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SYNDICS OF THE CLOTH MERCHANTS' GUILD By REMBRANDT

SYNDICS OF THE CLOTH MERCHANTS' GUILD
By REMBRANDT (1606-1669)
IN THE RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM

"This picture," says Josef Israels in his monograph, " even kills its own brothers. It makes Van der Helst look superficial, and Frans Hals unfinished and flat."
Israels relates how, as a student, he was captivated by Rembrandt's two great masterpieces, the "Syndics" and the "Night Watch," and how the beauty of his work-its freedom and exuberance, and its unsurpassed colour effects-grew upon him.

" The Syndics" is a typical specimen of the master's method, and could have been painted by no one else. All the grand simplicity of his style is here-the flooding of the canvas with light and shade, the vivid portraiture and the pulsing life. The six men live on the canvas. They have been rendered immobile for one splendid second of time-during which their expressions have not changed from their look of interest in their work-just as if the painter had transformed them with one touch of magic into paint at the moment when they best represented the dignity and activity of their guild. In this supreme effort of genius the craftsman's hand and the artist's soul have combined in superb harmony. In certain respects Rembrandt surpassed even himself, notably in the portrait of the man on the left with his expressive eyes, who stands out so marvellously against the background.

All the portraits are masterpieces. They are as fresh and interesting to-day as when they were painted, and the plain burghers, occupied with the business of their guild, will continue to delight generations of picture-lovers as long as the canvas and the pigments last. Last, but not least, one should notice the skilful rendering of the background, in which the wall and panelling enclose the composition in a perfectly natural manner, and provide an effective contrast to the men's figures and the warm red of the table-cloth.

From the book "Famous Paintings" Volume 2 printed in 1913.

Large files of this public domain print are available at Stock Photos at Songs of Praise
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Online "Name the Painting"

Paintings by Rembrandt

Rembrandt
one man show

Rembrandt
self portrait

Online book about Rembrandt by Israels
at Gutenberg.org

Famous Paintings in this Series

James Archer My Great Grandmother	Bashkirtseff The Meeting	Bouguereau Charity	John Brett From the Dorsetshire Cliffs
Arnesby Brown The River Bank	Joseph Clark Mother's Darling	John Constable The Hay-Wain	Jean Baptiste Camille Corot The Fisherman's Hut
Jean Baptiste Camille Corot A Flood	Leonardo Da Vinci Monna Lisa	Edouard Detaille The Dream	Henri Fantin-Latour Flowers
Thomas Gainsborough Queen Charlotte	Thomas Gainsborough The Market Cart	Jean Baptiste Greuze The Head of a Girl	Jean Baptiste Greuze Fidelity
James Clark Hook Home With the Tide	Alfred William Hunt Windsor Castle	Josef Israels The Shipwrecked Mariner	B.W. Leader The Stream in Summer-time
Madame Vigee Le Brun Portrait of the Artist	Alphonse Legros A Canal With a Fisherman	Anton Mauve Watering Horses	J.L.E. Meissonier The Cavalier
Sir J.E. Millais Speak! Speak!	Sir J.E. Mallais My First Sermon	George Morland The Reckoning	George Morland The Inside of a Stable
Murillo The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin	Alfred Parsons When Nature Painted All Things Gay	Ralph Peacock The Sisters	Rembrandt Syndics of the Cloth Merchants' Guild
Guido Reni "Ecce Homo"	Sir Joshua Reynolds Portrait of Mrs. Richard Hoare With Her Infant Son	Briton Riviere The Temptation in the Wilderness	Dante Gabriel Rossetti Day Dreams
John Singer Sargent Miss Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth	Lady Stanley (Dorothy Tennant) His First Offence	Jan Steen Grace Before Meat	Marcus Stone On the Road from Waterloo to Paris
Constant Troyon Watering Cattle	H.S. Tuke "All Hands to the Pumps"	Velazquez King Philip IV. of Spain	S.E. Waller Sweethearts and Wives
Thomas Webster The Smile	Index Famous Paintings Volume 1 Art Gallery	Index Famous Paintings Volume 2 Art Gallery	Index Art Appreciation Lessons