Rembrandt Harmenszoon (son of Harmen) van Rijn (REM
brant vahn
RINE) was born in the Netherlands in the city of Leiden (LY d'n). His
family wanted him to get a good education and provided opportunities
for him to study with successful artists. Among them was Pieter Lastman
in Amsterdam.
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Rembrandt was very talented and soon moved back to
Leiden and began to
teach other artists even though he was only 22 years old.
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Upon his return to Amsterdam, he opened an art studio
at the house of a
famous art dealer. The man had a niece named Saskia, who later became
Rembrandt's wife. He and Saskia had four children, but only one child,
Titus, survived. Poor Titus. His mother died when he was only a year
old.
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A young girl, Hendrickje would become his mother, and
later would give him a little sister, Cornelia.
Rembrandt used Saskia and Hendrickje as his models for several
paintings.
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This great Dutch artist was very popular with the
people and he painted
many pictures. He enjoyed painting pictures of Bible characters and
scenes of Bible stories. During his lifetime he produced over 600
paintings and made more than a thousand etchings and drawings. Because
he was so prolific in his work, you can see his paintings in museums
and galleries all over the world today.
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He bought a large house; really much larger than he
could afford, and
he collected many works of art. His collection included works by such
famous artists as Raphael (RAHF a-el) and Titian (TISH an). Some of
these paintings today hang in galleries such as the Louvre (LOO vr') in
Paris, France and the National Gallery in London. Eventually he had to
declare bankruptcy, and his house, furniture and art collection were
sold at auction to pay the people to whom he owed money.
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Rembrandt painted about 100 portraits of himself.
Sometimes the
portrait was a study (a practice picture) he would make in preparation
for another painting he was planning to do.
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The Syndics, our featured painting, is an
interesting work.
The men in the picture belong to a guild or a group of clothmakers.
They commissioned Rembrandt to paint this portrait of their group. When
it was finished they possibly hung it on the wall of their clubhouse or
office. As they walked by it each day they had no way of knowing how
important the painting would be to the world in 300 years.
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One of his most famous paintings is The Nightwatch which
shows a group of men in their military uniforms. A war had recently
ended in the country and the men were dressed up for a military
practice.
In this painting we see Rembrandt's use of light and shadow which makes
his work so distinctive. If you visited Amsterdam today you could see
this painting as well as The Syndics. You could also see the
house where he and Saskia lived, and you could visit his studio.
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