In the next 10 minutes we'll be talking
about this picture
by Rembrandt depicting a woman bathing
in a stream,
and we will be looking at what the
picture might actually depict,
and how the story that is possibly
conveyed in this picture
actually relates to the sitter or the person
who is depicted in the painting, and
we'll also be looking at
why this Rembrandt is such a beautiful
painting, and why it is
one of the most popular Rembrandts in
the National Gallery.
And well, there it is behind me.
It's a magical picture, and
it is actually a very peculiar painting.
It's an unusual one, and the size is,
it's not a large painting, it's not very
small either ,but
it's not your usual sized
Rembrandt painting.
It's very intimate, there is this
woman bathing
through a stream. There is
something about this, we're not quite
sure what's going on,
and I think it's fair to say that it
has a definite erotic undertone. The
way that she wades through the stream
and lifts her her garment. So
why is this such a such a
famous Rembrandt, and why is it such a
popular Rembrandt?
It is I think partly because it is so
incredibly beautifully painted and we'll
get on to that
later on, and partly I think because
we don't quite know what is going on in
this picture,
so it's very intriguing. The first
question one might ask is
who are we actually looking at, and
it's fairly certain
that the woman that Rembrandt was living
with at that
time when he painted this. And this is 1654,
and a good reason to believe that it is her,
and she was living with
Rembrandt at the time, but they were not
married and this is important to keep in mind.
Really the the question is, is there
actually more to this picture than that?
Is there a story in this painting, and
there have, there has been, much
discussion about that. And I'm not going
to pretend I'm going to give you the final
word here on that. But I'm going
to suggest that one of the
things that have been suggested which I
think is quite an elegant
solution. Again I'm not going to say it's
the correct one, but it's an elegant one,
where it is suggested perhaps here Hendrickje [Stoffels]
is actually posing as
Callisto. Now Callisto was one of the nymphs
that would accompany Diana, goddess of the hunt.
And indeed, in the most famous depictions
of that, you will see Diana
accompanied by her nymphs,
usually by a stream or something like
that, and they're wading through it.
And that's that's the usual
iconography of Diana and her nymphs. And
one of the nymphs is Callisto. Now Callisto,
she would have to be chased, and this is
the story as we know it from Ovid's 'Metamorphosis'.
And of course there's always something
going on there,
and you can rest assured that Jupiter of course manages
to seduce Callisto, and
indeed she becomes pregnant,
and eventually this is discovered.
Now you would perhaps wonder what has
that to do with this picture.
And the interesting thing here is that
in 17th century Holland, there was
another version of this story
that was retold as it were
in the Dutch language, and in that story
Callisto is not so much punished in that way, but she
is sent to the wilderness and that's where she,
where she spent a lot of her time. And
now we're getting to what we're sort of
seeing in this picture.
And so that is in a way her punishment,
and it is not inconceivable at all that
that is the story that Rembrandt
actually knew at the time.
Now why would he depict his
companion in such a way?
You could, you might as well ask. And it's
a very fair question, and we can't say
for certain that it is
true, but it so happens that in 1654,
when this picture was painted
Hendrickje was actually summoned to the
church council, and
she was admonished for living with a man without
having married him, and as a consequence
she was banished from holy communion at the church.
And that that was a big thing in those
days, and there was no denying it. And she
had to be,
you know, she was there from
henceforth excluded from
holy communion. Now it's from there that
you can take the step
as it were from how Callisto
would have been banished in the story to the wilderness
in the Dutch version of the story, and
how in this case
um Hendrickje indeed may have been
banished from her usual
life, as it were, and could not
participate in holy communion
in the church. That, so that
it's, you know, you could argue, I leave it to you as
the viewer to see what you think of that
whether that is a possibility. But it
would at least explain
why this picture looks the way it does,
because it does look unusual.
Why would you have someone bathing in a
stream like that, in
that size, and it's, you feel like
you have to come up with a
solution that explains this particular
iconography. But of course this picture is
not just about what it depicts. I think it's,
it's glory is really how it's done.
And if we look close at the picture and we start
looking into how the brush has been handled,
it is absolutely astonishing. There is a
surety of touch there that is
quite unbelievable, and it is almost as
if Rembrandt is drawing in paint,
it's almost a little bit like a sketch
in that sense all the brush strokes are done
quite quickly, and quite quickly set on to, on
you know onto the work, and there's no
working out of details in any, at any great length.
You can see it beautifully in her
garment for example which is really just quite
sort of forceful strokes and, and yet the
whole thing makes sense.
That garment really hangs from her torso, has weight,
and then she holds it up, of course.
And I think
one of the most beautiful details in the
picture is where you can see,
if you look at her right hand, and the
way she pulls up
her, what she's wearing, that hand
is a little miracle all by itself. It
really is only
about three, maybe four, brush strokes,
very quickly done.
A little bit of black just to to model
the fingers, and the hand, and it is,
it is done so quickly, and so, but so
absolutely on the money. There's
that hand, is a hand if
there was a hand, and it is, and the way
it holds up
her her garment is, is phenomenally well
characterised. And as I said, it is
almost like a
painting, you know that is a drawin,g or
drawing in paint.
However you want to put it. And it does
indeed remind you of
Rembrandt who was of course a fabulous
draftsman, how his drawings look, and
there is a beautiful example, and it also
almost certainly depicts Hendrickje. An
example in the British Museum here in London.
It's a famous drawing and again it's
Hendrickje in this,
she's sort of asleep. And she's lying
sort of on her side a little bit, and
again you see there,
her hand done with a brush
and ink in very quick. That's even more
shorthand than than is the case here.
Really maybe two or three very quick
strokes, and there her hand is
absolutely perfectly characterised in
that drawing,
and so you know what happens there in a
drawing is essentially happening here
in a painting. and I think that accounts for,
for, you know, that, that explains why
this picture is so popular, and why it is
indeed so beautiful. I mean, if you ask me
it's perhaps even the most,
some people would say, it's the most
beautiful Rembrandt we have. Some people
even think it's the most
beautiful Rembrandt or even the most
beautiful picture in
in the, in the National Gallery, and I
think that is why this is such
a magical picture, and why it is so very popular.
If you want to learn more about art
history, you can click either here,
or here. Thank you very much for watching,
and we'll see you next time.