rembrandt van rijn

An Artist of the Dutch Baroque period, Rembrandt Van Rijn was born on July 15th, 1606. His
father, Herman Gerritszoon who was a miller, his mother Neeltje or Cornelia Willemsdochter van
Zuytbrouck, and his brothers lived in the town of Leiden next to the northern branch of the Rhine
River and about 25 miles south of Amsterdam. Rembrandt was the 8th of 9 children born. His
family was somewhat poor until his mother's death in 1640 left them well off with a 10,000 florins
estate.
From the time of his birth, Rembrandt's parents had directed him towards the study of law, which
is unlike his brothers who were directed towards the manual trades. He spent seven years at Latin
School where he learned a great deal about religion that later influenced his paintings and
portraits.
He enrolled at the University of Leiden. After a few months he discovered that it did not interest
him and then decided to leave to pursue art. At the workshop of Jacob Isaacxszoon van
Swanenburch he acquired the basic technical knowledge of art such as perspective. Because
Rembrandt had shown such dedication, his father sent him to Amsterdam to apprentice under a
very well known painter of that time, Peiter Lastmann. There he learned to love dramatic effects
such as facial expressions, hands, and learned to pay close attention to painting all the little
details. He mastered the chiaroscuro effect of using light, as well as the bold impasto, and with
those effects, he surpassed many artists of that time. Lastmann inspired him to paint historical
events, which was not a very fashionable thing to do at that time, and he was also inspired to use
bright, glossy, colors to paint pictures on a small scale. He was only in Lastmann's studio for six
months and in the mid - 1620's he opened his own studio in Leiden with his friend, another artist
under Lastmann, Jan Lievens.
An art dealer in Amsterdam, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, started to send Rembrandt commissions
for portraits. In the 1630's, at the age of 24, he not only painted portraits, but started making small
etching's as well. Because the commissions became so numerous over time and very important to
the young artist, he moved to Amsterdam.
Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the cousin to Hendrick and who was an orphan with a
very large estate, in 1634. The well-known painter became extremely successful and overflowing
with commissions.
By the early 1630's he had totally abandoned the typical Dutch smoothness. Rembrandt built his
paintings starting from the back and working his way to the front with layers of paint to create

illusions and evolved the most revolutionary techniques. In 1636, Paul Peter Rubens, a Flemish
master of Baroque, inspired Rembrandt to paint using biblical themes. Instead of portraying the
typical laid back Baroque paintings, he chose to surpass Ruben by injecting incredible horror into
the piece of art. These vulgar themes were not very popular at the time, but luckily his income
from commissions was unaltered.
In 1639 he and his wife purchased a huge house to show off their wealth. He filled it with antique
art objects of all kinds such as jewelry, fabrics, and china - all were collected for his historical
interest in antiques, as well as models and inspiration for his historical paintings.
During his marriage he lost three sons. After giving birth to his fourth son, Titus, in September
1641 Saskia became bedridden and died the summer of the following year. At the birth of Titus a
widow, Geertghe Dircx, came in to nurse him, and eventually became Rembrandt's mistress.
In 1645 Hendrickje Stoffels, a young girl, moved into the Rembrandt household and became his
second mistress, replacing the first. 1654 she bore him a daughter named Cornelia. She also
became a main focus of many of his portrait paintings. Rembrandt could not marry Hendrickje
because of the clause in his first wife's will, that if remarried he would forfeit her estate. He never
legalized his union with Hendrickje, despite all the difficulty caused by the Reformed Church of
Amsterdam.
Rembrandt's commissions declined and so did his income. His desire for collecting antiques was
not altered by this, but eventually it caused him great deal of debt. To salvage Saskia's estate, he
put the ownership of his house in Titus' name and then filed for bankruptcy to the court in July
1656. Auctions were held to sell his possessions, but the money from that did not satisfy the
creditors. With what little he had left, Rembrandt started an art business with Hendrickje and Titus
where he served as their advisor. This kept income out of the hands of creditors and enabled him
to lead a comfortable life. When Hendrickje died in 1663, Titus took over the house and baby
Cornelia.
Titus died in 1668, which devastated his father. On October 4, 1669, Rembrandt died at the age of
63 and was buried October 8 in the Westerkerk.
Rembrandt exploited the etching process for its unique potential. He was the first artist to practice
self-portraiture as an area of expertise. He created a medium for self-fashioning that has inspired
numerous artists. He produced around 600 paintings, 300 etchings, and 1,400 drawings.