Rembrandt

A painter's effort to understand another painter gives this illustrated study its viewpoint. Jozef Israëls considers Rembrandt's life and reputation alongside the pictures themselves. The introduction follows the artist from Leyden to Amsterdam, where portrait commissions and pupils brought success, and examines the harsh judgments made by early biographers. Eight colour reproductions include portraits of Saskia and paintings held in collections in London, Amsterdam and Florence.

The personal passages turn to Israëls's own training as he learns to look beyond a smoothly finished surface. Copying old masters at the Trippenhuis leads him to study light, shade, gesture and the handling of paint. He describes the freedom and colour effects that attract him to Rembrandt, then recalls hours spent examining the artist's etchings. Readers interested in how painters learn to see can find a biographical introduction joined to a working artist's account of close observation.