Sordid and Sacred: the Beggars in Rembrandt's Etchings February 16, 2011

This exhibition features 35 rare etchings by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn executed between 1629 and 1654. Widely recognized as the greatest practitioner of the etching technique in the history of art, Rembrandt (1606-1669) created 300 prints that constitute a body of work unparalleled in richness or beauty. Rembrandt repeatedly chose beggars as the subject for his etchings. These etchings illustrate Rembrandt's technical brilliance as a printmaker, and reveal him as a poet as well as an artist, an idealist and also a realist.