes to mind, is the model must have been in real discomfort, after about 3 minutes.

Nevermark 7mo ago
Yeah. Even with an "air" book! A couple support canes could help.

forinti 7mo ago

I'm currently reading Heretics by the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura. The plot centers around a Rembrandt stolen from a Jewish family that tried to flee to Cuba in the 1930s and a big part of the story follows a young Jewish artist that takes up a kind of apprenticeship with Rembrandt. Padura seems to like stories that span many decades and even centuries as in this book. Anyway, the book does a good job of describing Rembrandt's life even if the story is mostly fiction.

Tepix 7mo ago

The Rijksmuseum is amazing, reserve a day on your next visit to Amsterdam and take it all in! I also like their tech stack, they let you use your own phone + headphones for the guided tours.

ghaff 7mo ago
Yes. Don't know if I'll make it again on my upcoming trip--missed the Van Gogh last time because it was sold out but have tickets this time. It always amazes me how quickly schedules fill up. Doesn't help that I'm also working.
derektank 7mo ago
Beautiful building too. The busker playing the accordion in the tunnel was a kind of magical addition to the experience
drob518 7mo ago
Definitely. This museum is great if you love Dutch masters, particularly Rembrandt. Highly recommended.
JoshTriplett 7mo ago
The Rijksmuseum is incredible, but also huge; the kind of museum you pick a small fraction of to see in any given trip. There are also several smaller museums that you can see in a day. The Mauritshaus is a small museum in a converted manor, containing an incredible number of famous paintings, notably by Vermeer and Rembrandt. Folks here might also appreciate the M. C. Escher museum.
ninalanyon 7mo ago
You need more than one day, more than one visit, for even much smaller art collections. Trying to take all that in in such a short time is just a recipe for visual, emotional, and intellectual indigestion.

wewewedxfgdf 7mo ago

"What's this painting here behind the couch? Did any of you guys put this here? Hey, wait, what...... this is a Rembrandt!"

crote 7mo ago

Re-attributed, to be more accurate. The painting wasn't exactly unknown: its existence was reasonably well-documented and it was included in a variety of Rembrandt catalogues. However, in 1960 it was decided that it wasn't a Rembrandt, so people mostly stopped caring about it. This discovery is a re-analysis of the painting using modern methods, which revealed that the 1960 "not a Rembrandt" decision was a bit premature.

skrebbel 7mo ago
> However, in 1960 it was decided that it wasn't a Rembrandt, so people mostly stopped caring about it. I'll never understand this about the art scene. Like, if Rembrandt was a shit painter, his works wouldn't have been so valuable today. But then, suddenly, one random painting of his is only interesting if it was actually made by him? If we can judge his entire oeuvre on quality, why couldn't we do the same with this one painting? How is it possible that people stop caring about a painting just because it wasn't made by Rembrandt? I mean, is it a good painting or not? If not, why do we suddenly care now? If it is, why didn't we before?
- odyssey7 7mo ago
  Works of art are the original NFTs? Pricing is meme-like, though over longer timescales.
- loloquwowndueo 7mo ago
  How art is valued is entirely illogical and irrational. Like - that time an entire art installation was confused with trash and thrown out. https://i-d.co/article/museum-cleaners-thought-this-art-installation-was-trash-so-they-threw-it-out/ https://i-d.co/article/museum-cleaners-thought-this-art-inst...
  - kleiba 7mo ago
    Similarly to why you can pay 7-digit prices for a watch.

techpulse_x 7mo ago

[flagged]

cubefox 7mo ago

Unrelated, but I have never before seen that "ij" ligature in the title.

jvdvegt 7mo ago
IJ is a seperate character (?) in Dutch There are more like this: ei, eu, ui, oe, ch (and I'm probably forgetting some others)
- cubefox 7mo ago
  It's a ligature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligature_(writing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligature_(writing) A specialized font glyph but not a special Unicode character.

dmix 7mo ago

That's a pretty amazing painting, I like how they attached a high quality jpg of it. Rembrandt is my favourite for sure.