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Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com . Creator Name: Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn Creator Nationality: European; Dutch Creator Dates/Places: 1606-1669 Creator Name-CRT: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Title: The Polish Rider View: Full View Creation Start Date: 1653 Creation End Date: 1657 Creation Date: c. 1655 Object Type: Paintings Materials and Techniques: oil on canvas (lined) Dimensions: 46 x 53 1/8 in. (116.8 x 134.9 cm.) Inscriptions: Signed on the rock at extreme right: "R[e?]". AMICA Contributor: The Frick Collection Owner Location: New York, New York, USA ID Number: 10.1.98 Credit Line: Henry Clay Frick Bequest Copyright: Licensed for non-commercial, educational use. Rights: http://www.frick.org Context: The romantic and enigmatic character of this picture has inspired many theories about its subject, meaning, history, and even its attribution to Rembrandt. Several portrait identifications have been proposed, including an ancestor of the Polish Oginski family, which owned the painting in the eighteenth century, and the Polish Socinian theologian Jonasz Szlichtyng. The rider's costume, his weapons, and the breed of his horse have also been claimed as Polish. But if The Polish Rider is a portrait, it certainly breaks with tradition. Equestrian portraits are not common in seventeenth-century Dutch art, and furthermore, in the traditional equestrian portrait the rider is fashionably dressed and his mount is spirited and well-bred. The painting may instead portray a character from history or literature, and many possibilities have been proposed. Candidates range from the Prodigal Son to Gysbrech van Amstel, a hero of Dutch medieval history, and from the Old Testament David to the Mongolian warrior Tamerlane. It is possible that Rembrandt intended simply to represent a foreign soldier, a theme popular in his time in European art, especially in prints. Nevertheless, Rembrandt's intentions in The Polish Rider seem clearly to transcend a simple expression of delight in the exotic. The painting has also been described as a latter-day Miles Christianus (Soldier of Christ), an apotheosis of the mounted soldiers who were still defending Eastern Europe against the Turks in the seventeenth century. Many have felt that the youthful rider faces unknown dangers in the strange and somber landscape, with its mountainous rocks crowned by a mysterious building, its dark water, and the distant flare of a fire. Related Document Description: New York, The Frick Collection. Art in the Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts [cat.]. Comp. C. Ryskamp, et al., 1996, p.64 (reproduced in color). New York, The Frick Collection. An Illustrated Catalogue. Vol.1, Paintings. [cat.]. 1968, pp.258-265, p.259 (reproduced). AMICA ID: TFC_.19101098 AMICA Library Year: 1999 Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Frick Collection, New York, 1999 AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder. Home
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