Five exhibitions of interest to HNA members opening this weekend in Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany:
Rembrandt. Etchings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Québec, Canada
Exhibition: 25 April – 2 September 2024
The exhibition presents Rembrandt’s engravings, which established the artist’s reputation and have always been appreciated by art lovers. Rembrandt produced 300 engravings between 1625 and 1665. Most of the works are etchings, a complex technique in which the image is etched on a copper plate using an acid. For Rembrandt, etching was a full-fledged art form equal to painting that he researched passionately throughout his career. Moreover, almost all of his prints are original works independent of his paintings.
The 80 works selected will offer a panorama that reveals Rembrandt’s outstanding skill as an engraver in the human, aesthetic, and technical dimensions of engraving. The exhibition will include the artist’s foremost masterpieces, i.e., The Hundred Guilder Print (circa 1648), The Three Crosses (1653), and The Little Tomb (circa 1657), and other outstanding works.
Read more here.
Between the Lines: Prints from Leiden University in Museum Bredius
Museum Bredius, Den Haag, The Netherlands
Exhibition: 25 April – 30 June 2024
Here, at Museum Bredius, twenty one prints made by Dutch artists between 1580 and 1700 are on loan from the Leiden University Special Collections. All prints depict scenes and motifs that also appear in the paintings of the museum, such as a woman baking pancakes, musical companies, merry drinkers, quacks, and mythological figures. Often a deeper meaning is displayed in these stories and motifs. However, this is not always obvious at first glance. A closer look is needed between the lines.
The Allure of Rome – Maarten van Heemskerck Draws the City
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
Exhibition: 26 April – 4 August 2024
In 1532, Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck (1498–1574) embarked on a journey to Rome. From his five-year stay in the Eternal City, the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin has preserved a unique collection of around 160 drawings. These include wide panoramas and city views as well as studies of ancient ruins and sculptures. This outstanding collection will be on view in its entirety for the first time next year, 450 years after the artist’s death. In addition to the virtuoso drawings, which are also important pictorial sources on the history of Rome during the Renaissance, paintings, books, prints and plaster casts will also be on display.
Numerous loans from various collections of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, but also from important museums such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Princely Collections of Liechtenstein, the National Gallery in Prague, the Dresden State Art Collections, and the Hamburg Kunsthalle enrich the exhibition. Thus, two formerly associated sketchbook pages will find their way to Berlin for the duration of the presentation and will be reunited with their counterparts.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue of approximately 350 pages and a facsimile of the Roman sketchbook.
Read more here.
Opulence Distilled. Masterpieces from the oeuvre of Jan Davidsz. de Heem (Utrecht, 1606 – Antwerp, 1684) 
Snijders&Rockoxhuis, Antwerp, Belgium
Exhibition: 27 April – 1 October 2024
Jan Davidsz. de Heem (Utrecht, 1606 – Antwerp, 1684) was an exceptional artist in his time, working in the Netherlands, a divided region since the Fall of Antwerp in 1585. As a painter he worked across national boundaries to elevate the beauty of still life painting to its zenith, insisting on high quality, continually pursuing renewal and maintaining the vitality of the genre.
Opulence Distilled (Verbeelde Weelde) brings together some of the best works by the artist from international museums such as the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the Mauritshuis in the Hague, as well as from many private collections. he exhibition is curated by Dr. Fred G. Meijer, a renowned expert on seventeenth-century still-life painting in the northern and southern Netherlands. In 2016 he was awarded a Ph.D for his research concerning Jan Davidsz. de Heem, which is the basis for the publication that is published in conjunction with the exhibition. (760 pages in 2 volumes, English, ISBN 9789462625563, Waanders)
A Passionate Eye. Twelve Years of Acquisitions by Ger Luijten
Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, France
Exhibition: 27 April – 7 July 2024
In 2024, the Fondation Custodia wishes to pay tribute to Ger Luijten with the exhibition A passionate eye. Twelve years of acquisitions by Ger Luijten, which highlights his many acquisitions that have enriched the collection in a wide range of fields, often in unexpected ways. The exhibition runs from 27 April to 7 July 2024.
Ger Luijten directed the Fondation Custodia for twelve years, from June 2010 until his untimely death in December 2022. During this time, he put his experience and his keen eye at the service of the institution, leading a dynamic and original acquisition policy.
Read more on CODART’s website.