A Rembrandt Comes out of the Shadows‪.‬

Rembrandt van Rijn's interest in elderly subjects began to show itself early in his career as a painter, and his exploration of the wizened human form in light and shadow still fascinates us centuries later. It is natural for scholars to attempt to trace the course of development in such an artistic genius. But there are many perils in attempting to do so, something that would no doubt amuse Rembrandt himself--an individual with a keen appreciation of human imperfection. THE SCHOLARLY STUDY of art continues to be haunted by the subjective nature of aesthetic interpretation. The latest painting to join the collection of Old Masters at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre on the campus of Queen's University brings with it not only a great name, but also an important recent confrontation of scholarship, in which subjective judgement also resurfaced as a bete noire. In October of this year the Art Centre unveiled Rembrandt's small panel Head of an Old Man in a Cap of around 1630, a gift from Drs Alfred and Isabel Bader of Milwaukee.