Art Review: Marinus van Reymerswaele Exhibition at Prado Museum

If Marinus van Reymerswaele isn’t a marquee name in your town, don’t let it leave you red-faced. I’d never heard of him, either. As a brilliant, small exhibition at the Prado tells us, this Netherlandish painter is the inventor of an entirely new genre. Marinus (c. 1489–c. 1546) specialized in tax collectors and money changers. Marinus: Painter from Reymerswaele is the first exhibition dedicated to this enigmatic artist, whose work makes counting money an aesthetically delectable, even exotic adventure.

The Prado owns five of his 15 or so known paintings. It has borrowed work by the artist from the Louvre, the Hermitage, the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent, the San Fernando Academy in Madrid, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, its neighbor across the road. The exhibition is small, with only ten paintings, but it’s a tour de force of incisive research, focus, and revelation. It looks gorgeous, too, as do all the Prado’s shows.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

If Marinus van Reymerswaele isn’t a marquee name in your town, don’t let it leave you red-faced. I’d never heard of him, either. As a brilliant, small exhibition at the Prado tells us, this Netherlandish painter is the inventor of an entirely new genre. Marinus (c. 1489–c. 1546) specialized in tax collectors and money changers. Marinus: Painter from Reymerswaele is the first exhibition dedicated to this enigmatic artist, whose work makes counting money an aesthetically delectable, even exotic adventure.

The Prado owns five of his 15 or so known paintings. It has borrowed work by the artist from the Louvre, the Hermitage, the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent, the San Fernando Academy in Madrid, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, its neighbor across the road. The exhibition is small, with only ten paintings, but it’s a tour de force of incisive research, focus, and revelation. It looks gorgeous, too, as do all the Prado’s shows.