Rembrandt Van Rijn Quotes

Without atmosphere a painting is nothing.

One day the last portrait of Rembrandt and the last bar of Mozart will have ceased to be — though possibly a colored canvas and a sheet of notes will remain — because the last eye and the last ear accessible to their message will have gone.

Practise what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know.

Life etches itself onto our faces as we grow older, showing our violence, excesses or kindnesses.

Painting is the grandchild of Nature.

Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know.

And we can’t all be Rembrandt van Rijn. I think we should be satisfied with the talent we’ve been given and take pleasure in it.

Because this week I’ve started in on a hundred reproductions of Rembrandt van Rijn, a hundred portraits of the old artist with the mushroom face, the face of a man pushed to the brink of eternity by art and drink, the door handle starting to turn, the final door pushed open from without by an unknown hand, and I’m beginning to have his puff-paste face, that peeling, piss-soaked wall of a face, I’m beginning to smile his half-moronic smile, to look at the world from the other side of human causes and events, and all my bales these days are framed with that portrait of Rembrandt van Rijn as an old man while I keep filling my drum with wastepaper and open books.

I envy the poet. He is encouraged toward drunkenness and wallows with nubile wenches while the painter must endure wretchedness and pain for his art. 2.Of course you will say that I ought to be practical and ought to try and paint the way they want me to paint. Well, I will tell you a secret. I have tried and I have tried very hard, but I can't do it. I just can't do it! And that is why I am just a little crazy 3. A painting is complete when it has the shadows of a god. 4. A painting is finished when the artist says it is finished. 5Without atmosphere a painting is nothing.

Self-portraits are probably Rembrandt’s landmark pieces of treasured art, lined with pithy contours and lineaments of not only the outlining features of a great one, but the inward beauty of thoughtful assemblage of craft. In matters relating Rembrandt, I’d take a peek at rolling hills, where summits bow in ecstasy to returning ravens in echelons of physiolatry.

My shell collection Here are my shells, orderly to the eye, mysterious to the mind. Some are rough and grainy, others are soft and pearly. Mine are all empty, but out in the sea there are empty ones too – as many as there are full. When the creatures emerge, they leave part of themselves behind. That is why I think of these spirals as living though they are asleep in their forms.

The apothecary holds out a large volume with the title ‘De Defabrica’. Taking the book, the painter runs his fingers across the leather cover, then lifts it open. “Where did you find it?” “When? Last week. It’s the first anatomy book since Vesalius, written by Adriaen van den Spieghel.” “No, where?” As the painter flips open the thick pages, he finds many illustrations and detailed fragments of body parts he has never even heard of before. “I have many sources, young man.” On hearing a bell – a customer has arrived – he advances towards the door. “Look it over, but be sure to return it.

Such command and honesty! Your figures are full of emotion, for instance, here – points at the panel – the figure of Judas on his knees, wringing his hands in self-hatred and pleading for forgiveness… Who would have thought that someone your age, a miller at that, could put so much into a figure!

Rembrandt made self-portraits seem as easy as making selfies.

Whenever I am on the plane, I look out delightedly for Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” — a beautiful banner that belongs to the skies.