Marie Gicquel // Photo credits: Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP 15:17 pm, August 08, 2023

Before making huge canvases like The Night Watch, the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Rembrandt made engravings and also became a master of it. A hundred of his engravings are exhibited in the museum of modern art of the sublime abbey of Fontevraud. An amazing exhibition.

The exhibition "Rembrandt in etching" is being held until 24th September at the Museum of Modern Art of the Abbey of Fontevraud, in Maine-et-Loire. To better appreciate all the details, the size of a postage stamp, that Rembrandt had fun hiding in his engravings, a magnifying glass is available to visitors.

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Dutch journalists come to Maine-et-Loire

Among his prints, Rembrandt's well-known self-portrait with his shaggy hair, sparse mustache and astonished look at visitors. "A group of Dutch journalists who came and therefore discovered with astonishment the size of the small self-portrait with haggard eyes," reports Dominique Gagneux, the director of the Museum of Modern Art in Fontevraud.

"I thought it was interesting, that Dutch journalists came from Amsterdam to discover this work in real life in Fontevraud," she adds. Nude religious scene, still lifes, landscapes, Rembrandt's engravings were then snapped up throughout seventeenth-century Europe. "This technique of engraving means that we only discover the result after printing at the end," explains Dominique Gagneux. This allowed the artist to train in achieving the chiaroscuro effect that will make him famous. An exhibition to discover until September 28th.