Rembrandt, Goya and Whistler: Treasures from the Print Collection of the Reading Public Museum

Rembrandt, Goya and Whistler: Treasures from the Print Collection of the Reading Public Museum is an exhibit of 15 seldom seen or never before exhibited etchings of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) and James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Ron Roth, Director, CEO and Curator of the Reading Public Museum comments, “The prints in this exhibition represent some of the landmarks of the ‘art of etching’ by three of the world's greatest artists, artists who were known for their virtuosity in this medium. All but two of the prints are from the permanent collection of the Reading Public Museum, and attest to the depth and quality of the approximately 14,000 works on paper that are a part of the Museum's collections.”

Rembrandt, Goya and Whistler: Treasures from the Print Collection of the Reading Public Museum is on exhibit in the Cove Gallery December 20, 2003 – April 11, 2004 and is supported in part by grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Regular Museum admission is $7 adults and $5 children 4 to 17, Members and Children under 4 are free. Museum hours are Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday 11am to 5pm, Wednesday 11am to 8pm and Sunday 12pm to 5pm.

The oldest artist in this exhibit is known simply by his first name – Rembrandt. Etching was a medium in which Rembrandt achieved especially remarkable effects in his use of light and shadow in his compositions. His art often defined a divine element he saw in people from the humblest of backgrounds. The humane and empathic feeling that infuses his work is especially evident in his etchings of Biblical stories, and has a basis in Mennonite religious beliefs that stress forgiveness, humility and compassion. Two etchings included in the exhibit are Christ Driving the Money-Changers from the Temple and The Annunciation to the Shepherds.

Spanish artist Francisco Goya led the visual arts into the darker side of early 19th Century Romanticism. His work teemed with phantoms, nameless terrors and suffering. He developed the etching’s full potential for exploring these remote regions of the subconscious. In the Desparates and Proverbios, a series of etchings completed late in his career, Goya explores a surreal terrain of dreamlike, evocative images. They are often informed by satirical comment, multiple possibilities of meaning, and iconic gravity.

American-born artist James Whistler completes this powerful exhibit. The 400 plus prints produced by Whistler during his lifetime represent one of the most important bodies of work in American art. Many of his prints use both etching and dry point technique. His use of dry point – incising lines directly on the copper printing plate with a steel needle – brought this technique to a high level of expression, rendering effects of shading, volume and textural subtleties remarkable for their delicacy and sureness of effect. Bibi Valentin, a print in this exhibit was completed in 1859 and is one of Whistler’s earliest etched portraits. At this early stage of his career the use of both dry point and etching technique in his prints foreshadows expressive effects of light and shading he would bring to a level of technical perfection unique in American print making.

In addition to the prints, there will also be a display added mid-January informing visitors on the process of etching. A Noontime Knowledge Discovery Talk, Rembrandt and His Art, will be presented at the Museum Tuesday, January 27, 2004 at noon by Dr. Barbara Fahey.