ALL TO REMBRANDT

At first, people asked me how I found the Rijksmuseum right after the renovation. And then I answered a bit evasively. Just like before when my grandpa, with strong evangelistic zeal, asked me how the church in our village was. Then I tactically avoided the question and started talking about the architecture or something until my grandfather asked me how that church looked on the inside.

Anyway. The comparison doesn't quite hold, but I felt slightly uncomfortable in both situations because I had never been somewhere while I should have been there.

Now the fact was that I had indeed been there (really, I had), but if I was really honest...

Then people asked me when I had been to the Rijks for the ‘last time’. Maybe to the exhibition Modern Times, for example. Or in the restaurant. Or the garden. Now the fact was that I had indeed been there (really, I had), but if I was really honest, I only came for parties and events.

I once got to talk about Amayzine.com there, hosted a fashion event there and dined there for Marie Claire’s Prix de la Mode. But the art, that was still waiting for me.

Until this morning. My dear PR friend Karin Saalmink invited me for breakfast in the Rijksrestaurant (Joris Bijdendijk made the tastiest Eggs Benedict I've had in years, and that granola, where, where, where can I order that?) to then be the very first to see the exhibition Late Rembrandt.

That is the exhibition that has partly been flown in from the National Gallery in London. The exhibition they have been working on for ten years. The exhibition for which all the walls were repainted to let the paintings shine, the exhibition where a work has hung that hasn't been seen for seventy years.

 You see, even if your name is Rembrandt van Rijn, you have to deal with annoying clients who don't understand anything.

If the stamp of it-exhibition existed, this one would have received it. Wim Pijbes (director of the Rijksmuseum) even called it ‘the most beautiful exhibition we would ever see’. The bar was set high.

I received a voice tour narrated by Barry Atsma. I forgave myself for starting at the end. Then Barry dictated backwards. No problem. I saw The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild and immediately remembered the title and the year it was painted. Having studied art history on a pointless Tuesday, you get that. Barry and I walked past The Jewish Bride, Jan Six, and The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis. That last painting was originally much larger, but the client didn't like it and had a whole piece cut off. You see, even if your name is Rembrandt van Rijn, you have to deal with annoying clients who don't understand anything.

You hear it. Rembrandt, Barry, and I, we had a great time together. And you know what? Today I'm going again. You can ask me everything about it tomorrow...