festival VISUAL ART For more info go to LIST.CO.UK /FESTIVAL
REMBRANDT: BRITAIN’S DISCOVERY OF THE MASTER Old master gets the Edinburgh Art Festival blockbuster treatment
The formula for a blockbuster Edinburgh Art Festival summer exhibition is adhered to without much deviation here. First, take an acknowledged classical master or masters of painting; then painstakingly source enough paintings to tell a story, put all the research done up there on the walls and in the brochure, put it in the National Gallery of Scotland’s RSA building, and await success. As such, nobody is likely to be stunned by the shock
of the new when they visit this extensive exhibit of the work of 17th-century Dutch master Rembrandt, although they are likely to be impressed by the effort which has gone into building the exhibition. Some pieces are being shown for the i rst time, while others haven’t been seen in Britain in as long as a century.
There’s a certain intrigue to the historical sections
which detail exactly how Rembrandt’s work i rst
started making its way to the UK some years after his death, how they were later dei nitively attributed to him (or, in some cases, not), and how they came to l ood the market in the 18th century, with ‘The Mill’, in particular, inspiring landscape artists including JMW Turner and John Constable. Among the greatest examples on display are the
mysterious ‘Balthazar’s Feast’; the atmospheric nocturnal ‘Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt’; the famed portrait ‘An Old Woman Reading’; and pieces by numerous other artists who bear Rembrandt’s inl uence, including Paolozzi, Eardley, Bellany, Frank Auerbach and – unusually – the sculptor Jacob Epstein. It wouldn’t be a blockbuster, after all, without a few greatest hits in there too. (David Pollock) ■ National Gallery of Scotland, until 14 Oct, £10–£15 (£8.50–£13). ●●●●●
8–15 Aug 2018 THE LIST FESTIVAL 99