| Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606 to 1669 is a Dutch artist, a great master of painting and engraving and one of the most outstanding and respected artists in the history of fine arts.
Biography
Rembrandt Harmenszoon (son of Harmen) van Rijn was born on 15th July, 1606 (as per some sources, in 1607) in the large family of a miller in Leiden. There he attended a Latin school and university, but he was more interested in painting. Soon he started to learn fine arts from the history painter Jacob van Swanenburgh in Leiden. Then for some time he studied in Amsterdam from Pieter Lastman.
After returning to Leiden in 1627, Rembrandt together with his friend Jan Lievens opened his own workshop and started to recruit the pupils. Within a few years, he became very popular. In 1629, the artist was noted by a government official Constantijn Huygens (father of Chritian Huygens), who was also an outstanding poet and supporter of art. Huygens assisted Rembrandt to get in touch with rich clients.
In 1631, the artist shifted to Amsterdam. In the year 1634 he married Saskia van Uylenburg. In 1641, she gave birth to son Titus. Soon after that, Saskia died in 1642. Towards the end of the 1640’s Rembrandt became close with his young maid-servant Hendrickje Stoffels.
In 1656 Rembrandt was living beyond his means, became bankrupt and was forced to sell his house.
The artist died on 4th October, 1669 in Amsterdam. In his entire life he made about 250 paintings, 300 engravings and 1000 figures.
Throughout his life the artist did many self-portraits.
As per psychological nuances in regards to portraits he belongs to the best baroque painters.
Pupils:
* Ferdinand Bol (from 1631 to 1637)
* Philips Koninck
In the middle of the 1650s Rembrandt acquired mature artistic skills. Elements of light and colors independent and even to some extent the opposite to the earlier works of the artist, are now merged into a uniform interconnected work. Hot reddish-brown, some times flaring, some times the fading quivering ground of illuminating paints strengthens the emotional expressiveness of the works by Rembrandt, as though he has warmed them with warm human feeling. In 1656, Rembrandt was declared as bankrupt, all his property was sold at an auction. He moved to a Jewish district of Amsterdam where he spent the rest of his life in extremely constrained circumstances. Bible compositions created by Rembrandt in the 1660’s show his thoughts about the meaning of human life. In the episodes, expressing the conflict between the dark and light in the human soul (“ARTAXERXES, HAMAN, AND ESTHER”, 1660, State museum of fine arts, Moscow; or “The Fall of Haman” or “David and Uria”, 1665, State Hermitage, St. Petersburg), complete a warm scale, a flexible pastose manner of the writing, an intense game of light and shade, the complex texture of the colorful surface serve for disclosing the difficult collisions and spiritual experiences and proof of victory of good over evil.
The historical painting “The Conspiracy of Julius Civilis” (1661, a fragment of it has been restored at the National museum, Stockholm) is filled with rigorous dramatism and heroics. In the last year of his life, Rembrandt created his great masterpiece - a monumental canvas “The return of the prodigal son” (around 1668-1669, State Hermitage, St. Petersburg), depicting all art and the morally-ethical range of problems of latter creativity by the artist. With amazing skill he has recreated the entire scale of complex and deep human feelings in it, dedicates the art for discovering the beauty of human understanding, compassion and forgiveness. The culminating moment of transition from the stress of feelings towards the resolution of passions is personified in the sculpture-expressive poses, avaricious gestures, in the emotional system of colors, which flashes brightly in the center of the painting and fades away in the dark space of the background.
In the 1640s, the conflict ripened between Rembrandt's creativity and modern societies restricted by aesthetic queries. Visually it was exhibited in the year 1642 when his painting “Night watch” (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) invoked protests from customers, who did not approve of the basic idea of the master - instead of a traditional group portrait he created a heroically elated composition with a scene of a performance of a guild of marksmen upon an alarm signal, i.e. in essence, the historical painting, reviving the memoirs about the liberation struggle of the Dutch people. The inflow of orders for Rembrandt went down and the circumstances of his life worsened with the death of Saskia. Rembrandt’s creativity loses the external effectiveness and the notes of cheerfulness which were characteristics of him before. He paints quietly, filled with warmth and intimacies of bible and genre scenes, discovering the subtle shades of human worries, feelings of spiritual and related intimacy (“David and Jonathan”, 1642, “The holy family”, 1645, both in the State Hermitage, St. Petersburg). Great significance in the paintings as well as in the sketches of Rembrandt is of the subtle light and shade game, creating a special, dramatic, emotionally charged atmosphere ( masterpiece “Christ Healing the Sick” or “The Hundred Guilder Print”, around 1642-1646; landscape filled with dynamics of air and light “Three trees”, etching, 1643). The l650s were very difficult years for Rembrandt, he had to undergo severe emotional ordeals, and this opened the period of the creative maturity in the artist. Rembrandt more often addresses to the genre of portraits, portraying the people who are very close to him (many portraits of Rembrandt’s second wife, Hendrickje Stoffels; “Son Titus Reading”, 1657, Museum of history of arts, Vienna). More and more, the artist was attracted towards the images of simple people, old men, serving with embodiment of wisdom and spiritual riches (the so called “Portrait of sister-in-law of the artist”, 1654, State museum of fine arts, Moscow; “Portrait of the old man in red”, 1652-1654, State Hermitage, St. Petersburg). Rembrandt concentrates on the face and hands, which have been drawn out from darkness with soft diffused light, barely perceptible facial expressions reflect the complex movement of thoughts and feelings. |
Artists around the world are celebrating the 402nd birthday of Rembrandt van Rijn today. Rembrandt is one of the most famous painters in art history and the most famous Dutch painter. After becoming famous, Rembrandt taught many artists in his Dutch studio for over 20 years - the period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age. During this period the Dutch style of painting was largely shaped by Rembrandt studio and his techniques were passed from generation to generation of Dutch artists.
