At first glance, “Self-Portrait, Wearing a Flat Cap” looks to be a pencil or charcoal drawing, impressive in its own right. Peering through a magnifying glass, however, reveals fine details in the small print measuring about two inches by three inches, or about three times the size of a postage stamp. Looking even longer, it looks almost 3-D, those details seemingly jumping off the paper. To realize the print is a result of an etching exquisitely produced on a metal plate nearly 400 years ago is mindboggling.
The print is one of a collection of 58 works making their U.S. debut in “Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White ‒ Prints from the Rembrandt House Museum,” on view through January 11, 2026 at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina. The exhibit is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam.
“We are honored that the Gibbes and the city of Charleston are the first U.S. destination for the exhibition,” says Dr. H. Alexander Rich, president and CEO of the Gibbes Museum of Art. “That the show arrives here first is a big deal for the museum, especially as you don’t get many bigger or more recognizable names in the history of art than Rembrandt.”
Well-known for his self-portraits and narrative paintings like “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee” and “The Night Watch,” “Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White” gives art enthusiasts the opportunity to explore another of his techniques of which he was prolific, etching and printmaking…