Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn

Rembrandt's date of birth is uncertain. According to his marriage contract drawn up on 10 June 1634, in which he stated he was 27, he would have been born in 1608; other sources indicate 1607 and 1606. Rembrandt was the sixth of seven children of the miller Harmen or Hermann Gerritsz. van Rijn (from the Rhine region, on whose banks stood the mill) and his wife Neltje, daughter of baker Willems de Suydtbroeck. Harmen Gerritsz. owned two houses near the White Gate or the West Gate in Leiden. His family was comfortable and well connected. It was decided to give the young Rembrandt a good classical education and on 25 May 1620, aged 14, he entered Leiden university. He stayed there about a year before abandoning his studies to enter the studio of Jacob van Swanenburgh, a local painter married to an Italian. He spent three years with this teacher. He met a number of young artists including Jan Lievens with whom he became friends. It was probably at the instigation of Jan Lievens, who was already a frequent visitor at Pieter Lastman's studio in Amsterdam that, in 1624, Rembrandt became his pupil too. As a result of his stay in Rome, Lastman had adhered to some of the Italian academic concepts, even though he had associated with the painters in Adam Elsheimer's group in Amsterdam, whose night-pieces were rooted in the Caravaggio tradition. After a six-month stay, Rembrandt left Amsterdam to return to Leiden in 1625.

In association with Jan Lievens, Rembrandt set up a studio in Leiden where they began to receive pupils. This studio, in which both paintings and etchings were produced, became the meeting place for many young artists from Leiden, including Gérard Dou. The first dated painting by Rembrandt is probably a portrait of a young girl signed Rem and dated 1625. Tradition has it that once Rembrandt had finished his painting St Paul in Prison (now in Stuttgart) in 1627, he was advised by his friends to submit it to Constantin Huygens, an art lover from The Hague, who was secretary and adviser to Stadhouder Frederic-Henri of Orange-Nassau. The canvas apparently changed hands for 100 florins and Huygens sat for his portrait (now in Hamburg) in 1630.

Rembrandt settled in Amsterdam in 1631 after the death of his father. The period from 1630 to 1642 is arguably distinguished by the dominance of the 'Baroque' in Rembrandt's work. He was staying with his friend and picture dealer Hendrick van Uylenburch and producing compositions, portraits and etchings. In the years 1631 and 1632, he produced in excess of 40 works, including The Anatomy Lesson (now in The Hague). Between 1633 and 1639, Rembrandt painted a series of compositions on the life of Christ for the Prince of Orange, including Christ on the Cross, Raising of the Cross and Descent from the Cross (1631 - 1633); The Ascension, the Entombment (1639); the Resurrection (now in Munich). On 22 June 1634, Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburch, the niece of his friend and dealer, who brought with her a dowry of 40,000 florins. Rembrandt had known Saskia over a long period; two portraits of her are dated 1632 and three others 1633; in addition, in the same year he painted a portrait of Saskia's sister. During the eight years of their union the image of the young woman animated his work both as a painter and engraver. In 1635, the young pair had their first child, a son, who did not live. A daughter was born in 1638 and died shortly afterwards. In 1639, he bought the house in the Jodenbreestraat (current name) that the town later restored as Rembrandt's House. A second daughter was born in July 1640 and died within a month. Finally, in September 1641 a second son was born and was called Titus. These numerous pregnancies exhausted the young woman; she died at the age of 30 in 1642. Rembrandt interpreted the different phases of her long illness in numerous drawings and etchings of this period.

After the loss of Saskia, Rembrandt often left his home to go on long walks in the countryside and about this time, the conventional classical decorative style in his paintings gave way to the great horizons of the Dutch countryside and the many sketches from nature of Amsterdam and its environs.

Saskia's will stipulated that Rembrandt would have the free and complete enjoyment of her fortune, unless he remarried. In this case, half her capital would be allocated to Titus. The friendship between Rembrandt and Jan Six developed at this time. Six was 12 years younger than Rembrandt and may have been the advisor Rembrandt contacted over the disagreements with Saskia's family at this time. In 1647, Rembrandt engraved the famous dry point Portrait of Six. In 1654 he painted his portrait.

During the 1640s Rembrandt's financial situation had appreciably altered and he faced difficulties. In 1649, Titus' nurse, Geertje Dirckx, who had posed for Rembrandt, brought an action against him for breach of promise. It appears that the arrival at Rembrandt's house of a young woman, Hendrickje Stoffels, who at first was his servant, then his friend, and possibly his wife, sparked this off. She had a child in 1652 and a second one in 1654, a girl called Cornelia whom Rembrandt recognised. On 17 May 1656, a court order appointed a guardian for Titus. The house in the Jodenbreestraat was sold, and Rembrandt went to live in the Rozengracht. In 1658, Hendrickje Stoffels set herself up as an art dealer with Titus' help. Rembrandt was commissioned by the Drapers' Guild to paint its syndics in 1661; the painting is now in Amsterdam Museum. In 1668, Hendrickje Stoffels died. The same year Titus married his cousin Magdelena; the union was short-lived. The young husband died in September of the same year. In March 1669, Magdelena gave birth to a daughter who was called Titia. Eight months later, Rembrandt died. His death certificate mentioned that he left two children; the generally accepted supposition is that he was referring to the daughter of Hendrickje Stoffels, and Titus' young widow.

Apart from the young painters who to various degrees were influenced by him in Leiden, such as Lievens, Van Vliet, and Gérard Dou, from his arrival in Amsterdam and up to the period of his ruin, Rembrandt had an ever increasing number of pupils. These include Ferdinand Bol, Flinck, Backer van Vliet, De Poorter, Victors, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Philips de Koninck, Lovecq, Ovens, Paudiss, Verdvel, Heerschop, Drost, Carel Fabricus, Hoogstraten, Maes, Renesse, Dullaert, Willemans Mayr, Wulfbagen, Vylenborch, and Art de Gelder. From 1675, Joachim von Sandrart recalled his 'Amsterdam house full of countless children of good family who came to improve their knowledge and learn from him'. Research has exposed the consequences of Rembrandt's intense activity as the teacher of so many disciples. Right up until the 19th century, the first priority of a master was to teach his pupils his own style. Moreover, in Rembrandt's era, it was accepted practice that once the disciples were trained, they would participate in the master's work, which could include copies, variations, or even original creations in the master's tradition; creations that the master could have eventually authenticated, notably by the formulaic 'after Rembrandt'. So, even before the intervention of forgers, of the thousand or so paintings which over a long period were attributed to Rembrandt, modern scientific investigation has led to the rejection of three quarters of them.

After his first hypothetical portrait of a young girl dated 1625, in 1626 Rembrandt painted The Ass of Balaam Talking before the Angel (now in Paris) after a theme explored by Lastman and inspired by his style and his acid yellows and greens, in addition to Tobias and the Angel dated 1626 (now in Amsterdam). In 1627, he painted a Flight into Egypt (now in Tours), a theme, which was often explored by Elsheimer, whose 'night-pieces' he was likely to have known through Lastman. The flight takes place in moonlight, in a chiaroscuro, a particular light effect destined to dominate Rembrandt's entire body of work to come: paintings, washes and engravings.

From the beginning of his career Rembrandt's choice of themes indicates his fidelity to the Bible. His desire for personal involvement often lead him to invest figures from the Old Testament or the Gospels with the characteristics of his close relations. In 1627, the prophetess Anna in The Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple (now in Hamburg) borrowed characteristics from his mother, in 1630 he painted The Mother of the Painter Reading the Bible and in 1631 Rembrandt's Mother as the Prophetess Anna.

From 1624 to 1630, in the Leiden period, he executed many compositions depicting religious subjects bearing witness to a multi-dimensional period of research, but already influenced by the exploitation of chiaroscuro. Rembrandt explored the subject of the The Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple in two different ways, three years apart. In 1628, the Hamburg version still showed Lastman's influence, with imposing figures, expressions rendered in a theatrical way and a definite linear structure. The second version (in The Hague), painted in 1631, bestowed an imposing character upon the architecture, with gigantic vaults over enormous pillars, however space and volume are no longer rendered by drawing outlines with coloured surfaces, but by the modulating effect of light. Alongside these grandiose compositions, he produced small pictures: David and the Head of Goliath (between 1626 and 1628); The Artist in his Studio, also called Self-portrait with Easel, in which the easel lit from behind occupies the foreground, making the painter recede; The Pilgrims at Emmaus (1629), in which the powerful contrast is accentuated by a diagonal composition; the Old Man Sleeping (1629), which heralded The Prophet Jeremiah Mourning over the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630). Judas Bringing back the 30 Pieces of Silver (1629) belongs to the same period.

From the tousled young man in Portrait with Easel dated around 1625 (now in Boston) Rembrandt painted self-portraits, which were eventually to number 60 or so in total, sometimes disguising himself either for his own amusement or out of vanity. In 1631, he settled in Amsterdam near the Jewish quarter where he gleaned figures from the Old Testament. He met Saskia in 1632 and married her the following year; this can be called a 'Saskia period' in his work, probably the happiest. It includes the Portrait of Saskia dated 1633 (now in Dresden) which shows an attractive young woman under her huge hat and Saskia as Flora dated 1634 (now in St Petersburg). Until the death of Saskia in June 1642, her radiant presence dominated his painting and engraving. Rembrandt became bolder and tackled more important formats and painted full-size figures. In 1632, his first group portrait, a flourishing genre in Holland, was commissioned: The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp. His reputation as a portraitist earned him numerous commissions.

In the 1630s series of paintings about the life of Christ commissioned by the Prince of Orange, which is the essential element of his Baroque period, not an influence, but an assimilation of Rubens' work can be deduced; though, to the dynamic power and chromatic brilliance of Rubens, Rembrandt brought his tight lines and intense treatment of the chiaroscuro effect. In the 1630s and 1640s, encouraged by the pervading Baroque trend, Rembrandt seemed to concern himself with the expression of movement, particularly in choosing the moment within the action, the instant at which there is the most intense tension. From then on, he increased his production of 'grand subjects', exploring the treatment of their most dramatic moment: Abraham's Sacrifice 1635, (now in St Petersburg), where the angel grasps Abraham's arm; The Abduction of Ganymede 1635 (now in Dresden), in which the eagle seizes the child in its wide-open beak. In the same vein the four compositions telling the story of Samson (1635- 1641), include the agonising The Blinding of Samson dated 1636 (now in Frankfurt). His work is articulated in different registers: The Angel Raphael Leaving Tobias dated 1637 (now in Paris) belongs to the religious genre; Lia Waiting for Jacob 1636, (now in St Petersburg) is in the sensuality genre; in it we can still feel the presence of Saskia in the form of the nude woman who waits, resting on deep-filled cushions. This was an exceptionally voluptuous element in Rembrandt's work compared to his output in 1654, in the same way as the cruelty depicted in The Blinding of Samson was exceptional.

In some of his early compositions, the landscape featured in the background. From the 1630s, the landscape occasionally became the subject of the painting as in Stone Bridge dated c. 1638 (now in Amsterdam) in which he dramatised a very banal landscape through chiaroscuro. The same process can be detected in his engravings which often depicted trees on a plain and sketches of the area around Amsterdam, from which Rembrandt hardly ever strayed. In 1638 he painted The Storm (now in Brunswick), a vision of a landscape different from the previous works in which fantastical elements are reminiscent of the disturbing visions by Hercule Seghers.

In 1642, at the moment of Saskia's death, Rembrandt received the commission of a work which has been incorrectly called The Nightwatch and marks the peak and conclusion of the Baroque era. In fact, the painting, commissioned to commemorate Maria de Médicis' visit to Amsterdam in 1637, represents Seigneur de Purmerlandt, Frans Banning Cocq, Giving Lieutenant de Vlaerdingen the Marching Orders for the Company's Militia. According to some commentators this group composition is unique in its era, but Frans Hals had achieved a similar effect in a large number of his paintings since 1616 including Meal of Officers of the Corps of the Archers of St George; his second St Joseph's Banquet (1627); and his Meeting of the Officers of the St Adrian Corps (1633). Admittedly, whereas Hals only exceptionally reached the spiritual depth achieved by Rembrandt, it is very probable that his example wasn't lost on Rembrandt, who was nearly 25 years his junior.

The death of his mother in 1640, and the death of Saskia in 1642, the trouble caused by Titus' nurse and discontent amongst the sponsors, marked a new period in the life and work of Rembrandt. Perhaps due to the growing shortage of portrait commissions and compositions during the 1650s, Rembrandt produced more engravings: in 1649, Christ Healing the Sick (also known as the 100 Guilder Print); in 1652, Faust; in 1653, St Jerome in a Landscape; in 1654, Jesus Shown to the People. There are several records of his engravings, which are proof of his spiritual reflection and his technical research. His 300 or so etchings are dominated by chiaroscuro, synthesized by reducing the work to black and white. At that time, his painting explored familiar subjects in a soothing technique, which could be termed 'classical': Susanna Bathing (1647). The Baroque influence faded and chiaroscuro often gave way to a balanced treatment of light within the gentle lines of a sober structure: The Pilgrims at Emmaus, 1648 (now in Paris). The portraits of this period bear witness to his new interest in Titian, Raphael and Giorgione. However, in an unexpected way, in this relatively sober era, Rembrandt strongly accentuated the effects his materials could produce, juxtaposing dark tones treated in transparent, resonant glazes with thick applications of paint, thus creating a new light. This final period in which he painted portraits and figures, could be termed 'heroic'. Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer (1653) is reminiscent of Frans Hals. Whereas here the face of Aristotle, in which Rembrandt's face is combined, in its expression of gravity as if disenchanted, is pure Rembrandt, the incredible sparkling of the interminable gold chain shining against the black clothes is technically pure Frans Hals.

As in all phases of his work, Rembrandt easily switched subjects: the Portrait of Hendrickje as Flora (now in New York) dates from 1653 to 1656. In 1654, he painted Woman Bathing or Hendrickje Bathing in a River (now in London) and Bathsheba (now in Paris). The versions of The Flayed Ox (now in Paris) date from 1655. A new Anatomy Lesson with Doctor Deyman featured a corpse painted with a foreshortening effect, similar to Mantegna's Dead Christ. In David and Saul (1657) and in Self-portrait in White Turban (1660), the lighting of the scene and of the figure is increasingly of supernatural origin. He continued exploring a number of themes well into his final years. In 1660, one of his last complex compositions was Peter Denying Christ (now in Amsterdam). In this picture, in addition to the soldier knocked down by his helmet in the half-light, Rembrandt combined chiaroscuro on St Peter's face as he is shown caught up in his lie and folding his coat ready to slip away, and the backlighting of the servant woman lighting his way and urging him to speak. Similarly, figures are impetuously sketched in the half-light in the Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis (1661). In a series of representations of the Apostles, including St Matthew and the Angel dated 1661 (now in Paris), Rembrandt himself appeared in St Paul (now in Amsterdam). In 1662, he painted his last large group portrait commission, Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (now in Amsterdam), followed by a strange Family Portrait in 1669 (now in Brunswick) which is a symphony of reds and golds against a dark background. In the same years as the Woman with a Pink and using the same palette, in 1664 or slightly later, he painted The Jewish Fiancée (now in Amsterdam). This painting represents the culminating point of his art: the two figures are lit as they would be in the theatre, standing out against a dark background; their clothes shine with the inherent luxury of quality materials with a more discreet effect than the radiant splendour in Frans Hals' work; the golden yellow tunic of the man, combined with the red dress of the fiancée reinforces the subdued yellow/red harmony (gold and blood, light and flame) which constituted the principal chromatic characteristic of his entire work. The faces which avoid eye contact and the hands that feel their way clumsily express a protective tenderness and a total sacrifice.

It would be entirely wrong to reduce all Rembrandt's work, in spiritual content as well as practical treatment, to the exploitation of chiaroscuro. However, throughout his life's work, he used this strategy to raise the emotional level of his work, as a symbol of the contrast between light and dark, as a vehicle for his personal thoughts about the human condition, the terrestrial world and biblical revelation.

The Rembrandt Research Project founded in 1968, and based at the Institute of Art at the University of Amsterdam, is an authority on the authenticity of works attributed to Rembrandt, and conversely on works no longer attributed to Rembrandt, often a painful revelation, such as Philosopher in Meditation at the Louvre or Man in a Gold Helmet in Berlin.

"REMBRANDT." In Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/benezit/B00150778 (accessed May 8, 2012).