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REMBRANDT PAINTING
Rembrandt
Rembrandt: Master of Light and Shadow
"Those keen and steady eyes, that we
know so well from Rembrandt's self-portraits, must have been able to
look straight into the human heart."
Ernst H. Gombrich
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, is the greatest Dutch, infact the greatest
17th century European artist known.
Recognized as 'the painter of
light', the artist produced numerous self-portraits throughout his life,
used unique artistic techniques and was a master of light and shadow.
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Biography
Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn
(1696-1669)
1606 Born 15th of July in Leiden, the eighth of nine children.
1613-1620 All his brothers were raised as craftsmen, whereas
Rembrandt was sent to the school for Latin and later enrolled in the
Philosophical Faculty of Leiden University to study Classics.
1622-1624 Founds own studio. Executes history paintings,
physiognomical studies, numerous self-portraits and also engravings
and etchings.
1628 Constantijn Huygens, the highly educated secretary of the
governor, comes to Leiden and develops great interest in Rembrandt
and his art.
1635 Rembrandt's father dies.
1631 Rembrandt moves to Amsterdam, where he lives by the art dealer,
Uylenburgh and becomes recognized as a successful portrait painter.
1632 Thanks to Huygens, Prince Frederick acquires a number of
paintings and commisions the Passion cycle.
1634 Rembrandt marries Saskia van Uylenburgh, niece of the
art-dealer Ulyenburgh. He becomes a member of the Guild of St. Luke,
so that he may train pupils. He had eight pupils working in his
studio, many famous such as Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck.
1635 Rembrandt's first son dies only a few months after his birth.
1636 Rembrandt starts an encyclopaedic collection of exotic items,
scientific and historical objects, and animals and plants. In the
following years, he paints a series of Saskia's portraits and The
Prodigal Son in the Tavern.
1640 Thier first daughter named Cornelia, dies as well after a short
while. Rembrandts mother dies a month later.
1641 Their son Titus is born.
1642 After the completion of The Night Watch, Saskia dies. This
causes a great trauma in Rembrandts life. Geertge Dircx and
Hendrickje Stoffels move in with him in order to support him.
Rembrandt works on his most famous etching The Guilder Print. His
graphic works become well-recognized and are often copied.
1649 Geertge takes Rembrandt to court accusing him with an
unfulfilled promise of marriage, which Hendrickje testifies against.
Geertge is sentenced to several years in prison.
1653 Although Rembrandt received several commisions, he had
financial diffuculties and was forced to borrow money.
1654 Rembrandt has a daughter named Cornelius from Hendrickje.
Hendrickje is accused of immoral realtions with Rembrandt before the
Amsterdam Council of the Reformed Church.
1656 Rembrandt is declared bankrupt.
1657-1958 Rembrandt's house and collections are auctioned, but still
he cannot gather enough money to pay his debts. He moves into the
Roozengracht where he leads an isolated life.
1660 Titus and Hendrickje employ Rembrandt in their art shop. He
continues to keep pupils occupied and executes commisions.
1668 Titus marries Magdalena van Loo, but dies a few months later.
1669 Rembrandt lives with daughter in law and has his first
granddaughter. He dies on October 4, without completing the painting
Simeon with the Christ Child in the Temple.
Bibliography:
Bockemühl, Michael : Rembrandt The Mystery of the Revealed Form,
Köln: Taschen, 2000, p.102 |
His father was a miller who wanted
him to have a learned profession, but Rembrandt left the University of
Leiden to study painting. [1] During the 1620's, Rembrandt studied art
with the painter Jacob van Swanenburgh. He set up a studio in Leiden and
collaborated with Jan Lievens. In the 1630's he moved from his native
city, Leiden, to
Amsterdam
where he became highly recognized and received many commisions for
portraits and religous scenes. In 1632 he painted his first group
portrait; The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp(Mauritshuis, The
Hague). [2] This was one of Rembrandt's first major public commissions
in Amsterdam. It depicts the regents of the Guild of Surgeons gathered
for a dissection and lecture.
Such group portraits were a genre
unique to Holland and was a promising income for an artist where neither
church nor royalty acted as patrons of art. Rembrandt's paintings were
more than just simple commemorative portraits. There was an interesting
arrangement of the figures, in this case pyramidal, which created a
natural scene. [3]
Rembrandt
lived in the 'Golden Era' of Holland, which was a peak period in terms
of culture, science, trade and politics. He was very fond of the Italien
Renaissance art and quite unusually, non-European artists. Influences of
Rubens, with the spiralling compositions and chiaroscuro (the use of
strong contrast between light and dark) inspired by Caravaggio are
evident in his paintings, which he skillfully assimilated into his
paintings. [4]
Rembrandt revolutionized the
conventional technique; instead of using fine, thin brushstrokes, he
prefered chunky, thick brushstrokes, which were only properly
comprehensible from a distance. This created an unfinished look. So
instead of an imitation of the form, he created a suggestion of it. [5]
Waldemar
Konusczak, meticulously describes the essence of Rembrandt: "He worked
in complex layers, building up a picture from the back to the front with
delicate glazes that allowed light actually to permeate his backgrounds
and reflect off the white underpainting, and generously applied
bodycolors which mimicked the effect of solid bodies in space. Never
before had a painter taken such a purely sensuous interest and delight
in the physical qualities of his medium, nor granted it a greater
measure of independence from the image." [6]
Rembrandt lived a wealthy life. In 1634, he married Saskia van Uylenburgh,
whom he used as a model for many of his paintings. In 1636, Rembrandt
began to paint with a more calm feeling adding warmth in color. But
within the next couple of years, he went through a difficult stage,
during which three of his four newly born children and wife died. [7]
The
Night Watch (1642) is attributed as one of Rembrandt's most inventive
works, unfortunately it was cut down on all sides in 1715, so that it
could fit into the Town Hall. It is neither a night scene nor does it
depict soldiers mounting a watch. The painting was commisisoned as a
group portrait of a militia company. But what is so extraordinary about
the painting, is the fashion he integrated the portraits. Each
individual is occupied with their own particular duty. He created a
dynamic and exciting atmosphere with light and shades, a great variety
of poses and facial expressions within a complex spatial design. [8]
Although Rembrandt never went to Italy, unlike many other artists, there
was an influence of classical Italy in his paintings. For example in his
landscape paintings, for which he used his imagination rather than
recording a specific location and included ancient ruins and hills
instead of depicting the flat landscape of Holland. [9]
Rembrandt lived a comfortable life, unlike many other artists, he bought
several paintings of other artists. In the 1640's and 1650's, he had
fewer commissions and sometimes exceeded in his spendings causing
bankruptcy, but this did not effect his artistic production. During the
last period of his life, Rembrandt did not give as much importance to
the baroque drama and superficial details, but more to the spiritual
expression. He was no longer interested in allegorical and mythological
subjects.
Rembrandt,
produced approximately 600 paintings, 300 etchings, and 1,400 drawings.
[10] Within these works are more than 60 self-portraits. These
self-portraits were not only portrayals of himself in various stages of
his life, but were also a means of studying facial expressions and
exploring different artistic techniques. [11] It was also a record of a
lifetimes changing attitudes. His early studies of self-portraits cannot
be considered as objective representation, since he used them as
examples for his later Bibilical and historical paintings and a way of
elaborating on chiaroscuro. One-third of Rembrandt's production were
Biblical subjects, which was not usual for Protestant Holland in the
17th century, for church patronage was nonexistent and religious art was
not regarded as important. He, in a way, continued the baroque style,
dramatizing and emphasizing light and shadow.
For Rembrandt, drawing and etching were just as important as painting. In
his early drawings, he used black or red chalk, later used pen and ink
on paper combined with brushwork. Rembrandt's etchings were also highly
recognized and he was considered as one of the masters of the technique.
He used strokes of lines creating extraordinary effects, again
emphasizing light and shadow. Jan Six (1647), Three Trees (1643) and the
100 Guilder Print are among his most well known etchings. [12]
The
uniqueness that lies in Rembrandt's art, is its unfinished quality. It
leaves it to the observer to reveal the painting and discover the
features within the layers, therefore leading the observer to a
never-ending experience...
[1] http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/
[2] http://www.rembrandthuis.nl/cms_pages/index_main.html
[3] http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/rembrand/rembrandt_bio.htm
[4]
Honour, Hugh and Felming, John : A World History of Art, London:
Laurence King Publishing, 1995, s. 556
[5] http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/rembrandt.html
[6] Konusczak, Waldemar: Techniques of the World's Great Painters, Book
Sales, 1993
[7] http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/
[8] Honour, Hugh and Felming, John : A World History of Art, London:
Laurence King Publishing, 1995, s. 557
[9] http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/rembrand/rembrandt_bio.htm
[10] http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/
[11] Bonafoux, Pascal : Rembrandt Substance and Shadow, London: Thames and
Hudson, 1992, p.102
[12] http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/rembrand/rembrandt_bio.htm
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