For over 25 years, Dutch artist Nard Kwast has poured his heart and soul into painting like 17th-century artists. His passion for the Golden Age of Dutch painting has paid off. He’s now a nationally known expert, who is passing his country’s art traditions to the next generation of Rembrandts.
It all started when he was about 8 years old. He grew up on a farm in the northern Netherlands. On weekends, the family sometimes ate at a traditional pancake house, next door to a 17th-century castle. Every time they ate there, he’d ask his parents, “Can we visit the castle?” But they weren’t interested. While he enjoys the classical arts, his parents are drawn to modern art (his father is a jazz musician), he told The Epoch Times in a telephone interview.
He laughed; they couldn’t understand why he'd want to see inside an old castle. Eventually, they gave in. He still remembers seeing the castle’s finely crafted furniture and the black-framed 17th-century portraits. He was awestruck at such mastery. It’s a feeling that remains with him and still surfaces when he sees such works.
Years later in his early 20s, he visited a Belgian art museum with a friend, and that’s when he knew that it wasn’t enough for him to admire these 17th-century works. “I wanted to paint like an old master,” he said.
Learning Time-Honored Painting Traditions
Mr. Kwast set his heart on learning the old masters’ painting style and staying true to the time-honored recipes and materials that they used. However, finding a teacher skilled in authentic 17th-century painting proved challenging.He devoured books and consulted conservation laboratories about the era’s varnishes and techniques, but the conservators were experts in restoration rather than in the nuances of painting, so he mostly had to discover everything for himself.
“I thought: I have to study the old masters to get really good at painting,” he said. Observing old master works, he experimented with colors and mediums to re-create certain effects.
Later, a chance conversation in the city of Utrecht (in the center of the Netherlands) led him to his teacher. Once a week, he traveled to a centuries-old Utrecht atelier and learned how to create a 17th-century-style painting—from making the painting support to selecting the right formulas and materials to creating the finished work. That painting hangs in his mother’s home.
He estimates it’s taken him 10 to 15 years to integrate the art theory and practice. Mastering his art and honing his expertise, however, is a lifelong commitment.
Understanding Golden Age Paintings
Typically, 17th-century artists used loose brushstrokes with thin layers of paint and glazes. That results in works that are “transparent, open, and breathing, and this is something that you feel when you’re in front of the painting,” Mr. Kwast explained.When painting a 17th-century-style portrait of someone sitting squarely in front of him, he'll paint the highlights on their forehead, the light side of the painting, and leave the rest of the painting in shadow. “I’m only painting the light,” he said. He explained that a lot of artists load their paintings with paint, but it’s a rookie mistake. Look at any 17th-century painting by the likes of Vermeer, Frans Hals, or Ferdinand Bol, and the layers of cracked paint are prominent where the light falls.
“You look at the shadow [in the painting] and it has some depth to it, and this is something that I’m really fascinated by.”
Another misconception is that shadows are black, but the color of a shadow is an object’s complementary color (its opposite value on the color wheel). When he was studying 17th-century portraits, he saw gray-green shadows. Similarly, when studying the flesh tones in Rubens’s figure paintings, he noted yellow highlights on the pink, almost purple flesh, and green shadows. (Green and pink are complementary colors.)
When reproducing old master paintings, he tries to stay true to the original materials, which often calls for tailor-made paints and mediums. He has a curio cabinet full of materials—oils, resins, pigments, and varnishes—some of which are toxic, such as lead white paint; or common, such as plant resins added to a glaze for a honey-colored effect.
When reproducing Rembrandt’s “Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph,” for instance, he prepped the linen painting surface with fine layers of animal glue that he made himself. He also made a varnish for the completed work.
Recognition
After decades of working hard, he’s grateful for the recognition that he’s received, both nationally and internationally. Mr. Kwast’s youngest son encouraged him to enter the inaugural 2019 series of “Project Rembrandt,” a Dutch television show keen to find the Netherlands’ best amateur artist. He was accepted. He found it an amazing opportunity to show his skills. Each week he competed thinking that it would be his last, but he made it through to the final round.From “Project Rembrandt,” he gained more commissions and the confidence to give up his day job and become a full-time professional artist.
More fame followed. In 2021, he was part of the team that reconstructed Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” at the Rijksmuseum for the Dutch television series “The Secret of the Master.” Headed by painter and researcher Lisa Wiersma, they replicated the complete original work. The Rijksmuseum painting had been trimmed in the 18th century to fit into a smaller space in Amsterdam’s town hall.
Last year, he appeared on Dutch television screens again. In “The New Vermeer,” artists were challenged to create Johannes Vermeer’s lost works, known to exist only by short descriptions. In each episode, artists were separated into amateur and professional categories. He competed in the professional artist category of the first episode.
Painting Like an Old Master
Most recently, in January, he won an outstanding technique award at the Sixth NTD International Figure Painting Competition for his portrait “Thom.” At the finalists’ exhibition, at the Salmagundi Club in New York, another artist likened the portrait’s style to Italian master Caravaggio’s. After struggling so long to learn the techniques, being awarded for his outstanding technique was a real honor for him.
He’s passionate about mastering his art and hopes to create more 17th-century-style still-life and portrait paintings. He’s so immersed in the highs and lows of the painting process that he often doesn’t feel the impact of his art. But last year he did. He was in a hospital, and one of the staff recognized him from television. She told him how her late mother had seen an exhibition of his paintings, and that she had been moved to tears. He was touched.
He still remembers how seeing those 17th-century paintings with his friend 20 years ago inspired him to paint true to tradition. Now, over 25 years on, he works competently in the style and captures the spirit of the Golden Age of Dutch painting. Now, he asks himself, ”What do I want [my paintings] to tell the world?” Beyond their technical brilliance, more than anything, he wants to create poignant paintings.
