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Lecture: The Art of Rembrandt with William Perthes
April 23, 2026 · 6pm-7:30pm
$25 members, $35 non-members
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The Art of Rembrandt
Few artists are as universally admired as Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669). With a career spanning the 17th century Dutch Golden Age, Rembrandt created intimate and probing self portraits and monumental civic works like 1642s The Night Watch. In his lifetime Rembrandt experienced both great success and devastating failures. This talk will consider the breath of Rembrandt’s work from brash early pictures to contemplative late ones. We’ll also explore the evolution of his painting technique which has been described as a kind of alchemy. The Art of Rembrandt builds on the groundwork of the talk Dutch Golden Age Painting presented on 12 March.
Image: Rembrandt van Rijn, The Night Watch Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, 1642, oil on canvas (12.45 x 14.87 ft.), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
William Perthes is an educator, author, and curator. He is the Bernard C. Watson Director of Adult Education at the Barnes Foundation. Bill has a background in philosophy and art history and is the author of “The Barnes Method” included in the recently published The Barnes: Then and Now. Much of Bill's work focuses on how experiences with works of art, both short and long term, can impact and inform fields as varied as business, medicine, law enforcement. and restorative justice. Bill is the curator of Faces of Resilience a traveling exhibition of original works of art created by currently and formerly incarcerated artists at the State Correctional Institute Phoenix. In addition, his scholarship has focused on American Modernism with a special concentration on the Abstract Expressionist painter Robert Motherwell. He is the former Director of Education for the Violette de Mazia Foundation.
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