By DARLA MCCAMMON

Lakeland Arts Association

WARSAW — The artist with a pet this week might mystify you if I told you the work was done by an artist named Harmenszoon. With a couple of exceptions, such as Michelangelo and Raphael, we know most artists by their last name, as in Rubens, Picasso, Dali, Renoir, and so forth. But Harmenszoon who is actually Rembrant, the son of Harmen we all recognize immediately with the spelling of Rembrandt. He went through several gyrations in signing his work, including RHL-vanRijn, then Rembrant, and finally Rembrandt, where he added the “d” by which we all now know him..

He was a prolific artist and produced many etchings and paintings. Some arguments have evolved over the specific number due to the fact that he was also a great teacher and one of  his practices was to assign the job of copying his work to his students. It has taken up much time by a large and scholarly committee of experts to separate the real work of Rembrandt from that of his students. One piece that survived this scrutiny was purchased by Dr. Clowes in 1951. It stayed with that family until 1959 when it was donated to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We have this wonderful masterpiece within a two hour drive. Rembrandt was only twenty-three years old when he made the piece now residing in Indiana. He is recognized as a Dutch Master and is considered at the top of the very impressive list of famous Dutch artists.

Rembrandt was also unique in selecting from a very wide range of subject matter. He liked the variety of going from portrait to landscape, to over 40 self-portraits in which he was unforgiving of the flaws as he aged. His realism was remarkable. One of the ways his work was identified was because of this dedication to painting the truth. His students, when copying one of his self-portraits usually glossed over, or eliminated age spots or extra wrinkles.  Rembrandt painted what he saw, even if sometimes unflattering. He also often chose topics from the Bible and also painted animals, historical events, and even mythological subject often adorned his canvas.

Known for his ability as an etcher, he is unsurpassed to this day in that genre. Many artists of his era worked in poverty and died penniless, but not Rembrandt. His work was sought after and he made a good living from his portrait and in fact all of his work. His etches were widely sold all over Europe.

The dog in the portrait is a Standard poodle (called pudel in German). Thought to have originated in Germany in the 1500s, France also lays claim to being the originator of the Poodle where it is considered their national dog. Poodles are very intelligent dogs which is why we see so many of them in trained acts. These dogs do not shed and are considered hypoallergenic. Contrary to movies where poodles are depicted as regal décor lying on a pillow, these dogs would much rather be outside. They are highly trainable and in France they are used as retrievers and perform beautifully at that skill.  Poodles come in Standard, miniature, and toy size. They also come in many different coat colors including white, black, apricot, gray and although the AKC says they are never part-colored, Rembrandt definitely saw multi-colored chocolate brown and white in his poodle. .

Next week another pet portrait.

Upcoming and Current Events: 

• Lakeland Art Gallery, Forty Years of Garage Sale Art, 302 E. Winona Avenue, Warsaw, through March 1.
• Warsaw City Hall Art Gallery through March 15. Open 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Perry Olshein oil paintings on view.

For more information on topics in this column, please contact Darla McCammon at [email protected] or (574) 527-4044.