Rembrandt, ‘A Woman bathing in a Stream (Hendrickje Stoffels?)‘, 1654.

 ONe of the most stunning virtuoso displays of paintings I have ever seen. By all accounts an elaborate ode to a love one. What amazes me about Rembrandt is his ability to transform paint into a wide range of mimetic ends without ever loosing the autonomous suculence of the paint itself. It always reads as stick, sexy oil paint as well as its representational counterpart.

 That counterpart is never subordinate though. It is not like Rembrnadt sees a hierachy in the role of the medium. He sees the process of representation as a way to celebrate different properties of his medium, the two are always symbiotic, never at war.

 Look at the thumb on the dress. The dress itself. The light which flickers across wat, through skin and on the dress. The manner in which the leg breaks thorugh the water and the reflection of the legs across the riplling surface. Always with such loosness, with such seeming ease.

 When put into words we reduce the acheivement down to something simplisitc. It is in essence. It is nothing more than what many a painter has aspired to before and after Rembrandt. The difference is that only the smallest of handfuls of painters can acheive it with such sophisitication.

This eulogy is necessary. I wish to assert a believe in a hierachy. Some painters are better than others. It is without doubt true that the rules we judge painting by have been radically altered and are constantly evolving. Yet there are eternal truths and certain goals to aspire to. Within this framework there is certainly remit to gauge one painters success over another.

History may lie. Canons might be artifical constructions. But the deconstruction of such idealistic tower building should not mean we dismiss all aspects of the vantage point. When we sift back through the shattered lense which nows looks back, certain gems still emerge as strong as ever, even if the structure in which they were raised is crumbling.

 Rembrandt’s , ‘A Woman bathing in a Stream (Hendrickje Stoffels?)‘, 1654 is one of these gems.