Artists
Rembrandt Van Rijn
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b. July 15, 1606 and died October 4, 1669
Rembrandt van Rign was born in Leiden, the Netherlands. He attended the University of Leiden and was soon apprenticed to a Leiden history painter, Jacob van Swanenburgh, with whom he spent three years. After a brief but important apprenticeship of six months with the famous painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden in 1624. In 1631 Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, the city which was rapidly becoming the industrial and business capital of the Netherlands. It was here that he began to practice as a portraitist for the first time with great success. His oil paintings trace the progress from an uncertain young man, through the flourishing portrait-painter of the 1630s, to the troubled but massively powerful portraits of his old age. Together they give a remarkably clear picture of the man, his appearance and his psychological make-up, as revealed by his richly-weathered face.
Stylistically, Rembrandt’s paintings progressed from the early smooth manner, characterized by fine technique in the portrayal of illusionistic form, to the late rough treatment of richly variegated paint surfaces, which allowed for an illusionism of form suggested by the tactile quality of the paint itself.
A parallel development may be seen in his skill as a printmaker. In the etchings of his maturity, particularly from the late 1640s onward, the freedom and breadth of his drawings and paintings found expression in the print medium as well. The works encompass a wide range of subject matter and technique. By the late 1630s, Rembrandt had produced a few paintings and many etchings of landscapes. Often these landscapes highlighted natural drama, featuring uprooted trees and ominous skies. From 1640 his work became less exuberant and more sober in tone, possibly reflecting personal tragedy. Biblical scenes were now derived more often from the New Testament than the Old Testament, as had been the case before. In 1642 he painted the The Night Watch, his largest work and the most notable of the important group portrait commissions which he received in this period, and through which he sought to find solutions to compositional and narrative problems that had been attempted in previous works.1
In the decade following the Night Watch, Rembrandt's paintings varied greatly in size, subject, and style. His previous tendency to create dramatic effects primarily by strong contrasts of light and shadow gave way to the use of frontal lighting and larger and more saturated areas of color. Simultaneously, figures came to be placed parallel to the picture plane. These changes can be seen as a move toward a classical mode of composition and, considering the more expressive use of brushwork as well, may indicate a familiarity with Venetian art. In the 1650s, Rembrandt's style changed again. Paintings increased in size, colors became richer and brush strokes more pronounced. With these changes, Rembrandt distanced himself from earlier work and current fashion, which increasingly inclined toward fine, detailed works. His singular approach to paint application may have been suggested in part by familiarity with the work of Titian. In later years, biblical themes were still depicted often, but emphasis shifted from dramatic group scenes to intimate portrait-like figures. In his last years, Rembrandt painted his most deeply reflective self-portraits and several moving images of both men and women in love, in life, and before God. The artist lived beyond his means, forced to sell his assets and sizable art collection in 1956 to avoid bankruptcy before he passed away in Amsterdam in 1669.2
1Clarke, Kenneth. An Introduction to Rembrandt. Peter Smith Publishing Inc., New York, 1992.
2Wetering, Ernst van der. Rembrandt: The Painter at Work. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA: 2009.