»Rembrandt in Amsterdam« is dedicated to the early years of the famous painter

In Rembrandt's time, Amsterdam was a prosperous trading city with a rapidly growing population and a fiercely competitive art market. Not only merchants and aristocrats, but even craftsmen and sailors demanded ever new paintings, from history to portraits to still lifes. Rembrandt mastered the entire spectrum like few others, signing only with his first name as a unique selling point. He knew how to capture the essence of the sitter and, in histories such as the Blinding of Simson, to depict the dramatic climax in a stirring manner.

Rembrandt received many commissions for portraits and soon maintained his own workshop with numerous students. The Rembrandt brand became famous. In addition to painting commissions, he constantly studied the variety of the human face and facial expressions. He was also occupied with various light and weather phenomena, which he painted in large landscape paintings. Templates were small drawings and prints that Rembrandt made on private walks near Amsterdam.

Some 80 paintings and drawings by Rembrandt's contemporaries such as Anthonis van Dyck and Jacob van Ruisdael illustrate the context of the Amsterdam art market in the first half of the 17th century. Rembrandt was able to maintain his supremacy on this market for almost 25 years, rather he moved away from contemporary artistic taste with darker colors and thicker paint application from the mid-1650s.

Accompanying the exhibition, the Städel Museum offers a digitorial with accessibly explained background information that invites visitors to 17th-century Amsterdam.