American Register, Paris, March 27, 1897.
A magnficent work of art, at which no less a connoisseur than Mr. Charles Sedelmeyer, the well-known dealer and expert in art. in collaboration with Director Bode, has been working; for fully fifteen years, has at last been completed. It is the richly illustrated edition in eight large volumes of L’CEuvre Complet de Rembrandt,” a veritable literary and artistic monument to the great Dutch master, all of whose works, scattered throughout the world, have here been reproduced in heliogravure, with full descriptive text. The first volume has made its appearance, and, as might well have been foreseen, does great credit to the enterprising-editor as well as to France.
The Collector, New York, April 15, 1897.
Nothing has yet been done, either in honour of any single artist or for the recording of his works, to even approach « The Complete Work of Rembrandt » which is published by M. Sedelmeyer, of Paris.... 11 comes in the shape of a fat folio, of the most sumptuous form of artistic embellishment and typography, and, entirely apart from its magnificence as an art work, is a book of reference no true collector can fail to appreciate.
The Art Amateur, New York, December, 1897.
The Complete Work of Rembrandt, which Dr. Bode has spent fifteen years in preparing and of which Mr. Sedelmeyer has already issued the first two volumes in truly magnificent style, will reproduce every known painting by the master, one hundred and fifty of them never before published.
The Art Amateur, New York, February, 1898.
The second volume of Dr. Bode s monumental work, which has just been delivered to American subscribers is even richer and more interesting than the first volume, as it reproduces the work of a more advanced period of the master. As compared with the most thorough of his predecessors, Dr. Bode is immensely more full and authoritative. Where he differs from them in regard to individual pictures, the layman will do well, as in most such cases, to pin his faith to the most recent authority. Dr. Bode has had many advantages for which Vosmaer or Michel might sigh in vain. His learning is disputed by no one; and there is throughout his work abundant evidence of a calm judgment and a disposition to examine carefully both sides of every open question. When he admits as genuine works of Rembrandt paintings which other critics have pronounced doubtful, he speaks with precision, while they express themselves in a hesitating manner, and seem ready to withdraw every opinion that they advance. The difference of manner is due. it is safe to say, to real knowledge on the one side and presump- tuous ignorance on the other. Many things have come to light since Michel wrote his book — a great book for its day — and the whole mass of evidence, new and old, has been sifted and weighed with the greatest care by Dr. Bode. The hundreds of photogravures from the original paintings which illustrate his great work are of the highest merit, and are as superior in quality to the illustrations of former works on Rembrandt as they vastly outnumber them. 124
