Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery announces major new exhibition of Rembrandt etchings

• Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White—Prints from the Rembrandt House Museum opens on 6 March 2025.
• The exhibition is co-organised by the American Federation of Arts and the Rembrandt House Museum
• This is the first time that the etchings have been brought out of the Netherlands as a collection and is the only opportunity to see the exhibition in the UK.  

Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669) Self-Portrait, Wearing a Flat Cap, c. 1642. Etching. Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in Colmore Business District is excited to announce the launch of a major new exhibition of etchings by Rembrandt showcasing his mastery of print.

Opening in March 2025, Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White—Prints from the Rembrandt House Museum, presents the complete range of Rembrandt’s etchings, highlighting the artist’s centuries-long impact on the field of printmaking through a select group of works by his forerunners, contemporaries and later artists.

The exhibition, co-organised by the American Federation of Arts and the Rembrandt House Museum, will be on display at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery from 6 March to 1 June 2025.

This is the first time that Rembrandt’s etchings have been brought out of the Netherlands as a collection and is the only opportunity to see the exhibition in the UK.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) is widely regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. Apart from his atmospheric paintings, he also produced more than 300 etchings.

As an artist, Rembrandt constantly sought out new possibilities and new solutions for making art. While many artists of that era saw printmaking as a reproductive medium—a means to disseminate images of famous paintings or sculptures—Rembrandt embraced etching’s unique characteristics to create finished artworks. Etching was, at the time, a new form of printmaking.

As a consummate draughtsman, Rembrandt valued the quick lines that one could create with etching, and he exploited this to create masterful compositions that range from staccato arrangements of delicate lines to ponderous representations of dark, shadowy forms. This exhibition presents the full range of Rembrandt’s etching output, alongside prints by select forerunners and contemporaries.

Rembrandt’s printmaking style changed over his career and he honed his style across a wide variety of subjects. Both his progress and the variety of his output will be traced in a number of thematic sections in this exhibition. These sections will cover everything from Rembrandt’s masterful skills as a visual narrator, his bold exploration of light and dark, and how he used self-portraits to fashion his own visual identity and explore the complexity of aging.

The exhibition also includes select comparative works by Rembrandt’s forerunners and contemporaries, including his teacher Pieter Lastman and his pupil Ferdinand Bol, which will contextualize his work and shed light on his specific innovations, such as his repeated experiments with etching, tonal effects and the dramatic portrayal of his subjects.

Sara Wajid and Zak Mensah, co-chief executives of Birmingham Museums Trust, said: “We are delighted to be working with the American Federation of Arts and the Rembrandt House Museum to host this significant exhibition of Rembrandt’s etchings. We are looking forward to welcoming visitors to Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery for this exclusive opportunity to see such an important collection in the UK.”

Pauline Forlenza, director & chief executive of the American Federation of Arts, said:

“Touring Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White in collaboration with the Rembrandt House Museum, the only institution devoted entirely to the artist’s life and work, is an incredible honour. Our partnership with the Rembrandt House Museum will allow us to bring these momentous etchings out of the Netherlands for the first time as a collection, for the benefit of audiences in the United States and the United Kingdom so that they can experience Rembrandt’s work directly.”

Epco Runia, head of collections at the Rembrandt House Museum, said:

“We at the Rembrandt House Museum are delighted to bring Rembrandt’s fascinating prints to Birmingham. With this exhibition we hope to demonstrate that each of Rembrandt’s prints is a work of art in its own right. If you take the time to look at them closely, a whole world opens up to you: a world in black and white, but with enormous visual richness.”

Tickets are now on sale. For more information visit Birmingham Museum and Gallery website.