Author Shorto previews book on Rembrandt at Cumberland art gallery

CUMBERLAND — Author Russell Shorto’s next project — a book on the life of 17th-century painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn — is still a blank canvass, but the concept fit perfectly with Chris Sloan’s mission to “raise the bar” culturally and artistically in downtown Cumberland.

Sloan hosted Shorto on Wednesday at Arcadian Gallery on Baltimore Street, and a crowd filled the place to hear the writer’s thoughts about the Dutch master whose works, Shorto said, reflected a shift to realistic depictions of subjects, including many self-portraits.

“I’m a big fan of Renaissance art, classical art, and I want to offer that to the community,” said Sloan, who purchased the former site of Graphicus Atelier gallery and opened his shop in May.

Author Russell Shorto talks Rembrandt

Best-selling author Russell Shorto and Arcadian Gallery owner Chris Sloan, left, pull a winning raffle ticket for a copy of Shorto’s book “Taking Manhattan” during a discussion of the works of 17th-century Dutch artist Rembrandt on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, in downtown Cumberland, Md.

“We’ll always be looking for ways to bring community expertise into the gallery,” Sloan said.

Through facts gleaned from his research and slides shown on a television screen, Shorto — a Cumberland resident — took the audience through Rembrandt’s works, influences and artistic style.

“It’s kind of funny to talk about a book you haven’t written yet,” Shorto said.

Rembrandt lived from 1606 to 1669. Shorto detailed his complex life, with hundreds of paintings and drawings produced amid legal battles and eventually financial struggles.

Author Russell Shorto talks Rembrandt

Best-selling author Russell Shorto describes the works of 17th-century Dutch artist Rembrandt during a gathering Wednesday at Arcadian Gallery in downtown Cumberland.

The future novel has a working title of “The Dark and the Light” — which describes both Rembrandt’s painting style and his descent into bankruptcy even as one of Amsterdam’s most popular and influential artists.

“He died broke,” Shorto told the gathering. “… I want to understand — how is it possible that he falls that far?”

Among the images Shorto shared was one of Rembrandt’s well-known paintings “The Night Watch” — measuring 12 feet by 14 1/2 feet in size — commissioned in 1639 and completed in 1642.

Rembrandt, Shorto said, “was fascinated with theater,” and many of his paintings, including “The Night Watch,” appear to be moments of “actors on a stage.”

Author Russell Shorto talks Rembrandt

Best-selling author Russell Shorto describes the works of 17th-century Dutch artist Rembrandt during a gathering Wednesday at Arcadian Gallery in downtown Cumberland. Rembrandt’s painting “The Night Watch” is on the screen to Shorto’s right.

Shorto revealed that the painter only used seven pigments in his works — including a red produced by grinding up beetles from South America — when 22 were available at the time, thanks to the global reach of the Dutch trading empire.

“What I’m trying to write is not really a biography of Rembrandt, but it is in that arena,” Shorto said.

The project takes the writer back to Amsterdam and connects with previous works on Dutch history as well as the founding of New York — “The Island at the Center of the World” (2004) and “Taking Manhattan” (2025) — plus “Descartes’ Bones” (2008).

Cumberland resident Shorto traces Dutch influences, New York City origins in ‘Taking Manhattan’ presentation

Author Russell Shorto often visited St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery’s cemetery when he lived in New York City’s East Village neighborhood a quarter-century ago.

Tracy Smith, of Cumberland, won a signed copy of “Taking Manhattan” during a raffle Wednesday, getting Shorto’s seventh book with her No. 7 ticket — prompting her to say she should run out and play 7 in the lottery.

“I really wanted to read this book,” Smith said.

Sloan said Arcadian Gallery will host a wildlife art show in October, after holding a Leonardo da Vinci night this summer.

“We wanted a place that was warm and interesting, where people could sit down and have a conversation,” he said, adding: “The idea is to offer fine art and fine wine. … We’re trying to raise the bar a little bit.”