Rembrandt – Hoogstraten: Colour and Illusion

The term ‘Old Master’ is used so frequently that it’s easy to forget that even the greatest painters were links in a chain. Rembrandt van Rijn began his career at the age of 14, as an apprentice to the history painter ​​Jacob van Swanenburgh in Leiden; in his early 20s, he began taking on students himself, and went on to teach at least 50 budding artists. One of those was Samuel van Hoogstraten, who, a few years after Rembrandt’s death, published Introduction to the Academy of Painting; or, The Visible World, a compendium of insights he had gleaned from his former teacher. Among the most important lessons he had learned related to colour and illusionism – the key themes of this exhibition in Vienna, which assembles works from throughout Rembrandt’s career and examines them afresh through the lens of Hoogstraten’s treatise (8 October–12 January 2025). The master’s work is hung near that of the pupil, making clear Rembrandt’s imprint on the young man’s mind – though Hoogstraten, as this show makes clear, had a distinct sensibility of his own.

Find out more from the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s website.

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Girl in a Picture Frame (1641), Rembrandt van Rijn. Royal Castle, Warsaw. Photo: Andrzej Ring and Lech Sandzewicz; © The Royal Castle in Warsaw – Museum

Feigned Letter Rack Painting (1666–78), Samuel van Hoogstraten. Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. © Creative Commons, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

Self-portrait with Two Circles (1665–69), Rembrandt van Rijn. English Heritage, Kenwood House, London. © Historic England Archive

Old Man in a Window (1653), Samuel van Hoogstraten. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. © KHM-Museumsverband