Rembrandt. The name 'Rembrandt' was a baptismal name only, which occurs in various forms. Rembrandt's initials were R.H.—i.e. Rembrandt Harmenszoon, or son of Harmen, and his father's full name was Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn, or Harmen the son of Gerrit, living on Rhine-side. The local indication, van Rijn, is used in deeds after 1600 A.D. Rembrandt is now often called Van Rijn, but never Harmenszoon. At the time of the artist's birth his family was of the lower middle class, and in prosperous circumstances, living at Leyden, and holding property there. From the register of marriages and from a date on an etching, Vosmaer accepts July 15, 1607, as the true birth date. Rembrandt's father was a miller, and his mother, Neeltjen van Snydtbrouck, a baker's daughter. They had seven or eight children, of whom two died young, Rembrandt being the youngest but one. All the boys were brought up to trade except Rembrandt, whose father wished to give him a classical education; but he had no taste for Latin, so he went to learn painting in the studio of Van Swanenburch, probably in his twelfth or thirteenth year. Orlers says that he worked with Van Swanenburch three years. This master came of a good family, and had visited Italy.
Rembrandt's next master was Pieter Lastman, but he stayed with Lastman only six months. He probably returned to his father's house about 1623, and stayed there till 1630. Already he had begun to paint old age; there are several pictures of that date representing old people, as well as careful studies. He began his career as an etcher very early, and etched beggars and picturesque heads, including his own, also a first biblical subject, 'Jesus presented in the Temple.' There are no less than thirty etchings for the year 1630, when the artist was only twenty-three. In the same year he migrated from Leyden to Amsterdam, then a picturesque city of 100,000 inhabitants, and there he set up a studio and took pupils. Already one of the most industrious and productive artists that ever lived, Rembrandt found time to paint several biblical subjects, besides a number of portraits, and to etch forty plates in the year 1631, whilst his progress in art was so rapid that he painted one of his most important masterpieces, 'The Anatomical Lesson,' in 1632, at the early age of twenty-five. He married Saskia van Ulenburgh in June 1634. She was of a good family, twenty-one years old, and the youngest of nine children. The pair settled in a large house in the Breedstraat in Amsterdam. There is good evidence that the marriage was happy, and we know Saskia by the portraits her husband made of her. After marriage he continued to be very industrious, even the year of marriage having a harvest of several religious pictures and many portraits, as well as fifteen etchings. The artist was also in the habit of producing many sketches and drawings. Vosmaer observes that these are either studies from nature or notes taken rapidly, or else embryos of ideas caught as they formed themselves, with a rude pen and a wash, or a few strokes of black stone.
Rembrandt had a daughter, Cornelia, born in July 1638, but she died the month following. A second Cornelia was born in 1640, who also died young, and a son, Titus, in 1641. His father died about 1632, and his mother about 1640, after having been frequently portrayed by her son both in painting and etching. Saskia died prematurely in 1642, after only eight years of marriage. Between the death of his mother and that of his wife, Rembrandt's activity developed itself in three branches, portrait, small biblical or genre pictures, and large canvases with figures the size of life. The year of Saskia's death is also that of the famous picture known as the 'Night Watch.' An important branch of Rembrandt's artistic production from 1643 to 1650 was landscape, which he continued to practise more or less till 1659, both in etching and painting. After the death of Saskia the domestic life of the artist becomes obscure. In 1654 his servant Hendrickie Jaghers had a child by him baptised as Cornelia, and after his death one Catherina van Wijck is mentioned in the register as his widow, but it is unknown whether she was a second or a third wife, and at what date her marriage took place. It is not precisely known what were the causes of Rembrandt's bankruptcy in 1656. He was an ardent collector, willing to give high prices, and as his family fell into embarrassed circumstances, it is likely that he helped them. His art, too, became unfashionable; but he did not relax his diligence. His collection fetched only 5000 florins at the sale. Vosmaer believes, however, that he had found evidence of a return to partial prosperity, and that Rembrandt was able at least to rent a commodious and handsome house near the Rozengracht. After continuing to work with constant energy and undiminished power, he died October 8, 1669, following his son Titus, who died a year earlier. Titus left a posthumous daughter, Titia, and Rembrandt was present at the baptism. He was spared the pain of losing this grandchild, whose death occurred thirteen days after his own. Rembrandt left two children, names unknown.
The genius of Rembrandt has been the subject of much controversy, but his fame has increased, notwithstanding unintelligent censure and praise often equally unintelligent. Rembrandt was not blind to the merits of Italian art, as we know by his collection, but his own practice was founded on the direct study of the nature he saw around him both in human life and landscape. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that he copied nature slavishly, that he was a sort of photographer. Far from that, he was so imaginative that he transmuted everything. He had an equal power of expressing mass, and rendering detail both in painting and etching. His technical force in both arts has only been rivalled in other styles, and it has never been surpassed. The common admiration for his chiaroscuro is, however, misplaced. The chiaro-oscuro of Rembrandt is often false and inconsistent, and, in fact, he relied largely on public ignorance. But though arbitrary it is always conducive to his purpose. In etching the effect of it was often heightened by an intentionally unequal distribution of finish. No artist ever combined more delicate skill with more energy and power. His treatment of mankind is full of human sympathy for all ages and conditions, but his especial study was old age. In his interpretation of the Scriptures he did not seek to give dignity by a factitious magnificence, or by elevating personages above their social rank, but by inspiring respect for them, and interest in them, as they were. At the same time his artist-faculty of idealisation acted in its own way by giving sublimity. Of the great artists Rembrandt is not the most perfect, but he is the most interesting, and his work is full of variety, both in subject and in technical methods. He was a great draughtsman, in his own way, and often a fine colourist as well as a great executive virtuoso both in painting and etching. Rembrandt had much personal influence as a teacher, and many of his pupils became known. His life seems to have been absorbed in work, and he avoided fashionable society, keeping to the burghers and artists.
See the elaborate French Life by his countryman Vosmaer (Paris, 1877), the interesting study by Émile Michel (trans. ed. by Wedmore, 1893), and the monograph on the etchings by the present writer (in the Portfolio of 1894). The first catalogue of the etchings of Rembrandt is the incomplete one by Gersaint, published after his death in 1751. Peter Yver of Amsterdam supplemented this, and Daubly of Liverpool published a translation in 1796. Adam Bartsch followed at Vienna in 1797. De Claussin published in 1824 an edition of preceding catalogues. Wilson (Lond. 1836) issued a new catalogue with original observations. That by Charles Blanc, in two vols. (Paris, n.d.), includes both pictures and etchings, that by Mr Middleton (Lond. 1878) gives the etchings only, and a catalogue privately printed for the Burlington Club in 1877 gave the etchings in chronological order. Vosmaer gave catalogues at the end of his biography, both chronological and classified. Mr F. S. Haden's monograph on the etchings (Lond. 1879) proves that some of the plates attributed to Rembrandt were executed by other hands, probably by pupils. The best existing catalogues of Rembrandt's works give about 500 pictures, 600 drawings and studies, and 353 etchings. The bent of his mind may be judged of by the choice of subject. Out of the general total of about 1450 works 136 are from the Old Testament, 255 from the New, 22 from classical mythology, and only 12 from history. There are about 440 portraits and 100 landscapes, besides some sketches of animals and many studies not classed. With the single exception of the Bible, Rembrandt got little from books, and his house, so rich in works of graphic art, contained barely twenty volumes.