New Yorkers are about to see Rembrandt with fresh eyes. From October 23, 2026, through January 31, 2027, the Morgan Library & Museum presents Rembrandt’s Lions: Art and Exile in the Dutch Republic, an exhibition that brings together, for the first time, a remarkable group of drawings, etchings and paintings by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669).
The story begins with real lions. In the 1630s, North African lions arrived in Amsterdam aboard Dutch East India Company trading ships and were displayed at local fairs, where a young Rembrandt sketched them from life. The lion, a symbol of the young Dutch Republic, went on to prowl through his art, from lion hunts to St. Jerome reading in a landscape, often in stories of exile, refuge and migration.
That is the heart of the show: in Rembrandt’s Amsterdam, up to 60 percent of residents had been born elsewhere, and the migrants, exiles and refugees around him shaped his world and his work. Organized by Sarah Mallory, the Morgan’s Annette and Oscar de la Renta Assistant Curator of Drawings and Prints, the exhibition pairs the finest impressions from the Morgan’s celebrated collection of Rembrandt etchings, the largest and finest in North America, with selected loans rarely seen together.
The Morgan, at 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, is one of New York’s most beautiful museum buildings, and this intimate, idea-rich show is a perfect autumn visit. Happy City News recommends pairing it with a stroll through the Morgan’s historic library rooms.
Photo: Rembrandt van Rijn, The Large Lion Hunt, 1641, National Gallery of Art via Wikimedia Commons
