2 October 2026

A Bibliographic Rarity: Rembrandt’s Drawings from the Vaidotas Žukas Collection

The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to an exhibition featuring a bibliographic rarity: Rembrandt’s drawings from the Vaidotas Žukas Collection.

In 1903, 150 numbered copies of the facsimile portfolio Rembrandt Van Rijn. Drawings, published in English by C. Hofstede de Groot in The Hague, were produced. No. 7 is on display in the exhibition.

The portfolio was looted from the Royal University Library in Berlin by Red Army soldiers in 1945. Each sheet bears the stamp “Berlin Königliche Universitätsbibliothek”. The portfolio was then transported towards the Soviet Union as a war trophy, but was thrown from a train in Lithuania in exchange for a litre of samagon.

Six such portfolios are held in the United States: at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and in the libraries of Columbia, Harvard, Duke and Iowa universities.

The series of 50 drawings features some of Rembrandt van Rijn’s (1603–1669) favourite subjects: biblical scenes from the Old and New Testaments, Dutch landscapes, interiors of the artist’s home, figures of women and men of various ages, domestic scenes with children and beggars, and an unfortunate woman tied to a gallows and drawn from life from various angles, among others.

In 1979, Vaidotas Žukas received the portfolio on display in the exhibition from collector Aleksandras Kubilas, who worked at the Vilnius Republican Library (now the Martynas Mažvydas Library), giving him a portrait he had painted himself in exchange for 50 sheets of drawings. In 1985, Žukas added comments to some of the drawings.

This portfolio is now held in the collection of Vaidotas and Auksė Žukas.

Exhibition Organiser: Vaidotas Žukas
Exhibition Architect: Algirdas Jakas
Graphic Design: Akvilė Paukštytė
Language Editing and Translation: Alexandra Bondarev, Judita Gliauberzonaitė
Technical Implementation: Algirdas Jakas, Žilvinas Baranauskas

The exhibition opens on 12 October 2026 at 6 pm in the Exhibition Hall (Level IIIa) of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.

The exhibition is open during library opening hours and admission is free.

Further information is available on the library’s Facebook page.