Viennese journey of the „Girl in the picture frame"

One of the most important works from the Royal Castle in Warsaw collection, Rembrandt's Girl in a Picture Frame, will be on display from 8 October in the exhibition Rembrandt - Hoogstraten. Colour and Illusion (Rembrandt - Hoogstraten. Colour and Illusion  at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum.

'Girl in a Picture Frame' is one of two Rembrandt paintings in the Royal Castle in Warsaw's collection. The other is 'The scholar at the lectern'. These paintings have been virtually inseparable for years and can be admired every day in the gallery on the ground floor of the Castle.

These works, once in Stanisław August's collection and later in the Lanckoronski family's collection in Vienna, were seized by the Gestapo during World War II and taken to the Altausee mine near Salzburg. Recovered by their rightful owners, they remained in private collections until 1994, when Professor Karolina Lanckorońska donated them to the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

The Girl, painted by Rembrandt in 1641, confirms that the painter was the undisputed master of illusion. The subtle play of light, the vivid gaze of the figures and the impression of movement make it impossible to remain indifferent to the work. Perhaps this is why the image of the 'Mona Lisa of Warsaw', as Professor Ernst van de Wetering, an expert in Rembrandt's oeuvre, called her, became the most important visual motif promoting the Vienna exhibition.

The long-awaited exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum announced with real panache, juxtaposes the greatest works of the master of Baroque painting with those of his eminent pupil for the first time on such a scale. It focuses on both artists' deep interest in questions of perspective, light, illusion, and colour.

On loan from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Girl in a Picture Frame will be presented alongside 60 other outstanding works—paintings, drawings, and prints—from the Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery in London, the Rijksmuseum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others.

The exhibition Rembrandt - Hoogstraten. Colour and Illusion ( Rembrandt - Hoogstraten. Colour and Illusion) at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum will run until 12 January 2025.