All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
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All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
Rembrandt used broad brushstrokes in painting the head of the Greek poet Homer. His golden yellow robe gleams in the light, where Rembrandt applied the paint very effectively with a palette knife. The painting was commissioned by the Sicilian nobleman Antonio Ruffo. Originally, you could also see the scribe to whom the blind Homer dictated his verses. But this part was lost in a fire. On the lower right, you can still see two fingers holding a pen and a sheet of paper.
Rembrandt van Rijn was a Dutch 17th-century painter, and one of the most interesting artists of all time. His paintings are full of drama, contrasts between light and dark and experimental brushwork, and are famous all over the world. His lively and original images still touch people today. Rembrandt’s work is unbelievably varied. He mainly made history paintings and portraits, though he also painted landscapes and still lifes. Rembrandt made almost 300 paintings and many prints and drawings in his career.
Commissioned by Don Antonio Ruffo, Messina; Ruffo family, Sicily, until c.1750; sale London, Christie's, 16 February 1810, lot 114 (" A School Master with His Pupil, 32" 11); Sir Abraham Hume (1749-18380, Ashridge Park (catalogue 1824, London, British Museum 7855.i.4, pp. 36-37: "Homer Dictating his poems"); S.T. Smith Gallery, London, 1885; T. Humphrey Ward & Son Gallery, London, 1894; Abraham Bredius, The Hague, 1894-1946 (on long-term loan to the Mauritshuis since 1894); bequest of Abraham Bredius, 1946
