Beginning March 15 at the Telfair Museums’ Jepson Center in Savannah, Ga., you can check out an exhibition on Rembrandt van Rijn, the 17th-century Dutch master painter, draftsman, and printmaker. That’s right y’all, Rembrandt’s coming to Savannah.
Rembrandt and the Jewish Experience: The Berger Print Collection will feature 21 etchings with Judaic subjects from the artist, as well as a drawing by his mentor, Pieter Lastman. The etchings highlight Rembrandt’s relationship with Amsterdam’s Jewish citizens and his personal interpretations of the Old Testament Bible stories.
“The theme of this exhibition is particularly relevant here in Savannah, home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the country. Savannah’s first Jewish settlers arrived in 1733, just a few months after the city was founded by James Edward Oglethorpe,” said Courtney McNeil, Telfair Museums’ chief curator and deputy director for curatorial affairs, in a press release.
“These settlers fled from Europe to Georgia for many of the same reasons of persecution and discrimination that drove so many Jews to settle in Amsterdam during Rembrandt’s lifetime.”
The exhibition will be open to the public from March 15-June 30.
Rembrandt lived and worked in Amsterdam during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, introducing new and innovative techniques to printmaking. Unlike most artists of his time, he was a master in three different media, creating unconventional works with emotional depth, dramatic body language, and harsh use of lighting and shadows.
Telfair Museums is the oldest public art museum in the South and features world-class art collections in the heart of Savannah’s National Historic Landmark District. Learn more about the museum online.
If you’re heading to Savannah sooner, the Jepson Center is currently exhibiting Monet to Matisse: Masterworks of French Impressionism through Feb. 10.
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