Rembrandt van Rijn
1606-1669
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher of Baroque Era. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. He worked in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.
He was an artist who favored an uncompromising realism that would lead some critics to claim that he preferred ugliness to beauty. He is famous for his dramatic and lively presentation of subjects, and deeply felt compassion for mankind, irrespective of wealth and age. One of the greatest storytellers in the history of art he portrayed people in their various moods and dramatic guises. He is prominent painter of light and shade with his use of 'chiaroscuro', the theatrical employment of light and shadow derived from Caravaggio, but adapted for very personal means.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born 1606 in Leiden, the Netherlands. He was the fourth of 6 surviving children out of 10. His family was quite well-to-do. His father was a miller and his mother was a baker's daughter. After a brief but important apprenticeship with the famous painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden. In 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students.
In 1629 Rembrandt was discovered by the statesman and poet Constantijn Huygens, who procured for Rembrandt important commissions from the court of the Hague. As a result of this connection, Prince Frederik Hendrik continued to purchase paintings from Rembrandt.
By 1631, Rembrandt had established such a good reputation that he received several assignments for portraits from Amsterdam. As a result, he moved to that city and soon married Saskia van Uylenburg. In 1639, Rembrandt and Saskia moved to a prominent house in the Jodenbreestraat, which later became the Rembrandt House Museum. Only their third child, Titus, born in 1641, survived into adulthood. Saskia died in 1642 soon after Titus's birth.
During Rembrandt's Leiden period (1625-1631) Lastman's influence was most prominent. Paintings were rather small, but rich in details. Themes were mostly religious and allegorical. Later, in Amsterdam (1632-1636), Rembrandt began to paint dramatic biblical and mythological scenes in high contrast and of large format. He also began accepting portrait commissions.
In the late 1630s, he produced a few paintings and many etchings of landscapes. Often these landscapes highlighted natural drama, featuring uprooted trees and ominous skies. From 1640 his work became less exuberant and more sober in tone, reflecting personal tragedy. Biblical scenes were now derived more often from the New Testament than the Old Testament, as had been the case before. Paintings became smaller again. An exception is the huge "The Night Watch", his largest work, 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. Colors became richer, brush strokes more pronounced. With these changes, Rembrandt distanced himself from earlier work and current fashion, which increasingly inclined toward 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 his most deeply reflective portraits.
Rembrandt died soon after his son's Titus death, on October 4, 1669 in Amsterdam, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Westerkerk.
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