Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) is generally considered one of the greatest painters in European art history (together with Pieter Paul Rubens), and the most important United Provinces (Netherlands) painter of the seventeenth century.

Self-portrait by Rembrandt (1661)Rembrandt was also a proficient engraver and made many drawings. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age (roughly equivalent to the 17th century), in which Dutch culture, science, commerce, world power and political influence reached their pinnacles.

Works

In all, Rembrandt produced around 600 paintings, 300 etchings, and 2,000 drawings. He was a prolific painter of self-portraits, producing almost a hundred of them (including some 20 etchings) throughout his long career. Together they give us a remarkably clear picture of the man, his looks, and — more importantly — his emotions, as misfortune and sorrow etched wrinkles in his face.

Among the prominent characteristics of his work are his use of chiaroscuro, often using stark contrasts, thus drawing the viewer into the painting; his dramatic and lively scenes, devoid of any rigid formality that contemporary artists often displayed; and his ostensibly deeply felt compassion for mankind, irrespective of wealth and age.

His immediate family — his wife Saskia, his son Titus, and his common-law wife Hendrickje — often figured prominently in his paintings, many of which had mythical, biblical, or historical themes.

Life

Rembrandt was born on July 15, 1606, in Leiden, the Netherlands. Conflicting sources state that his family either had 7, 9, or 10 children. His family was quite well to do, his father being a miller, his mother a baker's daughter. As a boy he attended Latin school and was enrolled at the University of Leiden, although according to a contemporary he had more inclination towards painting. His parents gave in and he was apprenticed with a Leiden history painter,Jacob van Swanenburgh. After a brief but important apprenticeship with the famous painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden, which he shared with friend and colleague Jan Lievens. In 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students, among them Gerard Dou.

By 1631, Rembrandt had established such a sound reputation that he received several assignments for portraits from Amsterdam. As a result, he moved to that city and into the house of an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburgh. This move eventually led, in 1634, to the marriage of Rembrandt and Hendrick's greatniece, Saskia van Uylenburg. This was obviously a marriage for love. Although she came from a good family (her father had been burgomaster of Leeuwarden), Saskia was an orphan and was probably not very wealthy. She lived with her sister in Frisia and did not have many 'grand' connections in Amsterdam.

In 1639, Rembrandt and Saskia moved to a prominent house in the Jodenbreestraat in the Jewish quarter, which later became the Rembrandt House Museum. Although they were affluent the couple had several setbacks in their personal life. Three of their children died shortly after birth. Only their fourth child, a son, Titus, was born in 1641 and survived into adulthood. Saskia died in 1642 soon after Titus' birth, probably from tuberculosis.

After her death he began an affair with Titus's nurse, a widow called Geertje Dircx. This ended in a lawsuit. Geertje claimed that Rembrandt had broken his promise to marry her, and demanded of the council that they would force him to marry her. The council did not go that far but Rembrandt was asked to pay her a lot of money. He then cooperated with Geertjen's family to have her locked up in a 'spinhuis' in Gouda.

In the late 1640s, she was succeeded as Rembrandt's mistress by the much younger Hendrickje Stoffels, who initially had also been Rembrandt's maidservant. In 1654 they had a daughter, Cornelia, bringing her an official reproach from the Reformed church for "living in sin" with Rembrandt the painter. Rembrandt was not a member of the Reformed church since he was not summoned to appear for the Church council.

Rembrandt lived beyond his means, buying many art pieces and especially prints(often used in his paintings), and rarities, which probarbly caused his bankruptcy in 1656. He had to sell his house and move to a more modest accommodation on the Rozengracht. Here, Hendrickje and Titus started an art shop to make ends meet. However, Rembrandt's fame did not wane in these years, since he received an important commision for a large history piece for the newly build city hall.

Rembrandt outlived Hendrickje and Titus. In the end, only his daughter Cornelia was at his side. He died October 4, 1669, in Amsterdam and was buried in an unknown grave in the Westerkerk.

Periods, themes, and styles

It was during Rembrandt's Leiden period (1625-1631) that Lastman's influence was most prominent. Paintings were rather small, but rich in details (for example, in costumes and jewelry). Themes were mostly religious and allegoric.
During his early years in Amsterdam (1632-1636), Rembrandt used large canvases and strong tones and depicted dramatic scenes. Rembrandt painted many portraits in this period. Other paintings had biblical and mythological scenes.
In the late 1630s, Rembrandt painted many landscapes and produced etchings about nature. In this period, his landscapes were tormented by nature, showing trees taken down by a storm or ominous skies with dark clouds.
Starting in about 1640, his work became more sober, reflecting the family tragedies that he had suffered. Exuberance was replaced by deeply felt inner emotions. Biblical scenes were now derived more often from the New Testament instead of the Old Testament, as had been the case before. Paintings became smaller again. An exception is the huge painting The Night Watch, his largest, which was as worldly and spirited as any previous painting. Landscapes were more often etched than painted. The dark forces of nature made way for quiet Dutch rural scenes.
In the 1650s, Rembrandt's style changed again. Paintings increased in size. Colours became richer, brush strokes stronger. With these changes, Rembrandt distanced himself from earlier work and current fashion, which increasingly inclined towards fine, detailed works. Over the years, biblical themes were still depicted often, but emphasis shifted from dramatic group scenes to intimate portrait-like figures.
In his last years, Rembrandt painted some of his finest self-portraits, showing a face on which grief and sorrow had left their marks.

Museum collections

In the Netherlands, the most notable collection of Rembrandt's work is at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, including De Nachtwacht (The Night Watch) and De Joodse bruid (The Jewish Bride).
Many of his self-portraits are held in The Hague's Mauritshuis. His home, preserved as the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, houses many examples of his engravings.
Prominent collections in other countries can be found in Berlin, St. Petersburg, New York City, Washington, D.C., The Louvre and the National Gallery, London.

Famous works

1629 An Artist in His Studio (The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
1630 The Raising of Lazarus (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles)
1630-1635 A Turk (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1631 Portrait of Nicolaes Ruts (Frick Collection, New York)
1632 Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (Mauritshuis, The Hague)
1632 Portrait of a Noble (Oriental) Man (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
1633 Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee (formerly at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; stolen in 1990 and still at large)
1635 Belshazzar's Feast (National Gallery, London)
1636 The Blinding of Samson (Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
1636 Danaë (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)
1642 The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq better known as the Night Watch (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
±1643 Christ Healing the Sick also known as The Hundred Guilders Print (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) etching, nicknamed for the huge sum (at that time) paid for it
1647 An Old Lady with a Book (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1650 The Philosopher (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1650 The Mill (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1653 Sacrifice of Isaac (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)
1653 Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
1654 Bathsheba at Her Bath (Louvre, Paris) (Hendrickje is thought to have modeled for this painting)
1655 Joseph Accused by Potiphar's Wife (National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.)
1656 A Woman Holding a Pink (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1657 The Apostle Paul (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1658 Selfportrait (Frick Collection, New York)
1658 Philemon and Baucis (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1659 Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
1659 Selfportrait (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
1660 Selfportrait (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
1660 Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1660 Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1661 Conspiracy of Julius Civilis (National Museum, Stockholm) (Julius Civilis led a Dutch revolt against the Romans) (most of the cut up painting is lost, only the central part still exists)
1662 Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (Dutch De Staalmeesters) (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
1662 Portrait of a Man in a Tall Hat (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1662-1663 A Young Man Seated at a Table (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1664 Lucretia (The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
1664 The Jewish Bride (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
1666 Lucretia (The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis)
1669 Return of the Prodigal Son (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)
This is just a small selection. Many of Rembrandt's paintings are famous around the world.

The Night Watch

'The Night Watch' or 'The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq', 1642, Oil on Canvas, Rijksmuseum, AmsterdamRembrandt painted The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq between 1640 and 1642. This picture was called the Patrouille de Nuit by the French and the Night Watch by Sir Joshua Reynolds because, upon its discovery, the picture was so dimmed and defaced by time that it was almost indistinguishable and it looked quite like a night scene. After it was cleaned, it was discovered to represent broad day — a party of musketeers stepping from a gloomy courtyard into the blinding sunlight.

The piece was commissioned for the new hall of the Kloveniersdoelen, the musketeer branch of the civic militia. Rembrandt departed from convention, which ordered that such genre pieces should be stately and formal, rather a line-up than an action scene. Instead he showed the militia readying themselves to embark on a mission (what kind of mission, an ordinary patrol or some special event, is a matter of debate). His new approach caused a row, especially among the militia members who ended up at the back of the scene and were hardly visible. Payment was delayed. Even parts of the canvas were cut off to make the painting fit on the designated wall.

This painting now hangs in the largest hall of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It is a large painting that takes up the entire back wall — despite having had bits cut off — and is arguably one of the most impressive paintings displayed there.

Expert assessments

In 1968, the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) was started under the sponsorship of the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Scientific Research (NWO). Art historians teamed up with experts from other fields to reassess the authenticity of works attributed to Rembrandt, using all methods available, including state-of-the-art technical diagnostics, and to compile a complete critical catalog of his paintings. As a result of their findings, many paintings that were previously attributed to Rembrandt have been taken from the list. Many of those are now thought to be the work of his students. This included The Polish Rider, one of the treasures of New York's Frick Collection. Years ago, its authenticity was questioned by several scholars, led by Julius Held. Many, including Dr. Josua Bruyn of the Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, now attribute the painting to one of Rembrandt's closest and most talented pupils, Willem Drost.

As of 2003, the investigation is still in progress.

Today, a Rembrandt painting can sell for more than €23 / US$28 / £15 million.

A medical analysis of Rembrandt's art talent

In an article published on September 16, 2004 in The New England Journal of Medicine, Margaret S. Livingstone, professor of neurobiology of Harvard Medical School, suggests that Rembrandt, whose eyes failed to align correctly, suffered from stereo blindness. She made this conclusion after studying 36 of Rembrandt's self-portraits.

Because he could not form a normal binocular vision, his brain automatically switched to one eye for many visual tasks. This disability could have helped him to flatten images as he saw, and then put it onto the two-dimensional canvas. In the author's words, this could have been a gift to a great painter like him:

Art teachers often instruct students to close one eye in order to flatten what they see. Therefore, stereo blindness might not be a handicap — and might even be an asset — for some artists.

The paintings are the excellent portrayal of the events and scenes that we see around us. The painters are the best cameras of the world. They reproduce many different types of pictures. They even draw imaginary pictures that do not exist in this world. We tend to use both thinned oil paints and dense oil paints. Masterpieces can be dyed more than once, but each time it may be different from the existing paintings.h

Sitemap
Painter sitemap
Techniques sitemap
Materials sitemap