Paintings

Thirty major paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn, from The Anatomy Lesson that established his reputation to the valedictory Self-Portrait of his final years. Rembrandt is the painter of the human soul. His early works dazzle with technical virtuosity and dramatic lighting; his late works — painted after bankruptcy, the death of his wife and son, and public disgrace — achieve a depth of psychological insight that has never been surpassed. The self-portraits alone constitute one of the great autobiographies in any medium: a young man's confidence giving way, decade by decade, to something far more profound — an old man's unsparing, compassionate understanding of what it means to be human. The brushwork of the late paintings, once criticized as rough and unfinished, is now recognized as the most expressive paint handling in the history of art.