Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt: The Creative Process

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art. In this lecture held on December 11, 2016, at the National Gallery of Art, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. introduces the exhibition Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt, on view through January 2, 2017. More than 90 drawings and 27 paintings by such renowned Golden Age masters as Aelbert Cuyp, Pieter Jansz Saenredam, and Rembrandt van Rijn reveal the many ways Dutch artists used preliminary drawings in the painting process. The immediacy and the true-to-life character of 17th-century Dutch paintings suggest that artists painted them from life. These artists, however, painted scenes in their studios, often using drawings as points of departure. Wheelock examines the surprisingly various ways in which Dutch artists used drawings in the creative process.