Interesting Facts About Famed Dutch Artist Rembrandt

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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch draughtsman, painter, and print-maker. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history.

Unlike most Dutch masters of the 17th century, Rembrandt’s works depict a wide range of style and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, biblical and mythological themes as well as animal studies. Source [WikiPedia]

Via [MentalFloss]

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Facts About Rembrandt

• ‘Rembrandt’ wasn’t his his birth name or last name.

His full name was Rembrant Harmenszoon van Rijn. Harmenszoon means that his father’s name was Harmen, and van Rijn refers to where his family lived, near the Rhine River. So his full name means Rembrant, son of Harmen, from the Rhine. For reasons that are unclear, he added the silent “d” to his signature, changing it from Rembrant to Rembrandt, in 1633.

• Rembrandt married his art dealer’s cousin.

Rembrandt’s art dealer was Hendrik van Uylenburgh, a man who helped Rembrandt get commissions from wealthy art patrons. Rembrandt lived in Uylenburgh’s house in Amsterdam and painted portraits of the society people that Uylenburgh brought him. In 1634, Rembrandt married Uylenburgh’s cousin (although some sources say she was his niece), Saskia van Uylenburgh. Saskia came from a wealthy family, and with her fortune and Rembrandt’s increasing salary, they were able to move to a trendy, affluent neighborhood in Amsterdam.

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Saskia, as painted by Rembrandt. Wikimedia Commons.

• Rembrandt outlived four of his five children.

Rembrandt dealt with much loss throughout his life. He and Saskia had four children: Rumbartus, Cornelia, another Cornelia, and Titus, born in 1641, who was the only child to survive infancy. Saskia died nine months after Titus’s birth, likely of tuberculosis. Twelve years later, Rembrandt had a daughter, also named Cornelia, with his housekeeper and lover, Hendrickje Stoffels. Stoffels died, likely of the plague, in 1663, and a few years later, Titus died at age 26 in 1668. Rembrandt died the following year and was buried in an unmarked grave.

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Titus, as painted by Rembrandt. Wikimedia Commons

• Rembrandt achieved great wealth and success…

Although Rembrandt’s wife Saskia came from a wealthy family, he earned plenty of money in his own right for his art. Starting in the 1630s, Rembrandt set up a studio and, when he wasn’t busy working on portraits for wealthy clients, he taught students. In 1639, he paid 13,000 guilders (an enormous sum) for an upscale town house, which serves as The Rembrandt House Museum today.

• Rembrandt never left the Netherlands.

Although some art historians inaccurately claimed that he lived in Italy, England, and Sweden, Rembrandt most likely lived his entire life in the Netherlands. Historians attribute Rembrandt’s strong use of chiaroscuro—the contrast between light and dark—to his teacher’s Italian influences. As a young man in Amsterdam, Rembrandt studied with Dutch painter Pieter Lastman, who had been to Italy. Lastman taught him techniques from Italian artists such as Caravaggio.