Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669), Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher who is considered the greatest Dutch artist, not only as a painter of religious scenes and portraits but also as a draughtsman and innovative etcher of formidable ability.

Rembrandt was born in Leiden on July 15, 1606, the son of a prosperous miller, and was educated at the Latin school there. He subsequently enrolled at Leiden University but stayed only six months and in 1620 began a three-year apprenticeship as a painter with Jacob van Swanenburgh. Far more important for his future development, however, were the six months spent with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam in 1625 or 1626. Lastman had spent the years 1604 to 1607 in Italy and had assimilated important new ideas derived from contemporary painters there such as Elsheimer and Caravaggio.

On his return to Leiden in 1626, Rembrandt set up an independent studio. His early works clearly reveal Lastman’s influence in the choice of religious and Classical themes, rather than still lifes, landscapes, or portraits. The pictures are small in scale and dramatically lit with a glossy paint surface, as in, for example, Tobit and Anna (1626, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) or David with the Head of Goliath Before Saul (1627, Kunstmuseum, Basel). In these early works Rembrandt shows his individuality in his emphasis on the dramatic heart of the narrative and in his ability through gesture and expression to suggest the emotional response of the protagonists. This was recognized by Rembrandt’s contemporaries and is recorded in the memoirs of Constantijn Huygens, who visited the Leiden studio that Rembrandt shared with the painter Jan Lievens. Huygens admired The Repentant Judas Returning the Pieces of Silver (1629, private collection), which shows a shift towards an increasing tonalism and a deepening of the dramatic contrast of light and dark effects (chiaroscuro). During his Leiden years, Rembrandt also began to paint portraits. These were mainly self-portraits and also a new type known as tronie, a combination of portrait and history painting, in which friends or relatives are dressed in exotic garments and headdresses—for example, Bust of an Old Man in a Fur Cap (1630, Landesmuseum, Innsbruck). Rembrandt painted his own portrait throughout his life. The Leiden self-portraits—for example, Self-Portrait with a Feathered Cap (1629, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston)—are small in scale and illustrate Rembrandt’s desire to explore a range of different expressions. At this time Rembrandt also embarked on his career as an etcher, showing extraordinary powers of invention both in technique and subject matter, which ranged from scenes from the New Testament, such as Presentation in the Temple (1631, Mauritshuis, The Hague), to lively genre studies, such as the The Rat Catcher (1632, Galeria Sabauda, Turin) or Man Passing Water (1631, Residenz Galerie, Salzburg).

In 1631 Rembrandt left Leiden for Amsterdam, the largest city of the Dutch republic and its main port, to join the art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh, in whose house Rembrandt lived, and whose niece, Saskia, Rembrandt married in 1634. A number of children were born to the couple, but only the fourth, Titus, born in 1641, survived. During the 1630s Rembrandt painted portraits of prestigious sitters, either full-length, such as Portrait of the Preacher Johannes Elison and His Wife Maria Bockenolle (1634, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), or half-length, sometimes in a fashionable oval format—for example, Portrait of Aechje Claesdr. Presser (1634, National Gallery, London). Rembrandt continued as a history painter but now on a more monumental scale. The Rape of Ganymede (1635, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden) and Belshazzar’s Feast (c. 1635, National Gallery, London) both illustrate Rembrandt’s innovative approach to history painting, as well as his dramatic narrative ability and virtuoso technique. Rembrandt continued to explore human expression—for example, the astonishment and fear on the faces of Belshazzar and his guests or the grimace on the face of a screaming Ganymede. Evidence of Rembrandt’s outstanding success is the commission from Frederik Hendrik, Stadtholder of the Netherlands, for a series of Scenes from the Passion (1632-1646, Alte Pinakothek, Munich) for his private chapel.

The two famous group portraits of the early and middle Amsterdam years, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp (1632, Mauritshuis, The Hague) and the so-called Night Watch—more accurately, The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch—(1642, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), transcend the usual limits of group portraits. In the former, seven members of the surgeons’ guild gather round while Dr Tulp dissects the forearm of the lividly lit cadaver. In the latter, Rembrandt captures a moment of drama as Captain Frans Banning Cocq gives the order to his lieutenant for the company to march out of the courtyard of the headquarters in the early morning. A deep chiaroscuro suggests mystery and excitement and turns a group portrait into a history painting.

By 1639 Rembrandt’s success enabled him to purchase an imposing house in Amsterdam and large numbers of pupils were attracted to his studio. His first pupil, Gerrit Dou, remained in Leiden and developed an independent style; others, such as Ferdinand Bol, Govert Flinck, Nicolaes Maes, Aert de Gelder, and many whose names are unknown, interpreted Rembrandt’s style in their paintings; these were often signed by Rembrandt and this has given rise to reappraisals of attribution and the consequent reduction of Rembrandt’s solidly attributed oeuvre in recent years.

Rembrandt’s work as a graphic artist continued unabated. Through his drawings and etchings, Rembrandt revealed a constant desire to experiment both with technique and every subject imaginable, from biblical characters, as in Study of an Oriental, or sensitive studies of animals, as in Lioness Eating a Bird (c. 1638-1642), to family sketches, such as Study of a Young Man Asleep, and landscapes of great realism, such as Cottages with Trees Beside Water (all these works are in the British Museum, London). Etchings such as The Hundred Guilder Print (c. 1647-1649, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) or the Passion Series (1653) were sold for high prices and brought Rembrandt to the notice of a wider market. It was on the strength of his prints that a Sicilian nobleman, Don Ruffo, commissioned Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer (1653, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), one of the outstanding paintings of Rembrandt’s later years.

During the 1640s a change began to take place in Rembrandt’s work. Outward drama and excitement gave way to a concern to capture an inner spiritual life and the profound depths of the soul, not only of his sitters, but also in his remarkable late self-portraits, such as the monumental three-quarter-length Self-Portrait (1658, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) or the sad and disillusioned head-and-shoulders Self-Portrait (1669, Mauritshuis, The Hague). Commissioned portraits, such as Portrait of Agatha Bas (1641, Royal Collection), are no less introspective as Rembrandt’s technique became ever more experimental.

The deprivation of Rembrandt’s later years has sometimes been exaggerated. Saskia died in 1642 and about three years later Hendrijke Stoffels joined Rembrandt’s household; a daughter, Cornelia, was born in 1654. In 1656 Rembrandt was forced to petition for bankruptcy. The reasons for his financial predicament seem to have been a gradual decline in commissions combined with Rembrandt’s spendthrift nature in amassing a large art collection and his reluctance to keep up with the mortgage payments on his house. His house and possessions were sold but, despite his straitened circumstances, he continued to receive important commissions, including group portraits such as The Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild (1662, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) or the large pair of portraits of the wealthy couple Jacob Trip and Margaretha de Geer (1661, National Gallery, London).

It is in the late history paintings that Rembrandt continued to show an endless capacity for innovation. The Jewish Bride (c. 1668, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) or The Return of the Prodigal Son (c. 1669, Hermitage, St Petersburg) become timeless images of profound humanity, as the figures emerge from dark, mysterious backgrounds, the paintwork glowing and glistening from encrusted surfaces and the myriad layers of oil glazes.