Perceptions of Otherness: Critical Responses to the Jews of Rembrandt's Art and Milieu (1836–1945)

Abstract

A leitmotif of Rembrandt criticism is that the artist was inspired by his contacts with the Sephardic and Ashkenazi immigrants of Amsterdam. This study investigates, for the first time, varied critical responses to the Jews in Rembrandt's society and art from the nineteenth century, up to and including the Nazi regime. More particularly, this study focuses upon critics who expressed strong opinions regarding the Jews in the artist's art and milieu, and who shared the belief that Rembrandt's uniqueness as an artist was especially revealed by his representations of them. The writings of John Smith, Eduard Kolloff, Charles Blanc, Julius Langbehn, Wilhelm von Bode, Carl Neumann, Anna Seghers, Alfred Rosenberg and Maria Grunewald demonstrate how discussions of Rembrandt's Jews were integrally intertwined not only with the writers' opinions of the Dutch artist, but also with each author's perceptions of the Jewish residents of seventeenth century Amsterdam, as well as of contemporary Jews.

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