Rembrandt's most ambitious etching Christ Healing the Sick came to be called The Hundred Guilder print when the artist exchanged an impression for the enormous sum of 100 guilders. Rembrandt, master printmaker and storyteller, used the Bible as a nearly limitless storehouse of narratives. In mid-career he strove to outdo all other masters and create the most complex print the world had ever seen. Did he succeed?

Assistant curator of European art, Sasha Suda, discusses the living history of illuminated manuscripts. Manuscripts were illuminated in medieval times to illustrate text and to help communicate its meaning. Text and image functioned as a single language to religious audiences. As devotional practices changed, the text in some manuscripts lost significance while the illuminations took on new meaning as works of art. In many cases, manuscripts were disbound and single folios or cuttings dispersed throughout the world.

Join Amy Furness, Special Collections Archivist and David Wistow, Interpretive Planner, and discover the Art Gallery of Ontario's newly opened “study centre” devoted to the Canadian artist, David Milne (1882-1953). This experimental initiative argues for the central role of archives in the museum. Approximately 3,000 sketches, letters, notebooks, early canvases and watercolours from all stages of the artist's career are gathered in one dedicated space.

Join Brother Ignatius Feaver, artist, educator and member of the Capuchin Franciscan Order, for a meditative look at the prints and drawings of 19th century French artist, Charles Marie Dulac. Explore the relationship between art and spirituality and reflect on the mystical in Dulac's series of colour lithographs “The Canticle of Creatures”; nine original prints of exquisite beauty and mystery expressing the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi.

Join Medeine Tribinevicius, MA candidate, Munk School for Global Affairs, University of Toronto, for a look at the AGO's collection of rare posters related to the Russian revolution of 1917. See striking portrayals of political figures (especially Lenin) and chronicles of momentous events, as well as propaganda supporting mass education and literacy campaigns, industrialization, and collectivization. The collection came primarily from two distinguished sources – Hart Massey (in the 1980s) and the Spencer Clarke estate (in the 1990s).

Join Medeine Tribinevicius, MA candidate, Munk School for Global Affairs, University of Toronto, for a look at the AGO's collection of rare posters related to the Russian revolution of 1917. See striking portrayals of political figures (especially Lenin) and chronicles of momentous events, as well as propaganda supporting mass education and literacy campaigns, industrialization, and collectivization. The collection came primarily from two distinguished sources – Hart Massey (in the 1980s) and the Spencer Clarke estate (in the 1990s).

In 1982 Nancy Jacobi began showing artists and bookbinders beautiful papers from the trunk of her car. Today she owns The Japanese Paper Place in Toronto, the world's largest source of Japanese paper outside of Japan. Her particular passion is for traditional Japanese handmade papers; current production of high quality washi remains virtually unchanged over 1000 years.

Creating community and civic engagement through art collecting

Dallas collectors and philanthropists Howard and Cindy Rachofsky join AGO Director Matthew Teitelbaum in conversation in this installment of the Brown Bag Lunch & Talk series. The Rachofsky's are leading Dallas philanthropists, passionate about reinventing their city as a contemporary art and architecture capital.

Join us for a talk by Franco Berardi to celebrate and launch PUBLIC's 50th issue: The Retreat: Dark Zest Geist Dystopia and Self Fulfilling Prophecy: Imagination and the Narration of the Future in Contemporary Literature and Cinema.