Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India

Late in Rembrandt's career, the celebrated Dutch artist took inspiration from Mughal paintings. The twenty-three surviving drawings, produced during the late 1650s, stand out amongst his oeuvre not only for their foreign subject matter but also for their meticulous style. This volume brings together these drawings with Mughal paintings for the first time and challenges the prevailing notion that Rembrandt "brought life" to the static Mughal art. 

Written by scholars of both Dutch and Indian art, the essays demonstrates how Rembrandt's contact with Mughal paintings inspired him to draw in a refined style on Asian paper - an approach that was shaped by the Dutch trade in Surat and prompted by the curiosity of a foreign culture. Seen in this light, Rembrandt's engagement with India enriches our understanding of collecting in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, the Dutch global economy, and Rembrandt's artistic self-fashioning. A close examination of the Mughal imperial workshop provides new insights into how Indian paintings came to Europe as well as how Dutch prints were incorporated into Mughal compositions. 

• Edited by Stephanie Schrader with contributions by Catherine Glynn, Yael Rice, and William W. Robinson
• Published in 2018 
• Hardback edition 
• 148 pages 
• Dimensions: 22.5 x 29.5 x 2cm 
• ISBN: 9781606065525