An intense psychological study of people, objects, and their surroundings coupled with an earnest
Christian devotion fueled Rembrandt's life and work. Incredibly gifted as an artist from a
very young age, he became a master of portraits of all types, historical, biblical, and mythological
scenes, as well as simple, charming but dramatic landscapes. He used many types of materials
and techniques with unusual sensitivity and spontaneity to develop his message.
His approaches to composition, color usage, and shadow were everchanging to produce the
most powerfully moving but most natural moments of human existence. His supreme mastery of light
and texture to emphasize emotional depth weaved a common theme through all of his creations,
cementing his status as one of art's greatest, innovative masters. These qualities are evident
from his large, ambitious early history paintings to his more intimate and glowing later style. The
iconic genius is generally regarded as the most important artist in Dutch art history as his work
epitomized the great period of wealth and cultural achievement known as the Dutch Golden Age.
Rembrandt van Rijn, the master of light and shadow.
1, Anna accused by Tobit of stealing the kid.
Housed in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, this 1626 canvas concerns the Apocryphal Book of Tobit, in
which Tobit, the rich, God-fearing Jew is depicted with his wife Anna. According to the story, Tobit
was so strict in his observance of the Mosaic law, he had lost all his money and been blinded by an
accident. To keep them both from starving, Anna had taken in work sewing and washing. However,
when Tobit heard on one occasion the bleating of a kid, which Anna had been given to supplement
her earnings, he falsely accused her of its theft. In the canvas, Rembrandt depicts the moment when
she upbraids him for his self-righteousness and their sorry plight. Holding the detected kid,
Anna towers dominantly above Tobit, who submissively grips his hands in apology.
Begun shortly after he had set up as an independent artist in Leiden in 1625,
the painting is a master class in realist depiction, clearly exemplifying what would
become one of the artist’s lifelong interests: the portrayal of old people. He faithfully
depicts the lines and wrinkles on the couple’s faces and skin with distinct clarity, conveying
their advanced age by the awkward poses of the subjects’ bodies. The canvas is notable for its
ultra smooth brushstrokes, which separately are hardly visible, boasting a palette of colours that
are warm and bright, with even lighting. The image is littered with still-life details,
which are common conventions in the works of Dutch masters, though it is unlikely Rembrandt intended
his props to have any symbolic meaning. Instead, each depicted object adds to the high degree of
authenticity created by the image, depicting the interior as realistically as possible.
2, self-portrait, 1630-31
This second plate, now housed in Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool,
illustrates another of Rembrandt’s fascinations to dominate his art: the self-portrait. The artist
completed over seventy-five self-portraits in oil and it has been estimated that 10%
of his entire artistic output was dedicated to the depiction of his own facial features.
This offers a unique opportunity of surveying a countenance gradually changing over the course
of forty years. Rembrandt’s self-portraits have left posterity a visual autobiography of an artist
that is simply without parallel in the history of Western art.
It is believed he had started making drawings and etchings of himself in 1628 and this habit
would not stop until his death in 1669. Rembrandt often used his self-portraits
for practice in order to discover for himself the range of expressions the human
face is capable. As models could be expensive and impatient subjects, painting himself was a
much more financial and feasible option for a young and aspiring artist to use.
From the period of his first studio in Leiden , Rembrandt felt he needed a better understanding
of the scope of human emotions, which he could then use to depict in his subject pictures.
Also, there was a large demand for head and shoulders portraits at the time, marked by a
strong facial expression – these works were known as tronie paintings. Rembrandt therefore decided
to combine the self-portrait with the tronie genre to develop his own original style. In time, he
realised that more normal and less pronounced and emotional portraits of himself were marketable.
The Liverpool Self-Portrait demonstrates the features of both genres. The hallmarks of a
tronie are clearly shown by the conventional head and shoulders depiction of the artist, whilst the
somewhat comical, wry look and twisted mouth of the artist reveal the study of expression that the
self-portray affords the artist. Interestingly, not long after its completion, the canvas was
purchased by Robert Ker, the Earl of Ancram, who then gave it to King Charles I. Therefore
it is widely believed to be the first work by to leave The Netherlands and arrive in Britain.
3, The anatomy lesson of Doctor Tulp. This 1632 oil painting is housed in the
Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, and concerns Dr. Nicolaes Tulp’s real-life anatomy lesson,
as he explains the musculature of the arm of a corpse to his surrounding medical professionals.
The spectators are various doctors that had paid commissions to the artist to be
included in the painting. In the top-left hand corner of the canvas, it is signed Rembrandt.
f[ecit] 1632, which is most likely the first recorded instance of the artist signing a
painting with his forename in its original form as opposed to using the monogramme RHL
(Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden), demonstrating his growing confidence.
The actual event depicted in the canvas has been dated to 16 January 1632, when the
Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, of which Dr. Tulp was the official City Anatomist, permitted only
one public dissection a year and the body would have to be that of an executed criminal. During
the seventeenth century, anatomy lessons were a highly regarded social event, taking place in
lecture rooms treated liked actual theatres, with students, colleagues and the general public being
permitted to attend on payment of an entrance fee. The spectators were appropriately dressed for a
solemn social occasion. In recent times, medical specialists have commented on the accuracy of the
muscles and tendons painted by the 26-year-old Rembrandt. It is not known where he obtained
such detailed knowledge, though it is likely he copied the details from an anatomical textbook.
The corpse was the criminal Aris Kindt, who was convicted for armed robbery and
sentenced to death by hanging and executed earlier on the same day of the scene.
Rembrandt chooses to partially shade the face of the corpse, giving a suggestion of umbra
mortis (the shadow of death) — a technique that he was to use frequently later.
The painting was privately commissioned by Tulp and the other persons represented
and their names are displayed on the paper held by one of the spectators.
The scene depicted is not a faithful portrayal of a dissection, when there would have been many
more people present and the operation would have started with the opening of the stomach, as shown
in Rembrandt’s less famous work The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Deyman. Instead this is an imaginary
construction, with the grouping of the figures placed in accordance to pictorial considerations,
allowing the artist to depict the patrons that have paid him to be included. By choosing to
dissect the arm instead of the stomach, the artist is able to show off his painterly skills to more
advantage in the careful and smooth delineation of the lines of the tendons in the arm.
4, Portrait of the artist Jacques de Gheyn.
This 1632 portrait, which is housed in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, was completed soon after
Rembrandt’s arrival in Amsterdam, heralding the beginning of his association with the art
dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh, with whom the artist established a busy portrait practice,
following the great success of The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp. The portrait presents Jacques de
Gheyn (1596-1641), who was the son and grandson of artists of the same name and featured as half
of a pair of pendent portraits. The other piece is a portrait of de Gheyn’s friend Maurits Huygens,
wearing similar clothing, including ruffs and black doublets and depicted facing in
the opposite direction. Gheyn and Huygens were close friends living in The Hague, where the
latter was Secretary to the Council of State, an administrative body under the States-General of
the Republic. De Gheyn, like his father and grandfather, was a painter and draughtsman,
although not very prolific, most likely due to his vast inheritance. The two portraits were almost
certainly painted by Rembrandt during a visit to The Hague and it is believed that the artist was
already acquainted with the sitters, as de Gheyn already owned one of Rembrandt’s early works.
Unusual for the artist’s oeuvre, both the portraits are under life-size,
though the smooth application of paint, with meticulous eye for detail,
more than compensates for the lack in size. The de Gheyn portrait has been stolen numerous times,
as its minute size has aided thieves in its numerous thefts. The painting has been given
the nickname “takeaway Rembrandt” as it has been stolen four times since 1966 – the most
recorded of any painting. Between 14 August 1981 and 3 September 1981 the painting was taken from
Dulwich Picture Gallery and retrieved when police arrested four men in a taxi, who had the painting
with them. Two years later, a burglar smashed a skylight and descended into the art gallery,
using a crowbar to remove the painting from the wall. The police arrived within three minutes,
but were too late to apprehend the thief. The painting was missing for three years,
eventually being found in October 1986 in a luggage rack at the train station of a British
army garrison in Münster, Germany. The other two times, the painting was found once underneath a
bench in a graveyard in Streatham and once on the back of a bicycle. Each time the painting
has been returned anonymously with more than one person being charged for its disappearance.
5, Flora.
Completed in 1634, this canvas represents the artist’s wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh,
as the classical goddess of spring, Flora. Now housed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg,
the image depicts the goddess with flowers in her hand and entwined in her hair, while wearing
a sumptuous robe, richly embroidered. However, the beauty of her adornments strangely contrasts
with the diffident pose of the subject, giving the portrait an intriguing charm.
Rembrandt painted Saskia as Flora three times throughout his career: in 1634, 1635 and 1641. In
this example, he combined elements of pastoral and historical portraits. Created in the year of their
marriage, the canvas demonstrates the love and admiration the artist felt for his young bride.
Saskia was born in Leeuwarden, the youngest of the eight children of Sjoukje Ozinga and Rombertus van
Uylenburgh, a successful lawyer, town burgomaster and one of the founders of the University of
Franeker. Saskia was orphaned by the age of twelve and she met Rembrandt at the home of her uncle,
Hendrick van Uylenburgh, a painter and art dealer. Saskia and Rembrandt were engaged in 1633
and on 2 July the couple were married in Sint Annaparochie. The preacher was Saskia’s cousin,
but evidently none of Rembrandt’s family attended the marriage. That Saskia fell in
love with an artist, who was socially no match for the daughter of a patrician, and that she
pressed for a speedy betrothal, demonstrates that she was a strong and independent character.
In 1635 the couple moved to one of the most desirable addresses in Amsterdam,
the Nieuwe Doelenstraat, with prominent neighbours and a view of the river Amstel.