Every Picture Has a Story

By Tom Teicholz

For 30 years, Michael Schwartz has owned and operated Galerie Michael, an art gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, building, in his own words, “museum-quality collections, one work at a time.” Works by Picasso, Dali, Goya and Miró adorn the walls for the current exhibition on Spanish masters.

With a staff of 24, many of whom hold fine-arts degrees and are called curators, Schwartz would be happy to sell you a work of art. But he would prefer to tell you a story first because what Schwartz really wants to do is enchant you.

I’ve known a few art dealers in my time, and much the way poker players have a tell, dealers have a “sell.” Some dealers sell status and exclusivity — as if you are joining a club; others make a more mercenary pitch, appealing to one’s sense of value, investment savvy and greed; for others, the sell is more aesthetic, with a focus on the artist’s technique, or on occasion

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Recent Art Thefts in America

Recent Art Thefts in America including a Rembrandt Sketch!

Rembrandt Research Project ended

"Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings" have been will have a much-reduced final volume.

The Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) is to be closed down, although it is tantalisingly near to finishing its full catalogue. After 42 years of work, five volumes of the Courpis of Rembrandt Paintings have been published, the most recent last October (Springer Publishing 1,200 Euro's). There was to have been one more detailed volume, but this has been dropped.

In meticulous detail, the Courpus provides entries on 240 paintings which have been accepted as works by Rembrandt, along with 162 doubted or rejected works. This leaves 80 works which have not yet been catalogued, a quarter of the oeuvre. Read more here

Article by Martin Bailey

Jan Lutma, Goldsmith

REMBRANDT Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669)

Jan Lutma, Goldsmith, 1656

B. 276

Jan Lutma (1584-1669) was a celebrated gold and silversmith and Rembrandt presents him to us with the various tools of his trade: hammer and punches (in the cup), chased silver basin and silver candlestick. Lutma was the leading goldsmith in Amsterdam and his son was an etcher who may have been trained in Rembrandt;s studio. On of Jan Lutma's most celebrated commissions was the tulip beaker he made in 1652 for Nicolaas Tulp, who's anatomy lesson Rembrandt had painted at the very outset of his career in Amsterdam. The beaker was much prized by Tulp, and he left it to the Guild of Surgeons on his death.

Lutma's relaxed posture, calm face, and warm eyes seem to affirm that this was a man kind, pleasant and easy to know. Rembrandt selected the same old leather-backed chair with lion heads for two etched portraits of dignified older men, Haaring (B 274) and Tholinx (B284) done in the same year, 1656.

Adam and Eve

REMBRANDT Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669)

Adam and Eve, 1638

B. 28

The two figures show a minimum of idealization and could pass for a pair of middle-aged nudists who have gone for a stroll in the woods. Rembrandt has probably modeled the serpent - actually a kind of dragon - on one in Durer's print of 1512, Christ in Limbo, which Rembrandt had acquired in 1638. But the figures could hardly contrast more to Durer's Adam and Eve of 1504. The elephant in the backgrounds was probably derived from one named Hansker which was brought to Holland around 1637. During that year Rembrandt did a series of drawings of the elephant. In 1638, he elected to make it the only animal in paradise.

The Descent From The Cross

REMBRANDT Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669)

Descent from the Cross, 1633

Etching with burin

With margins signed and dated in the plate

B. 81

This is Rembrandt's first attempt at a large formal etching intended specifically for sale to the public. It shows off his amazing facility with an etching needle. The body of Christ, released from agony, is gently lowered by his friends and disciples as the sun breaks through the clouds behind them. This is Rembrandt at his most Baroque and emotional. Descent from the Cross remains on e of the foremost examples of the etcher's artistic abilities and artistic beauty. The print can be found in Museums everywhere.

Michael Schwartz Lectures at Bowers Museum!

This past weekend July 25, 2009 our very own Michael Schwartz lectured on "The Origins of Rembrandt's Etchings" at the Bowers Museum. (Michael Schwartz, Galerie Michael, discusses Rembrandt’s creative genius using the medium of etching as a major liberation of 17th century art. He will also examine the history of etching and how it replaced engraving.)



John Villarino's (a close friend of Galerie Michael) extensive Rembrandt Collection is currently on exhibition at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana:

Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt's Etchings
July 11 - August 23, 2009

Featuring 35 rare etchings by Rembrandt Van Rijn made between 1629 and 1654, Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt?s Etchings focuses on a subject the artist frequented in his formative years: the beggar. Rembrandt's images document and humanize the vagrant population living in 17th century Dutch society that considered these individuals repulsive and outcast. Often using biblical subjects and narratives, Rembrandt draws parallels in many of the etchings between the plight of the homeless and derelict, and figures such as Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Each etching on paper executed in a style closer to drawing than engraving portrays individualism, character and emotion of each figure rendered, beckoning the viewer's empathy and compassion.

What Will Save Us?

    To paraphrase the ubiquitous movie trailers ---“in a world gone mad – where banks are closing, stocks are crashing, real estate is in a freefall – what is a mere mortal to do? What will save us?” Melodramatic? Well, there is a simple and time proven answer --- Fine Art.

     In times of economic turmoil and war, the only commodity to not only sustain its value, but increase it, is Fine Art. This is not the stuff of fiction or fantasy, but reality. Why does art beat stocks in wartime or economic recession? The art market is a prudent area for shelter and long term investment during those times. There is a historic rise in the art market during times of economic chaos, terrorism, and war. Art becomes a safe haven for investors who take flight to tangibles.

     The October 2001 New York and London auctions, a mere month after the September 11^th attacks, sold 90% of their lots and it continues as strongly today. What does this say? Perhaps stability is a better path than volatility. With investors shying away or even shunning the stock market and real estate there is what a former Sotheby’s CEO says, “Bags of money out there for art.” This is not unique to Americans, as the new age of investors/collectors is emerging from Russia, China, India and the Middle East. This represents a shift from the traditional paradigm of almost exclusively Western involvement to a new global market.

     Ultimately, what does this mean for the mere mortal?  One can still acquire a Fine Rembrandt or Picasso under $10,000.  Remember, by working smart, and with a professional art advisor, a $6,000 or $7,000 investment in a Picasso lithograph, over time, will reap a benefit, not only financially, but most certainly cerebrally, and why not?  Fine Art has a proven track record in times of economic chaos and what could be more meaningfull than sharing our lives with Mr. Picasso or Mr. Rembrandt?

Robert Vehon

Fine Art Consultant

October 16, 2008