REMBRANDT: THE LATE WORKS

Rembrandt was a ‘magician’. He was more than that. He was (and is) the touchstone of uncompromising realism. A storyteller with the ability to capture light and shade that remains unrivalled. But he was also a genius manipulator of market forces. About 10 per cent of his most famous images consist of studies of his own face; in modern terms, he was the ‘selfie’ king. Seventeenth-century collectors coveted self-portraits because they combined an image of a famous person by that person’s hand and Rembrandt was a master of the genre, down to the use of only his first name.

Betsy Wieseman, curator of the National Gallery’s glorious new exhibition, has managed to bring together the very best of those portraits, among 90 other works, for the first (and probably the last) time under the theme The Late Works. The late years were not kind to Rembrandt. He was almost bankrupt (realism was out of fashion) and he was living on his wits with his housekeeper and lover, Hendrickje. He had buried his wife and three children, with his only surviving son, Titus, preceding him by seven months. Yet none of this sadness is overtly obvious here. In the last of his selfportraits, Self Portrait, 1669, for instance, he smiles benevolently under sagging cheeks and impish beret. It’s worked over and over as if for the last time. The last painting he actually painted is also here, the majestic Simeon With The Infant Christ In The Temple, 1669.

Many of the paintings are on loan from the Rijksmuseum, including the 1661 self-portrait as the Apostle Paul. Rembrandt was friends with Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel, the founder of the Modern Jewish community in England, and it’s been suggested that in assuming the role of this martyr to Christianity he was also calling for a reconciliation between the two religions. Biblical allegories are a constant theme. Portrait Of A Couple As Isaac And Rebecca, better known as The Jewish Bride, 1665, gives us all the vulnerability of new love in a sympathetic depiction of this Old Testament pair.

Next to it hangs A Woman Bathing In A Stream, the lean use of light and shade encouraging us to stare as she lifts the hem of her robe. Rembrandt was a friend to women, his female forms are lush and forgiving, none more so than in the irresistible erotic beauty, Bathsheba With King David’s Letter (modelled on Hendrickje). A voluptuous young wife confl icted; should she obey her monarch and go to his bed or be faithful to her husband? And then there are the etchings: some of the fi nest are on show here, but it’s the soulful paintings that will make you want to go back for more.

Until 18 January at The National Gallery, London WC2: 020-7420 9794, www.nationalgallery.co.uk