how to paint rembrandt

7/30/2019 How to Paint Rembrandt

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How to Paint like RemOver about 15 weeks this winter and spWorkshop drawing and painting teache

(after asking for permission and beingopportunity) embarked on a project to

Portrait of a Young Man in an ArmchairHarmensz. Van Rijn in the Memorial A

permanent collection.

The process was documented by ph

Gary Graham. The narrative is in Sarah
http://magart.rochester.edu/Obj5052.htmlhttp://magart.rochester.edu/Obj5052.html


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February15Initial

lay

in.

Gary

(the

photographer)andIwere

startledbyhowlighttheface

andhandsareinthe

photographscomparedtomy

canvas.Ithinkitisabouncing

lighteffectfromthefirstlayer

ofyellowochreground.


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February 15. My canvas is much narrower than the originalcompensate for the space where the hands would go. Gallery co

dimensions to be slightly altered so they are not exactly

Sarahs copy Rembrandts


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February 15

I use a mirror to correct my drawing. The laying-in my best opportunity to see the big angles that are Inverting the image gives me a fresh eye and is a teLeonardo DaVinci used.


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February15Theprocesswasactionpacked.Iworkedfreehandbecausethis

elementofthepaintingandthatisthewayRembrandtwouldh

workedtoo.ThiswasmyanswerwhenpeopleaskedwhyIdidn

gridtodothebeginningdrawing.Iwouldgoupandmeasurea

whattodoandsometimesgettotheeaselandforgetandhave

backandrecalculate.


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February 29

I use a string to make comparison checks. For example, I mighmuch higher one eye is than the other. I will then go and make

the original. I have to be careful to stand the same distance awcan also use the string in a vertical manner. This string has a wcalled a plumb line.


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March 7

I am not using all the colorsseen on this palette. Eachmorning I got up and ground

just enough paint for the dayswork. Rembrandts colorswould have been freshlyground for him. Since I am

trying to copy, I want mymaterials to be as much thesame as possible. One day Iexperimented with fivedifferent yellow ochres.


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March 7I could use a rag with thinned mediumto correct smerrors. At this point I am not using any white, only band yellow. I could also use the rag to take away thimprematura and expose the lighter under-ground.


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March 07The most frequently asked questions were, Do youkeep it when it is finished? (Yes.) What are you godo with it? (Hang it, I hope.) Is it almost done? (N


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March 21I think the educational seeds put into childrens heads is wexposed I sometimes felt. When art is out of reach or intimpeople dont realize what they are capable of. Seeing somtrying to make art puts it within reach. The educational prothen becomes so much more than my experience if someothis idea. If I can do it, they can do it ,too.


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March 28Each session the staff created this private area for me in a gallery. I had two carpets for drop cloths, my bag of liquidmahl stick, paper towels, mirror and my palette. Each timewent straight to the art supply store for more brushes! I thpurchased between 20 and 30 new brushes!


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March 28Having the opportunity to really scrutinize the pictumaterials waiting and ready was the best part of thiopportunity. I looked and looked, and then looked more.


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March 28At this stage of the painting the dark areas have been mapped out

initially larger but need to be placed correctly. I can now begin to shapes along their edges.

Sarahs copy Rembra


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March 28The close up shows the amount of detail still to be worked out. Inmuddying the details I try to keep the light and shadow areas sep

white in the true shadow areas.

Sarahs copy Rembra


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April 4, 2008By listening to what the docents were saying to thegroups, I began to understand that some people mnever heard of Rembrandt. The docents helped meout what to say, especially when groups who did norealize what I was doing at all came by to watch.


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April 4, 2008Susies enthusiasm was contagious! All the curatorial staff behind the scenes workers made everything go very smoostanchions kept people from wandering into my area and knocking into the easel or spilling my liquids. People askedquestions about what they could smell.


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April 18, 2008Each time we laid out the rugs we were counting out a cernumber of squares on the floor. We had to be certain thateasel tipped over the pieces on the wall were out of rangedamage.


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April 18

This is one of the action shots showing me using my mahl sticksteadies my hand and keeps it out of wet paint.

Standing in the same room as the picture in the same light, I wand match colors. I was keenly aware of the trust and privilege to be allowed with wet paint in such proximity to the paintings.


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April 25Each week a curatorial staff member escorted the picture (and the live paint through the gallery and up the elevator museum cart.


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April 25I get to explain to a student group about how copying theis the closest I can get to a lesson from Rembrandt himse

Each week I left exhausted from the high concentration anconstant back and forth. It was very exhilarating and I hopagain!


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Why I Tried to Copy RembrandtBy Sarah Hart

While working with oil based mediums and referring to the book The Artists Handbook

of Materials & Techniques I found again a quote by A.P. Laurie that reminded me topush ahead with my art education by simply painting. Laurie, the well known professorof chemistry and author from the Royal Academy, is considered a giant on the subject of

old master mediums. He points out, It is a common mistaketo make up for the want

of manipulative skill on the part of the modern painter, by inventing complex mediums

which the painter of old is supposed to have used. Picking up the brushes and makingan attempt to copy an old master picture is the best way to learn about how they painted.

My educational background, in college and graduate school, was in the classical methods

of oil painting. Additionally, I spent three months in the Gabinetto des Disegni at theUffizi copying old master drawings. The old master drawings, especially the Dutch ones,

taught me that one drawing can be the product of 40-50 hours and even many more. I had

never had the materials, training, opportunity, time, or the idea to move on to the biggerchallenge of copying a master painting until being here in Rochester.

I inquired at the MAG to copy Portrait of a Young Man in an Armchair by Rembrandt

van Rijn. I had hoped to be put on their copyists waiting list and find out what I had todo to be granted permission. The opportunity was more than I had imagined; as the

curatorial staff made the history of the painting and its technical analysis immediately

available for me to study in their offices. They then proceeded to craft the old copyistsrules that had not been used before by any current curatorial staffer. The rules were

untested and incomplete. I agreed to do whatever they needed and be the willingspecimen. To make the most of this unforeseen opportunity I took about two months to

prepare, reading and making the canvas.

The MAGs library was the other ready resource. It alone is worth the membership at the

MAG and I am always encouraging students to see for themselves. Thousands of

lifetimes of artistic information are on the third floor. There are all kinds of videos forpassive anecdotal learning as well as teaching kits and teaching tools. There are sections

of Rembrandt books and one in particular became the companion piece for the project

called The Painter at Work. This book helped me at every step of my process in such a

detailed manner that I can only summarize how it assisted me. I also appreciated themany childrens books on the subject so that I could keep the painting in mind as much as

possible.

My objective, of course, was to copy the picture as exactly as possible. I had 10 three

hour sessions in the gallery near the painting. The more time I spent with the picture, the

farther away my goal became. The initial successes of the prepping of the canvas andlay-in turned to far more challenging struggles. Every week I was buying smaller and

smaller brushes and needing fistfuls of them. For every detail I succeeded in copying, I

noticed two dozen more details. At home in my own studio, I also worked on a still life


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that mimicked as many of the same steps I was taking with the copy and applying newthings I had learned.

I believe the countless hours of careful observation and diligent work are what madeRembrandt so successful. To understand and copy what Rembrandt knew is to spend a

lifetime in careful observation of nature around one. For example, a painter who isaccustomed to spending 60 to one hundred hours on a single portrait achieves a higherconsciousness about what he is seeing and noticing. A portrait has thousands and

thousands of tiny details to observe. I have learned from this process that the magic

medium lies in the patience and willingness of a painter to take an uncommon amount of

time painting in addition to being able to handle oil paint and its complexities.

how to paint rembrandt

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