The North Carolina Museum of Art presented an exhibition of Rembrandt’s work from October 31, 2011 to January 22, 2012. It was called Rembrandt in America. According to the museum’s website, it was the largest collection of Rembrandt’s paintings ever shown in an American exhibition. Jill and I moved to North Carolina in early December, and it wasn’t long before we heard of the exhibition. We were eager to go, but we didn’t make it until the last day. Honestly, we were a bit disappointed. I had recently heard David Calhoun lecture on Rembrandt, and he praised Rembrandt fulsomely. In particular, he praised Rembrandt’s paintings of the poor, the lame, and the blind, which he described as religious paintings; and, he also praised Rembrandt’s more traditional religious paintings, including a painting of the crucifixion of Jesus in which the artist painted himself among those who crucified our Lord. Calhoun said that in this painting Rembrandt declared before the whole world that he himself – Rembrandt – was responsible for the death of Christ. Unfortunately, the exhibition contained few of Rembrandt’s religious paintings, and so I was unable to study them as I had hoped to do.
Nevertheless, I was greatly impressed by Rembrandt’s paintings, and I found much to admire in them. His portraits seem to penetrate into the minds of his subjects and to expose their innermost thoughts and feelings. In some cases, he seems to have exposed a happy – or least a contented – disposition, but in many cases he seems to have exposed sorrow and hardship. One of my favorite paintings of his was a portrait of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. It was incredibly beautiful. Another favorite painting of mine was that of an old bearded man. His self-portraits were also wonderful. So was a painting of an old woman holding a thick book in her lap (a Bible, I presume). Calhoun said that Rembrandt painted many portraits of his mother, but the exhibition notes didn’t mention his mother, and they also said that the authenticity of the painting is disputed, which I would take to imply that the painting was definitely not of his mother. Jill said that the painting of the old woman was her favorite. I might agree. It was really an impressive work. One sensed that the subject was a woman of great intelligence and high moral character, but she also struck me as warm. I thought that I should like to talk with her. So, although I was disappointed by the small number of religious paintings, I enjoyed the exhibition, and I am glad that Jill and I went.
Well, enough about the Rembrandt exhibition. I want to say a few words about another artist whose work was exhibited at the museum – Beverly McIvers. Jill and I spent a good amount of time viewing her paintings after leaving the Rembrandt exhibit. We enjoyed them immensely. Jill said that she preferred McIvers to Rembrandt. I understand her preference. McIvers is a remarkable artist. Like Rembrandt, she is able to penetrate into the minds of her subjects and to reveal their thoughts and feelings on canvas, and in fact I think that she does this even better than Rembrandt. The experience is strong and intimate – one feels the joys, the peace, the compassion, and the triumphs, and also the sorrows, the loneliness, the sufferings, and the failures of her subjects. One encounters her subjects as real persons, as one does in good literature, and indeed in much good portraiture. McIvers seems like a very interesting person. I would like to know more about her, and I know that Jill would as well.
The last artist we saw was Rodin. The NCMA has a significant number of Rodin statues in its permanent collection, and they are displayed in a large, beautiful room. This was a pleasant surprise to both Jill and me. Jill has been an ardent fan of Rodin since college. I have always liked his work, but I wasn’t greatly moved by it until this last visit. I am not sure what was different about this visit. Perhaps it was seeing so many of his statues in one space for the first time (though Jill and I saw a sizable exhibition of his statues in Chicago soon after we began dating). Or perhaps it was my state of mind – I had just finished reading the first book of Calvin’s Institutes, and I was feeling somewhat depressed about the fallness and sinfulness of man. Rodin was a wonderful antidote to this. His work reminded me of the beauty and power of the human form, which in turn reminded me of the fact that man, though truly fallen and sinful, is yet made in the image of God, and that we are indeed fearfully and wondrously made, as Psalm 139 says. I must remember to read about the burghers of Calais some time. I expect that there is an interesting story there.
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