Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India | The J. Paul Getty Museum

In an intriguing moment late in his career, Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669) created a series of unusually meticulous drawings depicting emperors and courtiers from Mughal India.

This exhibition explores the Dutch master’s careful studies of imperial Mughal portraiture and places them within a broader circuit of cross-cultural exchanges.

By juxtaposing Rembrandt’s drawings with Indian paintings of similar compositions - and pairing Mughal artworks with European prints that inspired them - fascinating stories unfold about the flow of art and ideas across time and oceans.

The twenty-three surviving drawings Rembrandt made of Mughal emperors, princes, and courtiers mark a watershed moment, when the Dutch master responded to art of a dramatically different culture.

Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India considers the unique significance of these cross-cultural works in the context of seventeenth-century global exchange.

What motivated Rembrandt to study Mughal portraits?
Did he own an album of them?
Can we trace his drawings to specific, surviving artworks imported into Amsterdam from the Dutch trading post in India?

This exhibition reveals the critical eye and attentive curiosity he turned toward Mughal portrait conventions. For Rembrandt, the art of Mughal India was not merely a foreign curiosity.

It carried certain associations of empire, trade, luxury, and artistic skill. | © J. Paul Getty Trust

Stephanie Schrader, curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s 2018 exhibition Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India, explores how the drawings demonstrate that Rembrandt’s contact with Indian art inspired him to draw in a different style on Asian paper.

She looks at how the Mughal compositions Rembrandt copied were not merely foreign curiosities, but carried with them associations of empire, trade, luxury, and exceptional artifice. | © The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Lo straordinario gruppo di disegni è stato ispirato da dipinti importati ad Amsterdam dalla postazione commerciale olandese nella città indiana di Surat.

Stephanie Schrader, curatrice della mostra del 2018 di J. Paul Getty Museum Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India, esplora il modo in cui i disegni dimostrano che il contatto di Rembrandt con l'arte indiana lo ha ispirato a disegnare uno stile diverso sulla carta asiatica.

Guarda come le composizioni di Mughal copiate da Rembrandt non erano solo curiosità straniere, ma portavano con sé associazioni di impero, commercio, lusso e artificio eccezionale. | © 2018 The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston