Aernout Hagen, an expert from Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, shows off Rembrandt’s print ‘Self-Portrait Leaning’ (1639).

Now there is a rare opportunity to see a selection of them under one roof at "The Rembrandt Exhibition"

being held at Central Chidlom's event hall from Friday until June 20.

To celebrate two events - the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King's accession to the throne and the 400th year of Rembrandt's birth - the Netherlands Embassy is presenting his original prints from the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam and from two private collectors - the Voute and Rumbler families. The overall value of the 88 prints has not been disclosed.

"Rembrandt's prints were mostly done in etchings and drypoint techniques and exploited the effect of strong contrasts between light and shadow. He intimated his engraving process with neat and precious lines for his etchings and the way he used the etching needle shows his great technical proficiency," said Aernout Hagen, an expert of Rembrandt House, who has flown in from Amsterdam to organise the exhibition.

The artist's prints on show are varied: biblical scenes, self-portraits, landscapes, scenes from everyday life, nudes and tronies - the term used for the pictures of human heads that Rembrandt painted to practise capturing facial expressions. Among his important and famous prints are "Three Crosses" (1653), "The rat-poison pedlar" (1632) and "The Three Trees" (1643).

"Most of Rembrandt's subjects were biblical. His most important prints are based on New Testament stories, and he sometimes used the faces of street people to become the saints," said Hagen. "For his self-portraits, he pulled all sorts of faces in front of the mirror to capture the expression he wanted."

To maintain the quality of the prints, the temperature of the Chidlom event hall must be kept at around 20 degrees Celsius, the humidity level at 50 per cent and the light must not exceed 50 Lux.

"The Rembrandt House was originally designed to exhibit works of art, so I have to re-design the Chidlom space so it's suitable for showing these masterpieces," said Asst Professor Thavorn Ko-Udomvit of Silpakorn University who is the exhibition designer. "The overall area of the hall is 1,400 square metres and is too large to hold the 88 prints that each measure about 30 by 40 centimetres. So, the area is being scaled down to 700 square metres. The partitioned wall is painted in purplish red to highlight Rembrandt's black-and-white works."

Thavorn, an expert in print making revealed that Rembrandt created far more prints than any artist of his era.

"A print can reveal light and shadow better than a photograph - and this is what Rembrandt did so well," said Thavorn.

Rembrandt, who was born in Leiden in 1606 and died in Amsterdam in 1669, lived in Rembrandt House until 1658. His house was converted into a museum in 1999 and the exhibition "Rembrandt-Quest of a Genius" is currently on display at the museum until July.

His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age (roughly equivalent to the 17th century), in which Dutch culture, science, commerce, world power and political influence reached their pinnacle. His self-portrait was a staple item of his product line during his four-decade career. However, his paintings were so popular that art experts are still trying to sort out the fakes from the originals.

HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana will preside over the exhibition on Friday at 5pm. A talk on "Rembrandt's Life and Work" by Thavorn and Assoc Professor Krisana Hong-Uten, will be held on June 11 and 18, from 2pm to 4pm.

Khetsirin Pholdhampalit

The Nation