Nigel Konstam's Blog

J von Sandrart “Rembandt asserted that one should let oneself be guided by nature alone and by no other law.”…”His subject matter was usually taken from everyday life… and close to nature”

Filippo Baldinucci “the knowledge that his clients had to sit to him for 2 or 3 months cause few people to commission him”

Roger de Piles “He himself said that his art was the imitation of nature and since this included everything he collected ancient suits of armour, ancient musical instruments, old clothes and a multitude of ancient embroidered cloths”

(This collection is fully listed in the inventory of 1656.) “All one finds in Rembrandt is what the character of his country, filtered through a vivid imagination, is capable of producing”

Arnold Houbraken “I know of no other artist who has produced so many variations of one and the same subject. This was the result of careful observation of the various passions and these are recognisable in the facial expressions and attitudes of his characters.”…”He would spend a whole day or even two arranging the folds of a turban until he was satisfied.”..”Our great Rembrandt was of the same opinion (as Caravaggio) and was indeed faithful to the priciple that one must follow only nature, anything else was worthless in his eyes”…”He was content with imitating nature, as he saw it and without any pedantry.”

There is much more in the same vane, what are the experts think of when they deny his reliance on observation?