Rembrandt

Whipping up a masterpiece: painters and their materials

19 October 2024 9:00 am

Martin Gayford finds artists from Rembrandt to De Kooning mixing pigment, egg and oil together with all the skill of an accomplished chef

The golden age of Dutch art never ceases to amaze

21 October 2023 9:00 am

Benjamin Moser reminds us of how freely painters borrowed each other’s subjects – and of how many of the greatest, including Rembrandt, died in poverty

Why is Frans Hals still not considered the equal of Rembrandt?

16 September 2023 9:00 am

Why is Frans Hals still not considered the equal of Rembrandt, asks Craig Raine

The art of the monarchy

17 September 2022 9:00 am

Michael Hall on how the Queen made her mark on the Royal Collection

A showstopper is at the heart of this winning show: Dulwich Gallery's Reframed – The Woman in the Window reviewed

23 July 2022 9:00 am

Themed exhibitions pegged to particular pictures in museum collections tend to be more interesting to the museum’s curators than to…

The guileful, soulful art of Khadija Saye

18 July 2020 9:00 am

Gwyneth Paltrow has a new neighbour. On the same block in Notting Hill as Gwynie’s Goop store, with its This…

Every bit as well observed as Rembrandt – and often funnier: Nicolaes Maes reviewed

7 March 2020 9:00 am

Nicolaes Maes (1634–93) relished the simple moments of daily life during the Dutch Golden Age. A woman peeling parsnips over…

A letter from Vincent van Gogh to his younger brother Theo, dated 28 October 1883

‘Lock him in a motel & he’d do something astonishing’: Hockney on the genius of Van Gogh

23 February 2019 9:00 am

Being in the south of France obviously gave Vincent an enormous joy, which visibly comes out in the paintings. That’s…

Face value: ‘An Old Woman Reading’, 1655, by Rembrandt, on show in Rembrandt: Britain’s Discovery of the Master at the National Galleries of Scotland

Three of the best faces, and six of the best hands, ever painted: the pick of the Edinburgh Art Festival

18 August 2018 9:00 am

The Rembrandt show at the National Galleries of Scotland (until 14 October) has a problem. A mighty haul of Rembrandt…

How silverpoint revolutionised art

12 September 2015 9:00 am

Marshall McLuhan got it at least half right. The medium may not always be the entire message, but it certainly…

‘Turning Road (Route Tournante)’, c.1905, by Paul Cézanne

I can’t stop thinking about the Courtauld’s Unfinished exhibition

15 August 2015 9:00 am

A while ago, David Hockney mused on a proposal to tax the works of art stored in artists’ studios. ‘You’d…

Forces of nature: Maggi Hambling with ‘Amy Winehouse’, a painting exhibited at her Walls of Water show last year

‘This stuff goes on being alive’: Maggi Hambling on the power of painting

18 April 2015 9:00 am

Maggi Hambling on Rembrandt, Twombly and the power of art

‘Two Figures in a Room’, 1959, by Francis Bacon

The dos and don’ts of the Russian art scene

28 February 2015 9:00 am

They’re doing fantastic deals on five-star hotels in St Petersburg the weekend the Francis Bacon exhibition opens at the Hermitage.…

‘Woman at Her Toilette’, 1875/80, by Berthe Morisot

2015 in exhibitions - painting still rules

3 January 2015 9:00 am

The art on show over the coming year demonstrates that we still live in an age of mighty painters, says Martin Gayford

Left: The Apostle Simon, 1661. Right: Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan, 1658–60

Rembrandt at the National Gallery: the greatest show on earth

25 October 2014 9:00 am

Martin Gayford sees Rembrandt’s late works at the National Gallery – is this the greatest show on earth?

Frieze Art Fair: where great refinement meets harrowing vulgarity

25 October 2014 9:00 am

If you wanted to find a middle-aged man in a bright orange suit, matching tie and sneakers, Frieze is a…

‘Rain, Steam and Speed — The Great Western Railway’, 1844, by J.M.W. Turner

Tate Britain’s Turner show reveals an old master - though the Spectator didn’t think so at the time

27 September 2014 9:00 am

Juvenilia is the work produced during an artist’s youth. It would seem logical to think, therefore, that an artist’s output…

Portrait of a couple as Isaac and Rebecca, known as ‘The Jewish Bride’, c.1665, by Rembrandt

Why everyone loves Rembrandt

27 September 2014 8:00 am

Talking of Rembrandt’s ‘The Jewish Bride’ to a friend, Vincent van Gogh went — characteristically — over the top. ‘I…

‘The Goldfinch’, 1654, by Carel Fabritius

The home of Holland’s celebrity paintings gets a makeover

19 July 2014 9:00 am

Laura Gascoigne on the treasures in the newly reopened Mauritshaus museum in The Hague

'Marcia painting her self-portrait’; detail from Boccaccio’s On Famous Women (1402)

The selfie from Akhenaten to Tracey Emin

22 March 2014 9:00 am

If ever there was a time to write a book about self-portraits, this must be it.  ‘Past interest in the…

Unmissable: ‘The Horse, the Rider and the Clown’, 1943–4, by Matisse will go on show at Tate Modern in April

Art shows you simply mustn't miss in 2014

11 January 2014 9:00 am

Andrew Lambirth reveals the treats on show in 2014

‘Crouching Nude’, 1956, by Emilio Greco

Andrew Lambirth: Emilio Greco's early work is undeniably his best

19 October 2013 9:00 am

Emilio Greco (1913–95) is considered to be one of Italy’s most important modern sculptors, and certainly he was a successful…