Rembrandt, the alchemist of light and shadow, comes to the Thyssen Málaga with his engravings

Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn was a Dutch artist who turned copper and ink, which he used to create his works, into a way of thinking. With his modern vision of prints, he arrives at the Carmen Thyssen Málaga Museum with the Rembrandt Grabador (Rembrandt the engraver) exhibition, open to the public until 18 January 2026.

The prints come from the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid, which holds the largest private collection of Rembrandt’s works in Spain. The selection of prints, which has never been shown before outside the institution’s walls, takes you on a journey to two of Rembrandt’s greatest territories: portraiture (including his self-portraits in which “time adheres” to his face) and biblical scenes with their “unusual humanism”, where saints and mothers share the same vitality.

The collection was presented by: Malaga councillor for culture, Mariana Pineda; the artistic director of the Carmen Thyssen Málaga Museum, Lourdes Moreno; the director of the Lázaro Galdiano Museum, Begoña Torres; the head of conservation at the Lázaro Galdiano Museum and curator of the exhibition, Carmen Espinosa; and the deputy director of activities at the Cajasol Foundation, Gloria Ruiz.

In the words of Lourdes Moreno, artistic director of the Malaga museum, “Rembrandt brings a modern vision to engraving,” also reflected in Dürer and Goya. According to the attendees, he achieves this with a realism which “doesn’t seek perfection but truthfulness and populates his works with everyday faces”. Begoña Torres, director of the Lázaro Galdiano Museum, described the exhibition as “something small but special, exquisite”. She emphasised the artist’s mastery, noting that “Rembrandt is a painter, an exceptional engraver in this case”, and recalled that the Lázaro Galdiano Museum houses “the best Rembrandt collection in private hands”.

The geniuses will always be with us

Curator Carmen Espinosa, head of conservation at the Lázaro Galdiano, recalls that the artist produced around 300 engravings, and that his plates “have been alive until a century ago”, due to the successive editions and variations that kept his imprint active.

Each impression was, in a way, a metamorphosis: a dialog between time and technology. It was also noted that the inclusion of self portraits documents the evolution of the artist, as in the “last engraving he did in which he depicted himself” or “the portrait of his mother absorbed in thoughts”, which looks at old age “with extraordinary affection”. She said that geniuses are timeless, and this is why Rembrandt’s work remains relevant even after more than 100 years.

Rembrandt Grabador can be visited until 18 January 2026 in the Palacio de Villalón, home to the museum, a space that invites silent contemplation of the alchemy of black and white, where light emerges from the intuition of a man who still watches us from the shadows of his art.