Rembrandt’s Light at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

An enduring storyteller and a master of light, Rembrandt is undoubtedly one of the greatest painters who ever lived. In a landmark exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery, in the autumn of 2019, 35 of his iconic paintings, etchings and drawings were celebrated 350 years on since his death.

Challenge

The exhibition curators wanted to take visitors on a journey through Rembrandt’s works from high drama and theatricality, to the contemplative and spiritual. Dulwich Picture Gallery worked with cinematographer, Peter Suschitzky, to direct a unique and dramatic light experience and as such required a user interface with minimum glow and interference from the device’s screen to complement the exhibition spaces.

Solution

Using the client’s brand guidelines, Imagineear’s designers produced as dark and as unobtrusive guide interface as possible, while at the same time ensuring the visitor could navigate safely through the linear exhibition.

Given the rich visual experience of the exhibition, Imagineear scripted an evocative guide that focussed on sound and mixed narration and special interviews with Jennifer Scott, Director, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Helen Hillyard, Assistant Curator, both co-curators of the exhibition, with original music from a number of contemporary artists. Peter Gregson’s composition, ‘Warmth’ plays in full for 4 minutes and synchronises with the special dawn to dusk light show accompanying Rembrandt’s Christ and St Mary Magdalen at the Tomb. Max Richter’s composition ‘The Nature of Daylight’ plays at The Mausoleum stop, with the intention that the visitor will pause and take some time out in this beautiful contemplative space designed by Sir John Soane.

Innovation

This is the first time Imagineear has created a guide for its longstanding client Dulwich Picture Gallery where every visitor receives an accompanying self-guided audio guide on our touchscreen MPti™ tablet devices. The visitor also has the option to explore the gallery’s Permanent Collection and we are continuing to build the audio offering for this experience.