Art-Rembrandt-The Mill TB02

Please drop this item in rural or Premium Member Only caches.  Do not drop it in an urban cache or leave it behind at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; this prevents the chain and tag tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take this travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission needed to leave the U.S.

This is one of a series of travel bugs made to recognize paintings seen, and admired by the bug owner. A digital copy of the painting was downloaded from the internet. It was reduced in size, and proportions cropped to accommodate the laminating materials available to the owner. Regrettably these processes diminish the efforts of the artist. One truly must see the originals in person to fully appreciate the work. The text below is a mixture of my own observations and material gleaned from the internet (mostly Wikipedia and Web Gallery).

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, his later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high. For twenty years he taught nearly every important Dutch painter. Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. His 30 or so self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity--when he was old, he painted a tired old man.

According to one scribe, this painting is essentially a romantic rather than a realistic interpretation of nature, the principal subject of the picture is the spirit of peace and calm that envelops the earth at dusk. I don’t know about all that—to me it is just pleasant to look at. It is typical Rembrandt in that the subject is accented by light in a field of darkness. This piece hangs in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.