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Onno Boerwinkel
Middelburg, 1950
Tronie 'Rembrandt indachtig'
2025
Charcoal on paper
14,5 x 9,5 cm (with frame: 43 x 38 cm)
Signed lower right
In this charcoal work, tellingly titled Rembrandt indachtig (In Rembrandt’s Spirit), Onno Boerwinkel creates an almost tangible encounter with the Dutch master. This homage to Rembrandt becomes a subtle dialogue between the seventeenth century and the present day. Standing eye to eye with Rembrandt’s masterpieces, Boerwinkel draws, through the direct touch of charcoal on paper, the painter’s brilliant tonalities into our own time. With just a few powerful lines and shadows, he evokes a painter’s soul that unfolds layer by layer, yet carries a wholly personal signature—much as Rembrandt did in his own era. The result is tronies of striking vitality, born from unrestrained drawing, that bridge the silence of the museum with contemporary curiosity.
Onno Boerwinkel (Middelburg, 1950) graduated in 1975 from the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. After initially working on large oil paintings, he turned to pastel in the mid-1980s. With his distinctive sgraffito technique—building up layers of pastel, fixing, scratching, and smudging—he succeeds in uniting painting and drawing in a unique way. The result is a vibrant, layered image in which loose contours form his unmistakable signature.
One of Boerwinkel’s recurring themes is the depiction of quiet moments from Mediterranean life. Italy and France in particular are an inexhaustible source of inspiration: places where time seems to have stood still and traditions remain tangible. His work breathes a romantic connection with the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while at the same time being firmly rooted in the present. Boerwinkel captures everyday scenes with a keen eye for atmosphere, color, and light. He invites the viewer to pause and reflect on what is both timeless and familiar, leaving a lasting impression time and again.
