Ernst van de Wetering, an internationally respected authority on the 17th-century Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, will present the address "Rembrandt's Thinking: His Ideas about Light and Shadow" on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. at Hope College in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall.
Ernst van de Wetering, an internationally respected authority on the 17th-century Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, will present the address "Rembrandt's Thinking: His Ideas about Light and Shadow" on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. at Hope College in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Van de Wetering is chairman of the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP), which was established in 1968 with the aim of separating Rembrandt's paintings from the large number of similar works made by his many apprentices and followers. He has published extensively and lectured in numerous countries on Rembrandt, on historic studio practice, and on the field of theory and ethics of conservation and restoration.
His book "Rembrandt: The Painter at Work" (1997, Amsterdam University/University of California Press) provides insight into a variety of technical, artistic and aesthetic aspects of Rembrandt's work. His book "Rembrandt's Mind" will appear in 2011. Van de Wetering's work also includes editing the most recent volumes of RRP's five-volume series "A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings," which sets out the results of the project's research. He is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on Rembrandt and his work.
Van de Wetering trained as an artist at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, and after finishing his training became an art teacher and artist. He was invited to become an assistant to the RRP in 1968, while he was studying art history at the University of Amsterdam. He became a member of the RRP team in 1970, and chairman in 1992.
Between 1969 and 1987, he was a staff member of the Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science in Amsterdam. From 1987 to 2001 he was a professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, and during 2002-03 he was the Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford.
Van de Wetering's address is sponsored by the West Michigan Chapter of the Netherland-America Foundation, the HollandMuseum, the Dutch Heritage Coordinating Council, Jim and Donna Brooks, and the Department of Art and Art History at Hope.
A reception will follow the presentation.
Graves Hall is located at 263 College Ave., between 10th and 12th streets.