Obituary: Ernst van de Wetering could spot a Rembrandt anywhere
The art expert died on August 11th, aged 83
AT ALMOST ANY time between 1968 and 2014, if you chanced to be visiting the Rijksmuseum or the Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam, you might spot Ernst van de Wetering at the centre of a knot of people. He was hard to miss: bulky and untidy, with his glasses slipping on his nose and a goofily crooked smile. He would be standing by a Rembrandt—where else?—pumping his arms and kneading his hands, as if carried away by emotion. “They call this a self-portrait!” he would cry. “Wrong!”
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Nobody but him”
From the August 28th 2021 edition
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