Rembrandt

Rembrandt

Rembrandt is known as one of the greatest artists of the 17th century. He is also known as one of the greatest painters in western art. Rembrandt earned these titles rightfully so. He belonged to the Baroque period. The Baroque period had works of

art that were emotional, dramatic, and included real people as the primary subjects. Rembrandt showed all of this in his work. Rembrandt was influenced by nature, religion, the Bible, and humanity. His paintings showed his moods and feelings towards all of these. He would study people, especially members of his family, including himself to use as the basis for his work. He created over two thousand works of art including; ninety self-portraits, sixty paintings, and the rest were mainly drawings and etchings.

Rembrandt’s full name was Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. He was born on July 15,

1606 in Leiden, the Netherlands. He was the ninth of ten children. His father was a miller, and even though he came from a family of modest means, his parents took great pride in education. Rembrandt began his studies at the Latin school. At the age of fourteen, he enrolled at the University of Leiden. This did not interest him and he soon left to study art. He was fascinated by the work of many Italian artists. He began his studies with a local master, Jacob van Swanenburch. he then went to Amsterdam to study with Pieter Lastman. After six months, Rembrandt had mastered everything so he went back to Leiden. Even though he was only twenty-two, he was so highly respected that he took on his first students. He continued to teach throughout his entire life.

In 1631, he moved to Amsterdam and married Saskia van Uylenburgh. Her relation to an art dealer enhanced his career. Saskia was one of his favorite models for his work. Together they had a son, Titus. Soon after his birth Saskia died. Rembrandt’s housekeeper, Hendrickje Stiffels eventually became his common-law wife. She was also a model for many of Rembrandt’s creations. By the mid 1650’s he was living so far beyond his means, along with his lavish collections of paintings and because he had begun to paint for pleasure more than for profit, he eventually had to declare bankruptcy. He slowly lost his popularity, but he continued to paint. He died a debtor in Amsterdam in October of 1669.

Rembrandt created so many works of art that...

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...he visit of Marie de’ Medici to Amsterdam.

The lighting is brilliant, high-contrast, and depicts movement. The lighting is

also that of a violent contrast of light and dark. Most of the colors are deep

shades of red, yellow, black, and bronze. In the composition of the portrait, some

of the figures are hidden, and overlapped by the darkness, while others stand out

in the front, individually by a beautiful stream of light. The picture depicts drama

along with excitement.

In conclusion, I feel that Rembrandt was a brilliant artist who was true to himself and

untamed by tradition. He was a master of his own style. To each work of art, he gave his best effort. His use of light and shade to produce those types of atmosphere in his works took him way beyond the traditional methods. His desire and willingness to explore and go beyond the visual to portray the psychological character manifested innovation. This was shown in his own visual statue which reveals to us so much more of what may have been below the surface. The courage to do all of this especially in the face of adversity, could only be a lesson to all of those who came after Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.