Aaron Holland Fine Art

Rembrandt van Rijn 
1606 – 1669
Dutch

Rembrandt van Rijn was brought forth out of humble beginnings. He was the eighth of nine children. His father produced malt, a key ingredient in making beer. His mother was a baker’s daughter. Surprisingly, he was not expected to follow in his father’s footsteps, as was custom. Somehow, his parents afforded him the opportunity for a higher education.

When Rembrandt was 14 he was sent to grammar school at the University of Leiden. However, he showed no interest in his studies. At the age of 15 his father agreed that Rembrandt should study art, and he became apprenticed to a local painter for the next four years. Afterwards, he continued his training under a nationally recognized painter in Amsterdam. This training lasted a short six months, in which time he mastered his instruction, returned to Leiden, and immediately opened his own school.

Rembrandt was born and lived during a period of time known as the Dutch Golden Age which lasted most of the 17th century. This was an age of prosperity for much of the Netherlands, due in part to the prominent commercial seaport of Amsterdam, one of the most important in the world, and a newly won independence from Spanish tyranny. While not everyone benefited from this time of prosperity, most Dutch people enjoyed a higher standard of living.

During the Golden Age, social status was often determined by income. Fine art was one way that people displayed their affluence. In the newly wealthy Dutch colonies, merchants and other successful businessmen became patrons of art, and not just the Catholic Church, and Kings and Queens as in former times.

It became not only fashionable, but it became a consideration for members of any trade to have one‘s portrait or their family’s portrait painted. Rembrandt’s work was uniquely insightful, and skillfully handled. He was able to adapt his technique to suit the lavish tastes of his contemporaries in such a way as to became the leading portraitist in all of Holland. He became so well regarded for capturing the sitter’s character, and doing so with great sympathy, that he is considered one of the greatest portrait painters of all time.

Although protestant, Rembrandt also painted a huge number of religious paintings. In fact, religious work comprises almost one third of Rembrandts complete body of work. This is interesting because in that particular political climate ‘still life’, ‘landscape’ and ‘genre painting’ did very well, while paintings of ‘religious scenes’ had virtually no patrons and were therefore rarely painted.

Rembrandt painted self portraits as well, in fact, more than any other artist in history. Although it is impossible to say for sure, it is believed that he painted over 90 self-portraits during his career ranging from 1620 until his death in 1669.
“… he created an autobiography in art that is the equal of the finest ever produced in literature even of the intimately analytical Confessions of St. Augustine.” -quote unknown

Tragedy and success seemed to mar Rembrandt’s life, and follow each other in succession. By 1640 Rembrandt was the most successful painter in Amsterdam. He married Saskia (daughter of a wealthy magistrate and an art dealers niece).
Saskia gave birth to three children who died in infancy. In 1641 she gave birth to a son, Titus, shortly before she died in 1642 of Tuberculosis. A deep quietness marks Rembrandt’s work from this point on.

By the mid 1650s a severe downturn in the Dutch economy had a damaging affect on the art market. Popular tastes in Holland also shifted away from Rembrandt’s dark, somber paintings. Preferences turned instead towards a lighter palette and brighter tones.

Rembrandt took a second wife ( a common law marriage due to binding inheritance contracts after his first wife). She was taken by the plague in 1663. A short time later his last remaining son Titus died, leaving a daughter, Cornelia, from his second marriage. He himself passed the following year.

Rembrandt created more than 600 paintings, 300 etchings, and 2000 drawings during his lifetime.