Rembrandt (1606-1669)
Landscape with a Castle
c.1640–1642
Oil on panel, 44 x 60 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Painting visibly left in a certain state of incompleteness (the sky by contrast was painted first and is colored and finished): Rembrandt would have been able to be satisfied with it even if he did not sign this landscape, competing, in this architectural whim – without the support of a historical subject and outside the usual landscapes – with monochrome preparations of engravings (Vogelaar). Possibly symbolic details (rider, cf. Ziemba; castle recalling the mausoleum of Augustus in Rome, carrying a lesson in vanity) and naturalistic details (transition from day to night, figures) cannot be dissociated (Schneider). The memory of certain English medieval buildings (Windsor, Saint-Paul in London, Saint-Alban) designed by Rembrandt (after Hollar?) and by Flinck has sometimes been noted. – Dated around 1640–1642. (Louvre)