Rembrandt The Mill Essay

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Recommended: Art history chapter 16 -baroque

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 - 1669) is a well-acclaimed Dutch painter who has been recognized for his work during the Baroque period of 1645 to 1648. One of his works is The Mill, a 41.3” x 34.3” oil painting on canvas. This piece of work was about his landscape theme and is currently on display at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The Mill is considered as one of the greatest art pieces of Rembrandt because of two major reasons. The art piece is naturally very attractive and it has served as a major inspiration to the taste of the viewers, as well as painters during the epoch. This painting has thus resulted in a signification transformation of the quality and standards of paintings. The Mill was well acknowledged by connoisseurs …show more content…

In his painting, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, Rembrandt was able to show the details of his religious and mythological subject matter. In addition, he was able to illustrate human nature in his later works, which included demonstrations of misfortune and sadness in his paintings. Rembrandt also generated several self-portraits so that his image could be captured in time. These self-portraits also provided a method for him to provide introspection and melancholy, which in turn reinforced his maturity and dominion for the rest of his …show more content…

Under the mill, a thin dark brown underpaint is also present. Rembrandt’s painting style changes, depending on the area of the landscape he is working on. In the supposedly dark areas of the mill, he uses thin paint, while in the sky, water and plants, he employs broad brushmarks and minimum impasto. Analysis of The Mill through x-radiography showed that the hill in the painting was lowered on the left side and the bridge and reflection were removed from the entire painting. In addition, the water adjacent to the mill was readjusted, and the boat and the man holding the oars were added on a later stage of the painting’s development. These detailed analysis of the painting shows that Rembrandt did not have a definite picture of what to paint during that time, and he simply continue on with his painting

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