Rembrandt van Rijn - Resources for Art Lovers

Rembrandt is one of the leading European painters of all time. He is the most famous Dutch painter and is particularly renowned for his portraits and drawing.

Rembrandt's full name was Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. The son of a miller he was born in Leiden in southern Holland on July 15, 1606. He was well educated and at the age of 14 he was enrolled at the University of Leiden. However art interested him more and he soon left and started his art studies. He was apparenticed to a local art master, Jacob van Swanenburch, for three years and then studied with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam.

* Age 18, he returned to Leiden and opened a studio.
* Age 21, he began to accept pupils - one of whom was the painter Gerrit Dou.
* By the age of 23 he had been 'discovered' and was being awarded important commissions.
* In 1831, age 25 he moved to Amsterdam which was the new business capital of the Netherlands. Here he began to practice as a professional portrait painter for the first time. He has become renowned for the series of self-portraits he painted over the years - probably the greatest series of self-portraits ever produced.
* In 1634, age 28 he married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the cousin of a successful art dealer. This brought him into contarct with wealthy patrons and generated commissions for portraits
* Five years later, in 1639 they moved to the house which is now the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam.
* Between 1635 and 1641 Saskia gave birth to four children, but only the last, Titus, survived. Saskia died in 1842 at the age of 30.
* Around about 1649, he recuited Hendrickje Stoffels as his housekeeper. She modelled for many of his pictures and eventually became his common-law wife.
* His studio was always filled with pupils which has caused some concern over the years as to the attribution of paintings.
* Rembrandt was financially successful - as an artist, art teacher and art dealer. However he tended to spend beyond his income and eventually became bankrupt in 1656.
* Hendrickje died in 1663 and his son, Titus died five years later in 1668 at only 27 years of age.
* Eleven months later, on October 4, 1669, Rembrandt died in Amsterdam.

This is where you can see Rembrandts' paintings in museums and online

Rembramdt is admired by many for the quality of his drawings

Rembrandt also excelled at etching

There are many Rembrandt self-portraits and there must be few artists whose life and career are recorded so faithfully in museums and art galleries around the world.

Links to museum website pages about Rembrandt