The Rise of the Cult of Rembrandt: Reinventing an Old Master in Nineteenth-Century France

By Alison McQueen

Rembrandt's life and art had an almost mythic resonance in nineteenth-century France with artists, critics, and collectors alike using his artistic persona both as a benchmark and as justification for their own goals. This first in-depth study of the traditional critical reception of Rembrandt reveals the preoccupation with his perceived "authenticity," "naturalism," and "naivet ," demonstrating how the artist became an ancestral figure, a talisman with whom others aligned themselves to increase the value of their own work. And in a concluding chapter, the author looks at the play Rembrandt, staged in Paris in 1898, whose production and advertising are a testament to the enduring power of the artist's myth.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9053566244
• ISBN13: 9789053566244
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.5"