Rembrandt to Rembrandt

The Oxford Companion to American Literature | 1995 | 700+ words | Copyright

Rembrandt to Rembrandt, blank‐verse dramatic monologue by E.A. Robinson, published in Avon's Harvest (1921).

The Dutch painter contemplates his self‐portrait, three years after the death of his beloved wife Saskia, and reflects on his diminishing popularity and prestige. He wonders if the current opinion is true, that he is now “a fellow painting in the dark,—a loon who cannot see that he is dead.” Perhaps Saskia was “appointed well to die,” for his present poverty and obscurity would cause her grief and suffering, although his failure is due to his refusal to compromise with commercialism. He has wished only to be sincere, to paint the values in light and human nature that his discerning eye reports. He is overcome, however, with doubts of his work and of artistic “immortality,” summing up his life to himself as “your particular consistency in your peculiar folly.” He proposes nevertheless to continue, despite his realization that the goals he seeks are comprehensible only to himself and a hypothetical posterity.

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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Rembrandt to Rembrandt." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Rembrandt to Rembrandt." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-RembrandttoRembrandt.html

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Rembrandt to Rembrandt." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-RembrandttoRembrandt.html

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