- Also known as
-
Rembrandt
-
primary name: Rembrandt
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other name: Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
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other name: Rijn, Rembrandt van
- Details
- individual; painter/draughtsman; printmaker; Dutch; Male
- Life dates
- 1606-1669
- Biography
- Painter, draughtsman and etcher of portraits, landscapes and historical and biblical subjects. Born in Leiden the son of a mill-owner; in 1620 after completing his tuition at the Leiden Latin School enrolled at Leiden University; began a three-year apprenticeship in Leiden to a minor painter Jacob Isaacz. Swanenburgh (q.v.); from 1624-5 a pupil of Pieter Lastman (q.v.), a leading painter in Amsterdam, for about six months after which he set himself up as an independent painter in Leiden and worked closely with Jan Lievens. In or around 1631 he settles permanently in Amsterdam; marries Saskia van Uylenburgh (q.v.) in 1634; in 1649 Hendrickje Stoffels enters his houshold as a servant and they have a child, Cornelia, together; 1656-8 his assets, art collection, and home sold to pay off his creditors.
OUTLINE BIOGRAPHY:
1606 Born in Leiden, son of a mill-owner
1620 After completing tuition at the Leiden Latin School, enrolled at Leiden University, but does not study there.
1621 Begins three-year apprenticeship in Leiden to Jacob van Swanenburgh.
1624-5 Studies with Pieter Lastman, the leading painter in Amsterdam, for about six months.
c.1625 Sets up as an independent painter in Leiden. Works closely with Jan Lievens until c.1631.
1631 Settles permanently in Amsterdam.
1632 Paints 'The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp' (now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague).
1633-9 Series of six paintings depicting Christ's Passion executed for the head of state, Prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange (now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich).
1634 Marries Saskia van Uylenburgh.
1639 Buys a large home with a studio in Amsterdam (now the Museum het Rembrandthuis). His financial obligations on making this purchase were a major source of his financial difficulties in the 1650s.
1641 Birth of his son Titus van Rijn, the first of his children to survive infancy.
1642 Death of Saskia. Completes the so-called 'Night Watch'.
By 1649 Hendrickje Stoffels a member of his household as a servant; she replaced another servant, Geertje Dircx, in his affections.
1654 Birth of Cornelia, his daughter by Hendrickje.
1656 Assigns his assets to his creditors via the courts. His assets (including his house and art collections ) are sold to pay his debts in 1656-8.
1661 His painting of 'The Conspiracy of Julius Civilis', commissioned for the Amsterdam Town Hall. Probably judged a failure, it is replaced by a pupil's work (a fragment of Rembrandt's painting survives in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm).
1663 Death of Hendrickje.
1668 Death of Titus van Rijn.
1669 Death of Rembrandt in Amsterdam.
"Exhibition of drawings and etchings by Rembrandt and etchings by other masters in the British Museum" exhibition at the British Museum, 1899.
- Bibliography
- Drawings: Otto Benesch, 'The Drawings of Rembrandt', Oxford 1973 (6 vols)
Prints: E. Hinterding and J. Rutgers, The New Hollstein: Rembrandt. Ouderkerk aan den IJssel: Sound and Vision, 2006 (7 volumes)
Paintings: J. Bruyn, B. Haak, S.H. Levie, P.J.J. van Thiel and E. van de Wetering, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, (The Hague: Springer) volume I, 1982; II, 1986; III, 1989; IV The Self-Portraits, 2005; V The Small-Scale History Paintings, 2010; VI, Rembrandt's Paintings Revisited. A Complete Survey (Dordrecht: Springer) 2015.
