Rembrandt van Rijn

Born: 1607

Died: 1669

Summary of Rembrandt

Rembrandt’s life and art were motivated by a rigorous psychological study of people, things, and their environment, as well as a sincere Christian devotion. From an early age, he showed incredible talent as an artist, becoming a master of all sorts of portraits, historical, biblical, and mythical themes, as well as simple, appealing, yet dramatic landscapes. To create his message, he employed a variety of materials and techniques with extraordinary sensitivity and spontaneity. His techniques to composition, colour, and shadow were always evolving, resulting in some of the most profoundly affecting but most natural moments in human history.

His ultimate control of light and texture to highlight emotional depth ran through all of his works, solidifying his reputation as one of art’s finest and most creative masters. From his huge, ambitious early historical paintings to his more intimate and radiant later style, these traits are obvious. His work symbolised the tremendous time of affluence and artistic success known as the Dutch Golden Age, and he is often considered as the most influential artist in Dutch art history.

Rembrandt was known for his extraordinary ability to convey not just highly lifelike, realistic human figures, but also profound human sentiments, flaws, and morals. Even when painting his subjects in the framework of history, religion, or society, he thought that human emotions were more essential than any other part of life, and his subjects’ feelings and experiences were what he intended to express.

Rembrandt’s development of the etching method from a relatively new reproduction technology into a real art form was one of his most significant accomplishments. His reputation as the best etcher in the medium’s history has lasted to this day. Although few of his paintings were exported outside of the Netherlands during his lifetime, his prints were extensively distributed across Europe.

Rembrandt’s numerous self-portraits are remarkable because they provide a visual biography of the artist that is unique. He inspected himself without vanity and with a sensitive candour, whether he was painting himself in costume or as an average guy.

Portraiture became more popular throughout the Dutch Golden Age. Members of the new merchant class enjoyed commissioning imaginative likenesses of themselves to display in their homes, and companies and other professional organisations would also acquire group portraits, thanks to the new trade routes bringing an awareness of exotic cultures and foreign interests. Rembrandt was one of the finest portraitists of his day, recognised for his uncanny ability to capture the unique personalities and emotional quirks of his subjects.

Despite the fact that illustrated Bible scenes and large-scale historical paintings were becoming less popular, Rembrandt remained committed to the genre, driven by a strong religious commitment and empathy for the human situation. Because of his compassionate depiction of these age-old myths, he has been dubbed one of civilization’s great prophets.

With his increasing manipulation of paint, Rembrandt would transcend the creativity of Titian and Velazquez, making it as much a topic in the composition of a painting as his people. Variations in brush stroke between loose and rough, as well as textural manipulation using scratching or a palette knife, would all contribute significantly to a radically new distinctive style that would impact future generations.

Childhood

Harmen van Rijn, a corn miller, and Cornelia van Zuijtbrouck, a baker’s daughter, had nine or more children. Rembrandt van Rijn was the eighth of them. The wealthy family lived in Leiden along the Rhine River, which was then known as the Van Rijn River, and dedicated their lives to religion and education. Cornelia read the Bible to her children frequently, instilling in Rembrandt a deep feeling of God, man, and nature. Rembrandt’s parents recognised his abilities as a kid and sent him to the Leiden Latin School for a classical education from the age of seven to fourteen.

He received the best schooling a youngster with a keen interest in literature and scripture could obtain in a Dutch academic city. He was well-prepared for entrance to the prestigious University of Leiden. He enrolled in the University of Leyden under the name Rembrandus Hermanni Leydenis and signed his early paintings RHL, but he left after a few months to devote himself to art.

Rembrandt sought the help of Jacob Swanenburgh, who taught him the foundations of painting, sketching, and etching over the course of three years. His father sent him to Amsterdam when he was still a teenager to study with Pieter Lastman, a talented Italian painter of historical subjects. Lastman had studied Caravaggio’s and Eisheimer’s works, a German painter based in Rome. Rembrandt had mastered chiaroscuro methods, as well as the use of brilliant glossy colours and posing people with dramatic movements, within a few months. Lastman also persuaded Rembrandt to focus on historical and religious topics, despite the fact that local art consumers favoured pictures from everyday life.

Early Life

Rembrandt returned to Leiden at the age of 18 or 19 to open his own studio. He seemed more polished, dressed more formally, and collaborated closely with Jan Lievens, a six-year-younger pupil who had also studied under Lastman. In 1629, Rembrandt met Constantijn Huygens, a politician representing the Hague court who could help painters get contracts. Huygens was a brilliant Dutchman who spent much of his life in service to the Princes of Orange and was well-versed in art. He ran an art college where he created reproductions of artworks and completed commissions.

Huygens encouraged the two young painters to travel to Italy, particularly Rome, to study the masterworks, but they were too focused on their work in their home country. Huygens said, according to Simon Schama in his amazing historical biography Rembrandt’s Eyes: “…I feel compelled to declare that, regardless of their interests or ages, I have never witnessed such commitment and perseverance in other individuals. These young people are truly redeeming the moment. That is the only solace they have. Surprisingly, they view even the most innocent pastimes of youth as a waste of time, as if they were already burdened by age and long-forgotten mistakes.”

Rembrandt had been encouraged by Huygens to be more ambitious, and by 1632, he had returned to the opulent bustling metropolis of Amsterdam. As a professional portrait painter for successful businessmen, intellectuals, and religious leaders, he found tremendous joy there, respecting their positions and good fortunes and wishing to display their superior taste, particularly via painting likenesses of themselves. Rembrandt established his name by depicting the Dutch bourgeoisie burghers in three-quarter or full-length postures as men of activity.

Rembrandt first stayed in Amsterdam with an art dealer named Hendrick van Uylenburgh. Saskia van Uylenburgh, the daughter of a rich burgomaster, was Hendrick’s cousin, and it was there that the artist met her. In 1634, they married. At the time, Rembrandt was seen as a wealthy and stylish young artist, but he wanted to be regarded as a gentleman and an intellectual. Through her well-connected extended family, his new wife was able to introduce him to important members of society.

Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, a group portrait he painted in 1632, drew a lot of attention. He was made a burgess of Amsterdam and a member of the local painter’s guild the following year. At least 65 commissioned portraits were painted by Rembrandt during the 1630s. He also created biblical and mythical works, landscapes, and portraits of nameless individuals who piqued his attention, such as Jews, officers in uniform, or foreigners dressed exotically. Rembrandt, like many other affluent men of his time, amassed a vast collection of paintings, as well as armour, costumes, Oriental turbans, and other exotic curiosities.

Curved sabres, Javanese daggers, and Polish stirrups were among the items he acquired and used as props in his work. According to Filippo Baldinucci, an Italian art historian and biographer, he “…acquired clothes that were old-fashioned and disused as long as they struck him as bizarre and picturesque,” and he “…bid so high at the outset that no one else came forward to bid; and he said he did this in order to emphasise the prestige of his profession.” His paintings and etchings reveal that he was profoundly influenced by Peter Paul Ruben’s.

Mid Life

In contrast to his religiosity, Rembrandt’s private life was tainted by scandal. He walked a line of constant disorder and turmoil in direct contradiction to his public popularity and business successes, from his relationships with women to his financial management.

In 1635, Rembrandt and Saskia rented a house in an affluent neighbourhood known as the Jewish quarter while waiting for a new one to be rebuilt. The couple’s eventual financial difficulties were prompted by the expensive mortgage on their new house. Rembrandt regularly sought out his Jewish neighbours to model for his Old Testament scenes when he was there. Despite their wealth, the couple had had numerous personal disappointments. Rumbartus, their son, died two months after his birth in 1635, and Cornelia, their daughter, died at the age of three weeks in 1638. Cornelia, their second daughter, was born in 1640 and died after just one month of life.

Titus, their fourth child, was the only one of their four children to live to maturity, having been born in 1641. Saskia died around 1642, not long after Titus was born, most likely as a result of a lengthy battle with TB. Rembrandt’s paintings of her on her ill and deathbeds are among his most enthralling creations.

Rembrandt’s private life now became tangled, although the evidence is tantalisingly difficult to interpret…” Douglas Mannering said in his Life and Works of Rembrandt. In 1642, Rembrandt recruited Geertghe Dircx, a peasant widow, to assist care for Titus, a nine-year-old boy, while Saskia was unwell. Rembrandt’s lover, Geertghe, had a rocky relationship with him.

He went through a period of bad behaviour, accumulating debts and attracting the wrath of friends, the Church, customers, and clients. Rembrandt was eventually charged with breach of promise by Geertghe, who claimed Rembrandt had promised to marry her. Although Rembrandt sought for years to have her sent to a poorhouse after finding that she had pawned some of Saskia’s valuables, she was given annual alimony. Despite his financial difficulties, he felt obligated to pay for her to reside at a home of correction from 1650 until 1655.

Late Life

Rembrandt recruited Hendrickje Stoffels, a lady 20 years his junior, as his housekeeper in 1647. She was a modest, kind woman who comforted Rembrandt and, unsurprisingly, complicated Rembrandt’s relationship with Geertghe. “…Evidently her relationship to Rembrandt very soon changed from that of servant to model to wife in all but name, and she remained with him until her death at 37 in 1663.” according to The World of Rembrandt 1606-1669. Hendricke and Rembrandt had two daughters, one of whom died as an infant and the other, Cornelia, was healthy.

Rembrandt’s Baroque style, on the other hand, gradually went out of favour due to a shift in Dutch art tastes. As evidenced in the work of popular Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck, a taste for drama, elegance, vivid colours, and elegant manners emerged. Rembrandt refused to compromise his art, even when he badly needed commissions; his work got calmer and more deep as a result. His continuing devotion to Biblical subjects might also have contributed to his decrease in popularity. He was one of just a few Dutch artists still interpreting the Scriptures in the mid-1640s, and commissions were few.

The Dutch preferred a variety of landscapes in the 17th century, including canals, dunes, panoramas of towns, vistas of the sea or forests, and wintery or moonlit settings. Rembrandt was a Dutch painter who lived in the 16th “…used oil paint as a medium to convey his more creative ideas about nature. He nearly exclusively reserved his realism in landscapes for etchings and paintings “The World of Rembrandt 1606-1669 mentions this. Rembrandt’s fascination with landscape painting continued for the next two decades. His acute observation of nature, tremendous creativity in composition, and wonderful economy of forms are demonstrated in a series of drawings and etchings.

The Mill, a painting by Rembrandt, was regarded as one of the master’s best works by nineteenth-century experts. It bears all the hallmarks of having been painted from life, albeit that was unusual in seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting. Collectors and reviewers praised the mill’s dramatic silhouette against a gloomy, stormy sky, putting the sombre atmosphere down to Rembrandt’s mental state during his financial problems.

Rembrandt undoubtedly lived beyond his means, bidding up his own work at auctions to enhance his profit margins and purchasing paintings and prints, which may have led to a court-ordered auction in 1657. Most of his cherished belongings, including Roman busts, Japanese armour and Asian items, mineral sets, paintings, and a huge collection of other antiques, were sold. He eventually sold his house and printing press and moved with Hendrickje and Titus to a more humble home on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Painter’s Guild had enacted a new rule stating that no one in Rembrandt’s financial condition was allowed to work as a painter.

By 1662, Rembrandt had completed large orders for solo portraits, group portraits, and other works through his new company. When the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de’ Medici, visited Amsterdam in 1667, he paid Rembrandt a visit.

Hendrickje died in 1663, and Rembrandt outlived him. He died in Amsterdam in 1669 and was buried in an unknown cemetery as a poor man. The burial was a kerkgraf under a tombstone, numbered and held by the church. His bones were hauled away and burned after twenty years, as was typical for the remains of such inadequate graves.

Rembrandt was one of the earliest “modern” artists, and he understood the significance of detail in depicting the world around him. He was known for his extraordinary ability to convey not just highly lifelike, realistic human figures, but also profound human sentiments, flaws, and morals. Numerous painters of his day, especially the many students who rotated through his classes in Leiden and Amsterdam, were anxious to replicate the traits linked with his name. It’s impossible to discern if someone worked for him at his studio or just reproduced his style for clients since his impact was so strong.

Famous Art by Rembrandt

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholas Tulp

1632

Seven awkwardly positioned guys with brilliant white, ruffled collars are eagerly studying a man named Dr. Tulp who is conducting an anatomy class in this pyramid-shaped composition. He has total control of the right side of the painting, as evidenced by his demonstration on a male corpse. The pieces are astonishingly well-coordinated, with the deceased man’s angle and size pulling the viewer’s gaze to the centre.

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

1633

The dramatic miracle of Jesus intervening to calm a severe storm on the Sea of Galilee is shown in this picture, Rembrandt’s only seascape. The Dutch people of Rembrandt’s day would be familiar with the biblical tale from the New Testament. The darkly churning, foamy seas that threaten to topple the little wind-whipped boat show Rubens’ influence. The boat’s mast forms a diagonal line in the composition, dividing it into two triangles. Extreme danger and tremendous activity loom in the left triangle, yet a golden light illuminates the black clouds’ borders, the frantic crew, and the shredded main sail.

The Night Watch

1642

The group picture, also known as a “corporation portrait” was unique to the Netherlands and was frequently as large as a contemporary billboard. The musketeer branch of a municipal militia, a rich element of Amsterdam society, commissioned Rembrandt to paint this huge canvas between 1640 and 1642. Any of the members might be tasked with guarding gates, policing the streets, putting out fires, and keeping the peace. They were also obliged to be present for parades for visiting royalty and other celebratory events.

BULLET POINTED (SUMMARISED)

Best for Students and a Huge Time Saver

• Rembrandt’s life and art were motivated by a rigorous psychological study of people, things, and their environment, as well as a sincere Christian devotion.
• From an early age, he showed incredible talent as an artist, becoming a master of all sorts of portraits, historical, biblical, and mythical themes, as well as simple, appealing, yet dramatic landscapes.
• His techniques to composition, colour, and shadow were always evolving, resulting in some of the most profoundly affecting but most natural moments in human history.
• His ultimate control of light and texture to highlight emotional depth ran through all of his works, solidifying his reputation as one of art’s finest and most creative masters.
• From his huge, ambitious early historical paintings to his more intimate and radiant later style, these traits are obvious.
• His work symbolised the tremendous time of affluence and artistic success known as the Dutch Golden Age, and he is often considered as the most influential artist in Dutch art history.
• Despite the fact that illustrated Bible scenes and large-scale historical paintings were becoming less popular, Rembrandt remained committed to the genre, driven by a strong religious commitment and empathy for the human situation.
• Because of his compassionate depiction of these age-old myths, he has been dubbed one of civilization’s great prophets.
• With his increasing manipulation of paint, Rembrandt would transcend the creativity of Titian and Velazquez, making it as much a topic in the composition of a painting as his people.
• Variations in brush stroke between loose and rough, as well as textural manipulation using scratching or a palette knife, would all contribute significantly to a radically new distinctive style that would impact future generations.

Born: 1607

Died: 1669

Information Citations

En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.

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