Almighty painter

Chapter 897 Humorous Stories
"Since Rembrandt was appreciated by Huygens, his career has been accompanied by endless flowers, applause and gold coins. Rembrandt is one of the greatest painters in the whole of the Netherlands. Perhaps in many European countries except France and Italy, he would not even need to be included in the list of one. But the Netherlands is different. The Netherlands not only has Rembrandt, it also has Van Gogh."

Liu Ziming tapped the glass in his palm with his fingers, and the warmth of his palm melted the cold air on the wall of the cup into liquid droplets.

“During the Biennale, I saw people talking about Van Gogh, and I thought about talking about Rembrandt.”

"Rembrandt and Van Gogh, who is the No. 1 in the history of the Windmill Country? This topic may be full of boring arguments. One thing is certain, Rembrandt is undoubtedly much more successful in terms of wealth than his successors. Three hundred years ago, when Van Gogh only sold one painting for 30 Dutch guilders in his lifetime, ordering a work in Rembrandt's studio would cost 500 Dutch guilders, and sometimes it would cost double that, which is a full 1000 gold coins."

The middle-aged man shrugged.

"Hey, Van Gogh, you should learn more from your predecessors about how to please critics, right?"

Liu Ziming pursed his lips and said a witty remark with a hint of contempt and nonchalance.

It looks just like a successful senior artist sitting there giving orders.

To be honest, it was not a funny joke. Liu Ziming did not say anything funny, but his tone was slightly humorous. Because he was the host of the salon, the guests laughed out loud.

Liu Ziming pointed at the people around the campfire, indicating that he had completed the task of "one laugh".

Then he continued.

"But even Rembrandt didn't always please Dutch critics."

"Since he was recognized by Huygens at a young age, Rembrandt's life has always been accompanied by success after success. He became famous in the North Sea, and when he came to The Hague, he could easily get the position of chief court painter in The Hague. Bach worked hard for such a court position for half his life, but Rembrandt easily rejected such an olive branch."

Liu Ziming made a gesture of rejection.

"When he arrived in Amsterdam, the citizens of Amsterdam immediately welcomed him with unprecedented enthusiasm. Critics said that the grand occasion reminded people of the time when the young city welcomed Rubens many years ago."

"Rembrandt opened his own studio and lived a life of luxury far beyond that of ordinary people. One painting was worth 10 years' income for an ordinary citizen. He lived a rich life with everything he wanted. He was a guest of honor of the royal family and the governor, and a favorite of critics. He was the king of canvas from the North Sea, the king of art. He could have been the next Rubens."

"Until he screwed up on one work, he painted a failure, and then he started to be abandoned by people, abandoned by the city that he once loved and that loved him."

The man paused for a moment.

"1640."

“The Night Watch.”

This sentence and the previous one, "The Night Watch" and the failure.

Two sentences with completely opposite meanings, two words with completely different meanings.

When the two are connected together, a wonderful chemical reaction is formed, which immediately brings a wonderful sense of humor and makes people smile.

"The Night Watch", "Mona Lisa" and "Las Meninas" are three famous paintings in the world.

They each have their own destiny.

Rembrandt did not reach the pinnacle of his career with The Night Watch.

in contrast.

Rembrandt sat on the peak from a young age.

His career started from a peak and then he climbed from one peak to another.

However, "The Night Watch" and many of his subsequent works were not accepted by the critics at the time for some reasons.

This work, worth 500 Dutch gold guilders, brought him right down from the peak.

There is no need for Liu Ziming to explain it specifically.

Everyone present knew the ins and outs of this story, but they still laughed softly at this moment.

A laugh mixed with humor, wit and a little helplessness.

"I don't need to introduce The Night Watch and the story behind it. Everyone, every fan of oil painting, is familiar with this work. What I want to talk about is another painting by Rembrandt, which seems less famous now - Portrait of Maria Tripp. The Tripp family in the Netherlands placed an order for the famous artist Rembrandt in Amsterdam."

"The Night Watch and Portrait of Maria Tripp, one was completed on the eve of 1640, and the other was created in 1642. They are works from almost the same era, but they are an important dividing line in Rembrandt's career, symbolizing two different, even opposite, connotations of his life's work."

Liu Ziming raised his free right hand.

"The more successful, the more critic-favored, the more popular young master, the artistic prodigy Rembrandt. The Rembrandt that everyone loves."

He raised his first finger.

"Rembrandt, whose career was in ruins, whose clients refused to pay him, and whose art critics were afraid of him and didn't know how to speak."

He raised a second finger.

Portrait of Maria Tripp pleased its client, was acclaimed by critics, and was loved by almost everyone.

It is a perfect enough work, with a distinct Baroque color style, and possesses all the necessary elements that could bring a Western European painter to the hall of success in the 17th century.

The woman stood under the dark-colored arched doorway, her fingers gently resting on her waist.

Her skin was rosy and clean, and as delicate as if it was baked from porcelain rather than painted with a brush... so shiny that no texture could be seen.

Texture is a sign of mortal aging.

The saints with eternal innocence, the pure and noble angels, they do not need texture or wrinkles as useless embellishments.

In contrast.

The colors of her clothes were very simple, with only a little bit of turquoise in addition to white and black.

It is depicted in the most gorgeous way.

Rembrandt depicts the lace on Miss Tripp in an almost virtuosic way.

When I look through Bach's music scores, I always see the word "BACH" composed of German musical notes in some corners of the music, and then I smile knowingly.

In Rembrandt's early oil paintings, you can always see various lace edges.

It is the painter's unique signature.

Mr. Rembrandt's lace paintings are considered to be a unique one among European painters. The "Portrait of Maria Tripp", which he began to create in 1639, is a very representative and great work among them.

Dresses, shawls, and various decorative lace laces on the front and back lapels are layered on top of each other.

The black dress was inlaid with gold thread, and colorful threads were pressed on the gold thread.

Because of the light, they together form a mysterious turquoise color. Further up, a white shawl extends from the dark brown background, originating from the dark-toned base color and disappearing into the finely textured dress.

She didn't look like a human being.

But like a mountain.

A hill with layers of snow on the top at night.

It is a work that is bound to be successful once it is painted. The critics' pursuit and attention to this work is not only because of Rembrandt's brushstrokes, but also because of the meaning behind the painting.

Around 1640, Rembrandt received two large orders from the Tripp family.

He painted two works in total for the two women.

One was dedicated to the widowed Mrs. Tripp, praising her chastity and modesty.

This painting is dedicated to Miss Tripp, who is about to get married, wishing the love of this richest heiress in the entire northern Netherlands to be forever faithful and hoping that the sacred marriage can lead to sacred eternity.

how.

Do you have a problem with Mrs. Tripp's chastity, or do you have a problem with Miss Tripp's marriage leading to the holy eternity? Who would have the leisure to sing the opposite tune of the Tripp family wedding except for someone who is obviously too ignorant?

Just one year later.

The Night Watch created by Rembrandt has a completely different effect in its expressiveness.

Miss Tripp's portrait is a snowy mountain.

Night Patrol is a pile of rocks on the seashore.

The former triumphs with exquisite solemnity.

The latter touches the heart with its mottled vitality.

In addition to the famous dispute in art history - when the officers of the Militia Guild ordered "The Night Watch", everyone shared Rembrandt's commission equally. As a result, when they got the painting, they found that the characters were big and small, some were the main and some were the secondary, some stood in the C position, and some only had their side faces vaguely revealed, which made everyone very unhappy.

In addition, from the aesthetic point of view at that time.

Rembrandt's painting style is actually very rough.

Rough style.

The roughness of the brushstrokes.

Since The Night Watch, Rembrandt has been attacked by critics, refused to be paid by his employers, and even involved in some lawsuits regarding his remuneration, in large part because of this crude painting style.

The studio employer and the painter's sponsor could not accept it because some insisted that Rembrandt had handed in an unfinished work.

They wanted a flawless Rembrandt.

Rather than rough and mottled works.

Rembrandt touched the roughness with delicacy, trying to depict the unique texture of the bumps and the texture of light and shadow interlaced on the canvas with the pious attitude of painting the lace on Miss Tripp's shawl.

He flew to the peak of art by falling into a cliff valley.

“I don’t know which version of himself Rembrandt liked better, and I actually don’t know which painting Rembrandt liked better.”

Liu Ziming paused.

"As the son of a miller, he probably wouldn't hate being regarded as the future of Dutch art by the Prince of Orange, nor would he hate being praised by critics as the second Rubens."

"He doesn't necessarily hate his more successful self more, but prefers his unsuccessful self. Both are undoubtedly the real Rembrandt. Both works are equally important to him."

"But I want to."

"Rembrandt's face, the one with the hat and beard, will only be painted in one of them. Rembrandt humorously painted his own head among the crowd in The Night Watch. If such a head appeared in another work..."

"That--"

"I can only say that I really admire his sense of humor and courage."

This is the best art joke Liu Ziming told tonight.

He made a double entendre.

The true face has two different meanings.

First, compared with "Portrait of Maria Tripp", a work in which Rembrandt created purely as an object with a restrained and respectful attitude, the painting style of "The Night Watch" may be closer to the painter's true pursuit.

Second.

It also has a superficial meaning.

Just as Liu Ziming said, “real face” means exactly what it says.

In the process of completing the client's task, Rembrandt played a playful trick.

When he was painting "The Night Watch", he actually secretly mixed his face into the painting, struck a cool pose, and blended into the crowd seamlessly.

A group of officers went to the studio to place orders.

After getting the painting, I looked at it again and again, and suddenly found that there was an extra person in the picture.

In The Night Watch, this level of self-expression can only be regarded as a game of hide-and-seek between the painter and his employer.

But think about it.

If this happened in another painting, it would be a painting praising the sacred and eternal marriage.

The beautiful Miss Tripp was about to be married, and she sat under the arch of her boudoir, posing sweetly and solemnly for the painter to paint her portrait.

When the Tripp family receives the painting, they will unfold it before the wedding.

stunned.

Next to Miss Tripp, Rembrandt's big face suddenly appeared there, also staring with two big eyes, ready to blend into the picture.

OMG!
This is a big deal, okay.

It is no longer a question of whether the client will refuse to pay the commission or whether the critics will criticize it.

It would be strange if Rembrandt wasn't chased by someone with a machete and hacked across three streets.

One imaginative guest was wondering what Rembrandt's expressive face from The Night Watch would look like if it appeared in the painting given as a wedding gift to a tycoon's daughter. He was immediately amused by the extremely humorous scene and burst out laughing.

Want to laugh out loud.

He laughed twice and found that many people present did not laugh.

I felt a little strange for a moment.

This guest is from the fashion circle. His main job is to work as a partner designer in a French clothing company. He only returns to Singapore during the short gap between the Spring/Summer Fashion Week and the Autumn/Winter Fashion Week every year.

He heard the story about "The Old Church on a Thunderstorm".

News of this magnitude will catch up to you even if you are hiding on the moon and force it into your ears.

But he didn’t know the inside story of the Biennale.

therefore.

The designer did not understand the third meaning of Liu Ziming's words.

The most important one.

For the young prodigy, there are two very important works in his life. There is no distinction between the two in themselves, but they both influenced his life and the development of the entire art world.

"The Old Church in a Thunderstorm" is just like "Portrait of Maria Tripp".

Gu Weijing is just the object of the work, a character who is related to the theme of the picture, but not so related.

While reserved critics praised the Portrait of Maria Tripp, they ignored the artistry brought to The Night Watch.

Ignoring Rembrandt's real face in "The Night Watch".

From an art history perspective.

It is really a very humorous and funny story.

(End of this chapter)