Rembrandt van Rijn

Considered the greatest artist of the Dutch Golden Age, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn revolutionised painting with an exceptional command of light, shadow and brushwork, possessing his scenes and subjects with uncompromising realism and ambitious psychological intensity.

Born in Leiden in 1606, Rembrandt made his name after 1631 in the booming port of Amsterdam, painting portraits, Biblical scenes, landscapes and animal studies for a newly minted mercantile class. Although he never went abroad his art was indebted to the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio, whose innovative use of chiaroscuro, developed around the start of the century, had recently made way to Holland via the travelling Dutch artists Hendrick ter Brugghen, Gerrit van Honthorst and Dirck van Baburen.

Following Amsterdam’s Protestant Reformation of 1578, commissions from the church dried up — instead Rembrandt had to look to civic bodies for patronage. An order placed circa 1639 resulted in his most famous painting: a huge, dynamic group portrait of a local militia emerging from a dark alley called The Night Watch (1642, Rijksmuseum).

Approximately 50 of Rembrandt’s 300 or so paintings were self-portraits, spanning the entirety of his 40-year career. He elevated the medium to new heights of autobiography, adopting unconventional facial expressions, props and costumes to convey his ever changing moods. Over time, he also developed an impasto technique, applying thick layers of paint with strokes of a palette knife or the bristles of his brush to build up a tactile surface of his aging, ruddy and wrinkled face.

Rembrandt was also a prolific printer. Hugely experimental with his range of mark-making and the tonal qualities of the medium, he produced some 300 etchings and drypoints, which were widely circulated around Europe during his lifetime and are still considered a benchmark of the skill.

Despite his success, Rembrandt squandered his fortune, spending compulsively on art and antiques. In 1656 he declared bankruptcy and surrendered his assets in an attempt to settles his debts. In 1669, at the age of 63, he died penniless and was buried in an unmarked grave. Today, his legacy endures. In 2009 Christie’s sold Rembrandt’s Portrait of a man with arms akimbo for £20,201,250, setting a world auction record for the artist.


REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Self-Portrait, frowning: Bust

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Self-Portrait leaning on a Stone Sill

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

The Artist's Mother seated at a Table, looking right: three Quarter Length

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Studies of the Head of Saskia and Others

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Abraham entertaining the Angels

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606- 1669)

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

The Angel departing from the Family of Tobias (copperplate and print)

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606- 1669)

Christ healing the Sick ('The Hundred Guilder Print')

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Christ before Pilate: large Plate

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

The Descent from the Cross by Torchlight

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Landscape with Cottages and a Hay Barn: Oblong

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

A Cottage beside a Canal with a View of Ouderkerk

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

View of Amsterdam from the Kadijk

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Cottage with a white Paling

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Landscape with three gabled Cottages beside a Road

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Cottage and Boundary Post on the Spaarndammerdijk ('Landscape with an Obelisk')

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Landscape with a Cow drinking

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Panorama near Bloemendael showing the Saxenburg Estate ('The Goldweigher's Field')

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Landscape with a Farmhouse along a Road beside a Canal

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Three Oriental Figures (Jacob and Laban?)

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606- 1669)

The Ringball Player (‘Het Klosbaantje’)

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Clement de Jonghe, Printseller

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Clement de Jonghe, Printseller

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Clement de Jonghe, Printseller

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Recueil de Quatre-Vingt-Cinq Estampes originales, Têtes, Paysages et différents Sujet, dessinées et gravées par Rembrandt

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (LEIDEN 1606-1669 AMSTERDAM)

Portrait of Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym (c.1565-1644), bust-length; an­d Portrait of Jaapgen Carels (1565-1640), bust-length

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam)

Portrait of Petronella Buys (1610-1670), bust-length, in a brocaded black gown, bobin lace-trimmed double cartwheel ruff and pearled diadem cap

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Christ presented to the people (‘Ecce Homo’)

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Saint Jerome reading in an Italian Landscape

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (LEIDEN 1606-1669 AMSTERDAM)

Christ crucified between two Thieves: ‘The Three Crosses’

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Christ crucified between the two Thieves: 'The Three Crosses'

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Christ crucified between the two Thieves: 'The Three Crosses'

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Christ crucified between the two Thieves: 'The Three Crosses'

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

The Shell (Conus Marmoreus)

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Christ crucified between two Thieves: ‘The Three Crosses’

Harmensz. van Rijn Rembrandt (1606-1669)

The Three Trees (B., Holl. 212; H. 205; New Holl. 214)

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (1606-1669)

Woman sitting half dressed beside a Stove