Pigments, brushes and palette
Painting technique and paint application
‘The soul of art is to explore nature in its qualities.’
Samuel van Hoogstraten
Like the teacher, so the pupil – Rembrandt and Van Hoogstraten as scholarly artists
According to sources, Rembrandt’s workshop had the character of an academy. The master imparted his knowledge through both practical tasks and theoretical discussion; wood panels and canvases became a field of experimentation for visual illusions. This probably also influenced Van Hoogstraten’s understanding of painting as an applied science. In his treatise Inleyding, he writes: ‘The soul of art is to explore nature in its qualities.’ He says that young artists must develop a ‘painterly eye’, which means they have to learn to perceive nature as an arrangement of colours, lights, and shadows. ‘They need’, Van Hoogstraten continues, ‘to pay very close attention to properly examining and (…) portraying things in their unadulterated refraction of colours’.
‘It is colour that lends true perfection.’
According to Van Hoogstraten, all painters should strive for the ability to portray the entire visible world. Paint forms the medium in which this happens. Skilful brushstrokes and subtle colour transitions are therefore pivotal to the persuasiveness of a piece of work. Just as writing a word requires more than one letter, ‘so do you use different paints for every brushstroke when colouring any element,’ says Van Hoogstraten. The manner in which the paint is applied should evoke the properties of the surfaces depicted. Often overlooked from a distance, the material nature of the paint plays a decisive role in the visual effect.
Here you can see two works up close. Pay attention to colour and brushstroke.
‘Smooth and fine’
Van Hoogstraten’s Old Man at a Window
In Rembrandt’s workshop, numerous paintings were made in the 1640s that depict figures in fictitious frames, blurring the boundaries between pictorial space and reality. This theme also preoccupied Van Hoogstraten throughout his life – as evidenced by his work Old Man at the Window, which he painted in Vienna for Emperor Ferdinand III.
At first glance the surface of the painting appears smooth and closed.
Van Hoogstraten portrays different materials meticulously. Subtle colour transitions replicate wrinkled skin; highlights make the eyes glassy; sharp lines characterize frizzy beard hairs, while brushstrokes of different colours with relatively dry paint convey the softness of the fur.
Shorter and longer vertical brushstrokes as well as spots of paint with tapered edges communicate the structure of the hard limestone and the marks made when it was worked. Van Hoogstraten contrasts matt surfaces such as stone or wood with shiny materials such as glass or metal.
With bold lines in different shades of gray, Van Hoogstraten shows how the light is reflected by the metal frame of the bull’s eye glass panes.
The drop shadow of the leaf suggests that it protrudes over the ledge into the observer’s space – and yet it cannot be grasped. The transparent glass vase refracts the light. To the left a drop of water can be made out, depicted only through fine highlights.
Shadows hinted at by black lines make Van Hoogstraten’s signature look as though it were actually carved into the hard stone.
Hoogstraten, Old Man at a Window, 1653, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie
© KHM-Museumsverband, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
‘Rough and open’
Rembrandt’s Juno
In his Inleyding, Van Hoogstraten distinguishes between ‘smooth and fine’ and ‘rough and open’ painting styles. He ascribes the latter to his teacher Rembrandt. Already in his early works, the latter used the materiality of paint to achieve illusionistic effects. Over the course of his career, Rembrandt developed an increasingly free style of painting. This can be seen, for example, in his painting Juno, which portrays the Roman goddess of marriage and was created only a few years before Rembrandt’s death.
Juno’s strictly frontal pose probably reflects Rembrandt’s exploration of sixteenth-century Venetian portraits. In terms of the painting style, he may have been inspired by Titian’s late work.
In order to portray the golden crown glittering in the light, Rembrandt applies the paint impasto, in other words particularly thickly.
The more brightly illuminated face of the goddess is crafted by Rembrandt more precisely than other areas; white highlights and shadows on the right provide plasticity.
The painter emphasizes Juno’s shiny jewellery indirectly by portraying the numerous reflections of light onto it.
He uses broad brushstrokes and bright splashes of paint to reproduce the sleeve made of shimmering fabric. The lit back of the hand below it is more opaque and uniform.
Rembrandt merely hints at the fabric of the precious dress. In parts, the paint is applied so thinly that the canvas underneath shows through. In some places, he scratches structures into the still wet paint.
Rembrandt, Juno, 1662/65, Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, The Armand Hammer Collection,
Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation © Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, US