Rare Rembrandts pay a visit to the Meloy Gallery

Stepping into the exhibit “Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings” is like stepping into the workshop of one of history’s great artists. 

The Montana Museum of Art and Culture unveiled Tuesday the exhibit of 35 etchings by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn completed between 1629 and 1654. “Sordid and Sacred” is on display in the Meloy Gallery in the PAR-TV center.

The etchings, which served as ideas for later paintings, are rare treasures as paper was expensive in the 1600s, said museum curator Manuela Well-Off-Man.

This may explain why the largest of the etchings is about as big as an outstretched hand, and the smallest is the size of a postage stamp.

Despite their size, the etchings hardly look like trial runs. 

The detail is fine enough to see emotive expressions and individual hairs on the heads of the subjects, which is why the museum provides magnifying glasses for visitors.

“Rembrandt was well-known for contrast,” Well-Off-Man said. “People enjoy his art for the fine lines and details.”

However, public appreciation of art depicting beggars was unheard of in Rembrandt’s time.

“His contemporaries laughed at beggars,” Well-Off-Man said. “But Rembrandt depicted them with dignity. His own life had ups and downs … so he could identify with them.”

She called him a humanitarian who was ahead of his time. Others agree.

“Rembrandt wasn’t afraid to show what was considered gruesome at the time,” said Jena Mathews, an intern at the museum.

Mathews spoke in reference to an etching depicting a rat catcher, dead rats in hand, peddling his services door to door.

The DVD-sized picture is Well-Off-Man’s favorite. She said the etching’s “very even, perfectly balanced contrast and foreground detail” show that Rembrandt was, in her opinion, “a master of emotions and facial expression.”

The etchings were made by putting a mixture of wax and resin on a copper plate, then using a thin, metal etching needle, similar in size and shape to a pencil, to draw a design. Each plate was inked, and then pressed onto paper.

To help visitors understand the process, the exhibit includes a display of a re-created plate like the kind Rembrandt used. It was made by UM associate professor Elizabeth Dove and her advanced printmaking students.

The prints from the exhibit, which was organized by Landau Traveling Exhibits of Los Angeles, are selections from the private collection of John Villarino.

In addition to the etchings, the exhibit includes Rembrandt’s 1632 painting “The Persian,” a contribution from the museum’s permanent collection.

The exhibit is free. Visitors can see the works during the Montana Museum of Art and Culture’s normal business hours, Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 4 to 8:30 p.m.

“Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings” will be on display until April 29.