Rembrandt van Rijn - The Real Rembrandt [Documentary]

Rembrandt van Rijn, fully Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Rembrandt originally spelled Rembrant, (born July 15, 1606, Leiden, Netherlands—died October 4, 1669, Amsterdam), Dutch Baroque painter and printmaker, one among the best storytellers within the history of art, possessing an exceptional ability to render people in their various moods and dramatic guises. Rembrandt is additionally referred to as a painter of sunshine and shade and as an artist who favored an uncompromising realism that might lead some critics to say that he preferred ugliness to beauty.

Rembrandt van Rijn
Dutch artist
Written By: Ernst van de Wetering

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Alternative Titles: "Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn", "Rembrant van Rijn"

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  Early in his career and for a few times, Rembrandt painted mainly portraits. Although he continued to paint—and etch and, occasionally, draw—portraits throughout his career, he did so less frequently over time. Roughly one-tenth of his painted and etched oeuvre consists of studies of his own face also as more-formal self-portraits, an incontrovertible fact that has led to much speculation.

 
The core of Rembrandt’s oeuvre, however, consists of biblical and—to a way lesser extent—historical, mythological, and allegorical “history pieces,” all of which he painted, etched or sketched in pen and ink or chalk. Seen over his whole career, the changes in Rembrandt’s style are remarkable. His approach to composition and his rendering of space and light—like his handling of contour, form, and color, his brushwork, and (in his drawings and etchings) his treatment of line and tone—are subject to gradual (or sometimes abrupt) transformation, even within one work. The painting referred to as graveyard watch (1640/42) was clearly a turning point in his stylistic development. These changes aren't the results of an involuntary evolution; rather they ought to be seen as documenting a conscious search in pictorial and narrative respects, sometimes within the discussion, because it was, together with his great predecessors.

Rembrandt quickly achieved renown among Dutch art lovers and an art-buying public for his history paintings and etchings, also as his portraits and self-portraits. His unusual etchings brought him international fame during his lifetime, and his drawings, which actually were done as practice exercises or as studies for other works, were also collected by contemporary art lovers.
 

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According to the parable that evolved after his death, Rembrandt died poor and misunderstood. it's true that by the top of his life his realism had been supplanted by Classicism and had become unfashionable in Holland. Nevertheless, his international reputation among connoisseurs and collectors only continued to rise. Certain artists in 18th-century Germany and Venice even adopted his style. He was venerated during the Romantic era and was considered a forerunner of the Romantic movement; from that time, he was considered one among the best figures in the humanistic discipline . within the Netherlands itself, his fortunes have once more risen, and he has become a logo of both greatness and Dutch-ness.
Early years

 
Like most Dutch children of his day, Rembrandt attended grade school (c. 1612–16), after which, from roughly 1616 to 1620, he attended the Latin School in Leiden, where biblical studies and classics were the most subjects taught. The school’s emphasis on oratory skills may have contributed to his ability to “stage” the figures in scenes depicted in his history paintings, drawings, and etchings. it's not clear whether Rembrandt completed his course of study at the Latin School. His first biographer, Jan Janszoon Orders (1570–1646), provided a laudatory half-page biography of Rembrandt within his Beschrijvinge der Stadt Leyden (1641; “Description of the Town of Leiden”). There Orders wrote that Rembrandt was taken out of faculty prematurely and, at his own request, was sent to be trained as a painter. the very fact that Rembrandt was enrolled in Leiden University on May 20, 1620, doesn't necessarily contradict this. Whether for tax reasons or just because they had attended the Latin School, it had been commonplace for Leiden boys to be registered as students without being expected to attend any lectures. The extent of Rembrandt’s intellectual development and any possible influence this may need had on his work remain matters of speculation.

  From approximately 1620 to 1624/25, Rembrandt trained as an artist. As was quite common in his time, he had two masters in succession. Rembrandt’s first master was the Leiden painter Jacob van Swanenburgh (1571–1638), with whom, consistent with Orders, he remained for about three years. Van Swanenburgh must have taught him the essential skills and imparted the knowledge necessary for the profession. He was a specialist in architectural pieces and in scenes of hell and therefore the underworld, which involved skill in painting fire and its reflections on the encompassing objects. In Rembrandt’s time, this skill was considered distinct and demanding. it's going to rather be that Rembrandt’s early exposure to the present quite pictorial problem underlies his lasting interest within the effects of sunshine.

 
Rembrandt’s second teacher, Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), lived in Amsterdam. consistent with Orlers, Rembrandt stayed with him for 6 months. Working with Lastman, who was documented at that point as a history painter must have helped Rembrandt gain the knowledge and skill necessary to master that genre. History painting involved placing various figures from biblical, historical, mythological, or allegorical scenes in complex settings. within the 17th-century hierarchy of the varied genres, history painting held the very best position, because it required an entire command of all subjects, from landscape to architecture, from painting to drapery, from animals to, above all, the human figure, during a wide selection of postures, expressions, and costumes. One Rembrandt biographer, Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719), mentions another Amsterdam history painter, Jakob Pinas (c. 1585–1650), together of Rembrandt’s teachers. (In 1718 Houbraken wrote the foremost extensive early biography and characterization of Rembrandt as an artist, although it had been mixed with spurious anecdotes.)

 
On the idea of stylistic arguments, one could speculate on the impact that Jan Lievens (1607–74) may have had on Rembrandt during his training. Lievens, one year younger than Rembrandt and originally a toddler prodigy, was already a full-fledged artist by the time Rembrandt must have decided to become a painter. Although scholars know surely only that Rembrandt and Lievens worked closely together for a few years after Rembrandt had returned to Leiden about 1625, following his training with Lastman, the contacts between these two Leiden boys may have begun earlier. However, no trace of Rembrandt’s student exercises has survived.
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"Rembrandt van Rijn"

Born

July 15, 1606
Leiden, Netherlands
 

Died

October 4, 1669 (aged 63)
 

Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Leiden period (1625–31)

 
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, soft-ground etching, or Vernis mou, became current. this system involves drawing with a pencil on a sheet of paper placed on a copperplate coated with a particularly soft, sticky ground. the bottom adheres to the paper wherever the pencil passes, leaving the metal exposed in broad, soft lines. The plate is exposed to acid and, when printed, yields results almost like pencil or chalk drawings. it had been primarily a reproductive technique but was employed by the 18th-century English artists Gainsborough, John Sell Cotman, and Thomas Girtin for original designs, mainly landscapes. within the late 19th century, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, and Mary Cassatt used the then moribund technique for artistic ends, and their work fostered a revival within the 20th century.

Etching continued to be employed by most artists throughout the 19th century, and within the 20th century, the technique was adopted with new enthusiasm by several prominent artists. Primary among them is Picasso, who first made etching a vehicle for his Cubist ideas and subsequently exploited the technique’s purity of line in his “classical” period. Matisse, Chagall, Georges Rouault, Miro, Stanley Hayter, and David Hockney also did much important to add this medium.
 

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