Rembrandt - a Biography: Teacher, Innovator, and Baroque Legend
The Evolution of a Master Artist
Rembrandt van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher of the Baroque period. He is considered one of the greatest artists in European art history, renowned for his mastery of light and shadow and his powerful, introspective portraits.
His works are known for their emotional intensity and his ability to capture the human condition. Throughout his career, he created numerous paintings, etchings, and drawings that continue to inspire and influence artists to this day.
Despite experiencing financial difficulties later in life, Rembrandt's legacy is enduring, and his influence can be seen in art movements from the Baroque to modern times. His legacy also extends beyond the art world, as his works have been studied and analyzed for their psychological and philosophical insights.
Early Life
Rembrandt was born on the 15th of July, 1606 in Leiden, Netherlands. His parents were a miller named Harmen Gerritsz van Rijn and his wife Cornelia Neeltgen Willemsdr van Zuytbroeck, who was the daughter of a baker.
He came from a large family, though a number of his siblings died in infancy, as was common for the time. Despite being from a humble background, his parents ensured he received a strong education from a young age.
He studied Latin from the age of seven and remained enrolled at the school until he was 13. He then switched to the University of Leiden but soon lost interest and was eager to advance his artistic passion by way of an apprenticeship.
Working as an Intern with Jacob Isaacsz
Rembrandt’s first opportunities came as an apprentice shadowing Jacob Isaacsz van Swanenburgh, a painter who trained in Italy. This period proved fruitful both for the artist and his master and so the young apprentice would remain in his studio for three years.
In order to widen and deepen his artistic understanding, Rembrandt then went off to study in Amsterdam with Pieter Lastman, who himself was known for the history painting genre. He eventually returned to Leiden after six months, by which time Rembrandt was starting to feel like an accomplished artist in his own right.
With that in mind, he started working independently and for the following six years he carefully laid down the foundations for a successful career. After some time, he decided to take his first students, one of whom, Gerrit Dou, was to build an impressive career of his own.
Friendship with Jan Lievans
Whilst working under the guidance of Pieter Lastman, Rembrandt would build a strong friendship with fellow pupil, Jan Lievens. Soon they would inevitably start working together.
Perhaps due to having the same tutor, their styles at this point were nearly identical, but this had the benefit of allowing them to help each other. Later on their styles would start to diverge as different influences came into their work.
Moving to Amsterdam
In order to give his professional career as much exposure as possible, Rembrandt decided to return to Amsterdam where he was living previously and had already started to build up a reputation.
He got engaged to Saskia van Uijlenburgh around this time and appeared to be maturing in both his personal and artistic life. Saskia was a cousin to another prosperous artist and therefore entirely understood her fiancé’s profession. Saskia also brought a number of useful connections to Rembrandt which could aid his career at a time when it was still in its early stages.
Life as a Teacher
Rembrandt was also starting to build a solid reputation as a teacher and attracted a large number of talented artists to his studio, including the likes of Carel Fabritius. He may have found this melting pot of creativity to have actually benefited his own work, whilst also keeping him in touch with changing artistic tastes within the city.
In 1634 he married his fiancée after being engaged to her for more than a year, and in 1639, the two moved into an impressive property in the Breestaat which also served as his studio. The house would become known as the Rembrandthius.
Wealth
Rembrandt was now a wealthy man and he chose to invest some of this money in his personal collections of costumes, works of art, and all manner of exotic antiquities. He used some of these items as an inspiration to his work and also took advantage of his nation’s strong trading routes which allowed all manner of interesting items to be imported into the country.
Some consider Rembrandt’s paintings from his late twenties and early thirties to have been amongst his finest, and his overall career has broadly been categorized into the following periods:
Leiden Period (1625 – 1631)
First Amsterdam Period (1631 – 1635)
Second Amsterdam Period (1635 – 1642)
Third Amsterdam Period (1643 – 1658)
Fourth Amsterdam Period (1658 – 1669)
Landscape Phase
Around the 1640's, he started showing considerable interest in the landscape genre, and would retain this focus for the next twenty years. He examined various scenes in his local region in a variety of mediums, including painting, etching and drawing.
Difficulties in his Personal Life
Just as Rembrandt was starting to achieve considerable levels of success within his career, so his personal life would fall into turmoil. His wife Saskia died in June 1642, having given birth to four children in the preceding six years.
Three of the children died in infancy, leaving Rembrandt with multiple traumas to deal with, as well as looking after his one remaining child, a son called Titus.
Geertge Dircx was brought in to take care of the boy before being replaced by a housekeeper named Hendrickje Stoffels. She would later become Rembrandt’s common-law wife and also modeled for him on several occasions. Some historians have argued that they had one child together, Cornelia, but this remains unconfirmed.
Bankruptcy
In spite of his widely known successful career as a painter, an art dealer and a teacher, Rembrandt’s extravagant lifestyle would eventually catch up with him. He was declared bankrupt in 1656, though his financial problems had already been present for many years.
He had already been forced to auction a good share of his most prized collections and antiques in 1653 so that he could pay off some of his debts. He downsized to a smaller house in 1660 with his family, but even this could not lift him out of debt.
Hendrickje passed away in 1663, but Rembrandt found it within himself to continue to work. It may have been that his work was an escape from the personal traumas and financial stresses that had befallen him in recent years.
Death
Rembrandt lost his only son Titus in September 1668. The artist continued to work but was becoming a solitary, slightly reclusive figure, who had been beaten down by various traumatic events in his life. He died on the 4th of October, 1669 in Amsterdam.
Article originally published at https://www.thehistoryofart.org/rembrandt/biography/
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