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Probably
the best known amongst the 17th century Dutch painters, Rembrandt was
born in Leiden, Holland on July 15 1606. His father was a miller, and
his mother came from a family of bakers. The young Rembrandt first
studied at the local Latin School, and at the age of 14 he was enrolled
at the Leiden University. However, he soon left the University to study
art with a local master, Jacob van Swanenburch, and later in Amsterdam
with Pieter Lastman.
At 25 years
of age Rembrandt permanently left Leiden for Amsterdam, where he soon
made his name as a portrait painter and as a teacher. As his reputation
grew, Rembrandt's Amsterdam studio was full of students. Rembrandt's
pupils not only brought him money - they also painted or largely
participated in work on many pictures from this period, in many cases
so successfully that today it is sometimes quite difficult even for
renown Rembrandt scholars to distinguish between the "true Rembrandts"
and the paintings from the "school of Rembrandt". Many paintings
previously thought to be genuine are now attributed to his pupils,
mainly due to the modern research methods.
Together
with what he made from his students and the sales of his paintings,
Rembrandt became quite rich and he quickly became accustomed to leading
the high life, with his wife Saskia, the cousin of an art dealer, whom
he married in 1634. Saskia's connections probably brought Rembrandt
many commissions for portraits and also mythological and religious
paintings, from the members of Amsterdam high society. She also stood a
model for her husband in many of his early pictures and studies, but
she died after only about 8 years of their marriage, in 1642. Out of
four children the Rembrandts had, only the youngest, Titus, survived,
and was later to play an active part in the family business (together
with Rembrandt's mistress Hendrickje Stoffels) when his father, who
always tended to live way beyond his means, was forced to declare
himself bankrupt in 1656. Titus died in 1668 while still only in his
mid twenties.
Personal
tragedies, problems, lawsuits (one brought on him by another mistress),
never stopped Rembrandt from painting, producing etchings and
drypoints, drawings and prints, which are now to be found in more than
thirty major art galleries and museums as well as in a large number of
private collections. Rembrandt died in Amsterdam in 1669, and was
buried in an unmarked grave.
Recently, a rather surprising
discovery was made. According to the Dutch professor of art history
Ernst van de Wetering, the Rembrandt painting known for more than three
centuries simply as “The Portrait of an Old Man”, in possession of the
Medici family from about 1670 and since 1922 owned by the Gallery
Uffizi at Florence, is almost certainly the portrait of the Czech
philosopher and educator Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius). The painting was
recently cleaned and restored. De Wetering’s hypothesis is based on the
studies he made in the Dutch Library of Hermetic Sciences, on the
likeness of the face on the Rembrandt painting to other portraits of
Comenius from the same period, as well as on the fact that at the
critical time, around 1661, both men were near neighbours in the same
district of Amsterdam. They also shared some acquaintances, such as Mr
and Mrs de Geer, who were Comenius’ sponsors and friends, and whom
Rembrandt also painted.
De Wetering is a professor of
Art History at the Amsterdam University and an acknowledged expert on
Rembrandt van Rijn. He has been a member of the Rembrandt
Research Project since its inception in 1968 and
is currently its leader. He also wrote the books Rembrandt: The
Painter at Work and Rembrandt's Hidden Self-Portraits, as
well as co-authoring several other books on the great Dutch painter's
work.
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Previously
known as “The Portrait of an Old Man”, this painting is now thought to
be the portrait of Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius)
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