Rembrandt Remastered Art Exhibition

We enjoyed several hours of culture looking through this exhibition at the Te Awahou Niewe Stroon Museum at Foxton recently.  This museum sits close by de Molen, a full size operational 17th century replica Dutch windmill is open to the public, not visiting this time, just a quick snap as we walked into the museum.

Windmill and Museum

As we were local library card holders, the entry fee was only $2 each.  The full price of $5 seemed very reasonable too, we thought.  No photos were allowed to be taken inside.

The Rembrandt Remastered exhibition brought 57 digitally remastered life sized paintings, looking as they would have when they left Rembrandt's studio 400 years ago.  We particularly enjoyed seeing The Night watch as we had viewed this painting some years ago at  Rijks Museum  during our whizz-bang European bus tour.  It is a group portrait of the Militia Company under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq.  The primary purpose of these guardsmen was to serve as defenders of their cities, guarding gates, policing streets, putting out fires, and generally maintaining order throughout the city.

The exhibition consisted mainly of portraits, but sprinkled here and there were several charming landscapes.  Groups of people were there at the same time of us to enjoy the art, including a couple with a seemingly never ending stream of children.  The young boys didn’t know quite what to do when they came face to face with the huge painting of a reclining nude woman!  It was a life-sized depiction of the character Danaë from Greek mythology, the mother of Perseus. She is presumably depicted as welcoming Zeus, who impregnated her in the form of a shower of gold.  Although the artist's wife Saskia was the original model for Danaë, Rembrandt later changed the figure's face to that of his mistress Geertje Dircx.

We didn’t realize that Rembrandt was declared bankrupt in 1656 and had to endure the forced sale of his paintings, prints, drawings and the contents of his house.  And sadly, when he died in 1669 he was buried in an unknown rented grave.  While the location of his grave is still unknown, historians believe it is located along the northern wall of Westerkerk, one of the city’s most notable churches.  A memorial plaque inside of the church honours the great painter. Rembrandt’s son Titus van Rijn and his lover Hendrickje Stoffels are also buried here.

There was an added bonus to our day out – by showing our exhibition entrance wristbands at the museum café we got 10% off the cost of our purchase.  A good reason to stay for lunch, and my smoked fish pie was delicious!