Rembrandt Comes to Charleston: The Gibbes Museum Unveils Masterpieces in Black & White – October 24 – January 11

By Mark A Leon

The much-anticipated opening of The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston showcased a landmark exhibition: Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black & White – Prints from the Rembrandt House Museum, an impressive presentation of works by the Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and his printmaking legacy. The exhibition runs from October 24 2025 through January 11 2026, in Galleries 8 & 9 of the Gibbes. 

Visitors will encounter 58 works in total — 44 by Rembrandt himself and an additional 14 by nineteenth- and twentieth-century artists influenced by his mastery of etching and drypoint.  All the pieces are on loan from the Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam — the very house, studio and shop where Rembrandt lived and worked — and the exhibition is organized in collaboration with the American Federation of Arts. 

In staging this major show, the Gibbes Museum places Charleston on the map as the first U.S. venue for this international tour. The prints trace Rembrandt’s innovation in design, light-and-shadow effects (“chiaroscuro”), and storytelling through the print medium — a side of the artist less familiar to many. 

The Charleston setting is particularly fitting: Museum leadership notes the “maritime trade city” parallels between Amsterdam and Charleston, drawing a cultural resonance for the exhibit’s debut here. 

For museum-goers, the small-scale prints invite what curators call “slow looking” — a careful, meditative engagement with each etched line and tone. The catalogue of works includes not only rare prints by Rembrandt but also original copper plates he used, alongside prints by later artists who drew inspiration from him. 

A special opening-day tour, led by the exhibition curator Epco Runia (Head of Collections at the Rembrandt House Museum), is scheduled for October 24 2025. 

Overall, this exhibition is a major cultural event for Charleston — offering both art lovers and the general public a chance to explore a deeper dimension of one of Western art’s most admired figures, in a city steeped in its own rich artistic heritage.

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