“Rembrandt – Hoogstraten” at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

8 October 2024–12 January 2025

Two successful Dutch painters delight in tricking the eye

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When the enterprising Dutch artist Samuel van Hoogstraten auditioned for Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III, he outwitted his royal host with a masterful trompe l’oeil. Art lovers’ fascination with deception, and the skill to pull it off, are central to “Rembrandt – Hoogstraten: Colour and Illusion” at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, an exhibition showcasing the relationship between the singular Baroque painter Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn and his exceptional student van Hoogstraten.

Sixty works trace an artistic dialogue between the two innovative artists, highlighting their evolving artistic mastery. Rembrandt’s aptitude for color and nimbleness with light and shadow are on full display, from his spotlit “St. John the Baptist Preaching” to a commanding late portrait of the goddess Juno. Van Hoogstraten, meanwhile, developed these lessons in architectural views that play with depth and perspective, notably in “Young Man Reading in a Renaissance Palace,” whose vaulted colonnade and manicured garden march into a fictive distance.

Elsewhere, the exhibition spotlights Van Hoogstraten treatise on painting, “Inleyding,” which details his lessons from Rembrandt’s studio and his admiration for the artist. It also reminds us of the timeless delight of trickery, presenting an interactive, partly digital space to close the show.

Image: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, “Girl in a Picture Frame,” 1641. © The Royal Castle in Warsaw – Museum. Photo: Andrzej Ring, Lech Sandzewicz

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