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

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (Leiden, 1606 - Amsterdam, 1669) was an artist who transformed copper and ink into a form of thought. 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. This selection, never before shown outside the institution, traces a journey through two of the artist’s great territories: portraiture, including his self-portraits where “time adheres to his face”, and biblical scenes, treated with “unusual humanity”, where saints, mothers and beggars share the same vital pulse.

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 those present, he does so with a realism that “does not seek perfection, but truthfulness, and populates his compositions 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”.

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 has been, in a sense, a metamorphosis of the previous one: a dialogue between time and technique. The inclusion of self-portraits documenting the artist’s evolution was also highlighted, such as the “last engraving in which he portrayed himself”, or the “portrait of his mother, absorbed in thought”, which examines old age with “extraordinary affection”. “Geniuses are timeless and that is what makes Rembrandt’s works completely contemporary even after 100 years,” she said.

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.