Insight Guides: Netherlands by Insight Guides

Insight Guides: Netherlands by Insight Guides

Author:Insight Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Netherlands
Publisher: APA
Published: 2016-06-20T16:00:00+00:00


A portrait of the artist, by himself.

Wikipedia

Rembrandt

After a successful start, the greatest artist of the Dutch Golden Age died a lonely pauper following family tragedy; but his influential legacy lives on.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was the greatest painter of the Dutch Golden Age. He was born in Leiden in 1606, the eighth child of a prosperous miller. Rembrandt was sent to the Latin School, a 1599 Renaissance building that still stands near the Pieterskerk. In 1620 he enrolled as a student at Leiden University, but soon abandoned his studies in favour of painting. His father sent him to study under Jacob van Swanenburgh, who owned a step-gabled house still to be seen at 89 Langebrug. After three years, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam and spent six months in the studio of Pieter Lastman, a famous painter of classical and historical subjects.

Young and confident

In 1625, by now an ambitious young artist, Rembrandt was advised by the diplomat Constantijn Huygens, an early admirer of his work, to study in Italy. He replied that he was too busy and said he could see all the Italian work he wanted in Holland. The self-portrait in the Mauritshuis painted in 1629 shows the young Rembrandt as supremely confident and slightly haughty.

In 1632, and now settled in Amsterdam, he received his first major commission, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp, painted for the Amsterdam guild of surgeons and now displayed in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. Two years later Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburg, the daughter of a prosperous burgomaster. He painted Saskia many times, including once as Flora in a marvellous painting now hanging in London’s National Gallery.

Success and tragedy

In 1639 Rembrandt moved to a handsome Renaissance house in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam (now the Rembrandthuis Museum). But Saskia fell ill and died in 1642, having borne four children. Only one, Titus, survived. A stone simply inscribed ‘Saskia’ in Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk marks her grave.

Ironically, this was the period of Rembrandt’s greatest triumph, The Night Watch, now his most famous and valuable work. The work was completed in 1642 for the Amsterdam guild of arquebusiers (marksmen), and now hangs in the gallery of honour in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. At about this time, Rembrandt appointed Geertghe Dircx as a nurse for Titus. Living together as a couple, they never married, as this would have deprived Rembrandt of income from Saskia’s will. They parted in 1649 after a quarrel.

A sad ending

In 1656 Rembrandt was declared bankrupt, and was forced to move to a more modest dwelling in the Jordaan. Though beset by personal and financial problems, Rembrandt painted one of his greatest works in 1656 – the now damaged Anatomy Lesson of Dr Deyman, which hangs in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. His work continued to mature, and in 1661 he executed the famous Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild – also to be found in the Rijksmuseum.

Titus died at the age of 27 in 1668, and 11 months later, in October 1669, Rembrandt also died.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.