Black in Rembrandt's Time

April 16, 2020 1:02 PM

Dutch Golden Age Art Wasn’t All About White People. Here’s the Proof (NYTimes) On March 6, the Rembrandt House museum in Amsterdam opened an exhibition titled ‘Black in Rembrandt’s time’ The museum, like other museums around the world soon closed. But Mark Ponte walks us through a history of the black community in Amsterdam.(Twitter) And the museum has now put together a 12-minute documentary walking you through the exhibition (Dutch with English subtitles)
posted by vacapinta (4 comments total)

This is awesome. I confess I was secretly hoping for a black old Dutch master, but it's still very cool. And I appreciate that they try to address the issue and include more modern works by painters who are not white men.
posted by surlyben at 3:22 PM on April 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

That is really beautiful! And so many historical links swiftly mentioned, lots to hook into.
posted by clew at 3:42 PM on April 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

If surlyben wants a Dutch master of colour, an encyclopedia of famous artists was compiled by a Dutch artist of Rembrandt's era. It includes images of Rembrandt, Durer and a man named Higiemonte, with his nationality being “Indianer M.” (or “Indus” in later prints). The NYPL page doesn't have any biographic details and I can't find any work by him. There's just this one image of an African man with a paintbrush in his hand.

...about to watch the linked video. Apologies if this was covered in that.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:00 AM on April 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

bonobothegreat, thank you for posting that-- I hadn't known about him!

I didn't see the Young Archer by Flinck in the documentary, so thought I'd link him here. The sitter is exoticised in the style of tronies, and his real-life identity is unknown, but to me he seems as though he's at the beginning of a story.
posted by Pallas Athena at 10:15 AM on April 18, 2020