COMPOSITION
though the story he is telling. In
cultures with written languages that
read top to bottom and left to right, a
viewer’s eye is most likely to enter an
image from the top left and read
across to the right. In Rembrandt’s
paintings we most commonly see
figures lit from the left to support this
inclination, leading the viewer right,
through the picture plane across a
bridge of mid-tone to the lightest lights
in the subject.
In A Woman Bathing in a Stream
our eye is drawn to the bottom right of
the picture before travelling up the
mid-tone legs and arms into the bright
light of her hitched clothing – the
dense and complex dark of the top
and right-hand sections of the picture
plane provide a barrier to the eye,
keeping our gaze moving around
the centre left.
In a phenomenon we can also
observe in the work of Goya and other
painter-etchers, the tendency towards
a left-facing light source is flipped in
many of Rembrandt’s etchings, a
result of the reversal of the image that
takes place in the printing process.
In Woman with an Arrow our eye is
led in from the right, first striking the
unclothed figure, moving up to the
dark upheld arrow, the head and
finally to the face hidden in shadow on
the left of the image. Three and a half
centuries after his death, Rembrandt
is still able to direct us through a clear
order of looking.
In your own work...
Make sketches to plan the
compositions of your paintings, prints
and developed drawings. Give some
thought to the story are you telling –
LEFT Rembrandt
van Rijn, A Woman
Bathing in a
Stream, 1654, oil
on panel, 62x47cmin what orderdoyouwantviewersof
your work toreadtheimage?Toneis
the most accessibletoolfordirecting
the eye. Wearenaturallyattracted
towards lightandrepelledbydark,
with an inclinationtoreadlefttoright
and top to bottom– howwillyouuse,
ignore or upendthoseconventionsin
your own composition?
Rembrandt’sLightrunsfrom4 October
to 2 February 2020 atDulwich
Picture Gallery,LondonSE21.
http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.ukBELOW Rembrandt
van Rijn, Woman
with an Arrow,
c.1661, etching,
20.5x12.4cm