Maggie's Farm

Many, like Van Gogh, felt he was a magician but in his lifetime his work became unpopular and less profitable, he made some bad investments, and died in poverty.

It seems that what we value most about Rembrandt today are his portraits, but he did all sorts of work in all sorts of styles.  The 17th C Dutch art show at the Met Museum now was interesting to me for a few reasons.

One was that Rembrandt was an outlier in much of his work. Baroque, and humorous/bawdy, were popular, money-making styles of his time. Franz Hals, for example. Also, landscapes of rich guys' estates.

Also interesting to me that this was going on during the time when the Pilgrims were in Holland, or planning to leave to New Amsterdam (but accidentally ended up in Cape Cod). Pilgrim clothing was conservative Dutch Reform dress.

My photo of one of Rembrandt's many self portraits. He was 55 at this time. He often used himself and his family as models.