Rembrandt was an exceptional seventeenth-century painter in that he did not limit himself to one genre. He challenged the artistic standards in all genres, including that of painting landscapes. Rembrandt's earliest landscapes were not so much realistic depictions of the world around him, which was a typical characteristic of his drawings, but representations of imaginary surroundings. In his studio he combined landscape elements from various sources, completely from his imagination. In other landscapes Rembrandt stayed closer to home: these paintings show more local features, probably inspired by the realistic motifs he sketched during his strolls in the surroundings of Amsterdam.
This book gives a comprehensive picture of Rembrandt's development in the genre of landscapes, both in his paintings and drawings and in his etchings. It contains in-depth discussions of questions relating to the meaning, technique and position of Rembrandt's landscapes in his oeuvre.
To mark the Rembrandt Year, all of his landscapes will be exhibited together for the first time in Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal.