Description

Rembrandt

Rembrandt Rosenthal Edition art for sale at Grand Gallery EU.

Dimension: 30×24 cm
Painting technique: Ceramic Plate
Painting style: Historical painting

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 – 1669) – A Dutch Master and one of the great artists of all time.

“Rembrandt is so deeply mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language. Rembrandt is truly called a magician… that’s not an easy calling.”

Vincent van Gogh, letter to Theo van Gogh (Oct. 10 1885)

Short Biography Rembrandt

Rembrandt was born in Leiden in the Netherlands in 1606.

It was during a period known as the ‘Dutch Golden Age’. He came from a reasonably wealthy family. His father was a miller and somehow managed to send his son to a Latin school and later the University of Leiden. His education and knowledge of scriptures later proved important when he sought to capture the essence of biblical scenes in his art.

However, Rembrandt wasn’t inspired by studying and he left university to begin an apprenticeship as a painter in Leiden. In 1624, he spent his first period of time in Amsterdam where he was able to study under a famous painter called Pieter Lastman. With this period of apprenticeship under his belt, he returned to his hometown in Leiden and set up his own independent workshop.

In 1629, Rembrandt was discovered by the statesman Constantijn Huygens, who secured for Rembrandt important commissions from the Court of the Hague. This source of commissions was important because, in Holland, the Protestant Reformed Church did not support artists like the old Catholic church.

This was the start of Rembrandt’s successful professional career as an artist and, in 1831, he moved the expanding business to the capital Amsterdam. It was here that he met and married his future wife, Saskia Van Uylenburg – who came from a wealthy family and this added to Rembrandt’s income. Around this time, Rembrandt began to take on students, and he became admitted to the Guild of Painters.

Unfortunately, Rembrandt’s family life was subject to many misfortunes. Three of their four children died in early infancy, and Saskia died after only ten years of marriage in 1641, aged just 30.

Personal tragedy seemed to bring forth an added emotion and intensity in the paintings and art of Rembrandt as a painter. His bedside paintings of his dying wife are indicative of his ability to encapsulate human emotion and display Rembrandt’s profound ability to empathise with aspects of the human condition.