Famous European Painters
Childhood and The Leiden Period (1625-1631)
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606, in Leiden, the Netherlands. He was one of many children born to a well-to do family, his father being a miller, his mother a baker's daughter. Rembrandt attended Latin school as a child and was later briefly enrolled at the University of Leiden. Rembrandt's parents soon realized his overwhelming love and talent for painting and established an apprenticeship with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. Rembrandt was painting small, but each work was richly detailed, conveying various themes of religious allegory. With his friend and colleague Jan Lievens , Rembrandt opened a studio and in 1627 began to accept students.
Amsterdam and Marriage
By 1631, Rembrandt had achieved a reputation as a portrait painter and many of his assignments came from Amsterdam , prompting him to move there. From 1632-1636, this great painter became more comfortable with larger canvasses, depicting dramatic biblical and mythological scenes in vibrant tones. Rembrandt fell in love with and married Saskia van Uylenburgh in 1634. Their union was one of love and in 1639, the couple moved to a lovely home in Jodenbreestraat (the Jewish Quarter) of Amsterdam. They had four children, only one of which, a son named Titus born in 1641, survived into adulthood. Saskia died in 1642 soon after Titus's birth, perhaps from tuberculosis.
By the late 1630s, Rembrandt produced many landscapes and etchings related to nature. His style was dark and tormented, depicting trees ripping through the winds of treacherous storms and dark ominous skies. After Saskia's death, Rembrandt truly grieved, but within time he became involved with a former maidservant named Henrickje Stoffels, with whom he had a "common law" marriage and a daughter born in 1654 named Cornelia.
Bankruptcy and Death
Rembrandt was a man who lived beyond his means, and although his fame did not diminish, he went bankrupt in 1656 and was forced to sell his house. Moving to a more modest section of town, Rembrandt's family ran an art shop to make ends meet. He painted many self portraits during these last years, all revealing his face as an emblem of sadness and pain. Rembrandt outlived his son and his mistress, and only his daughter was by his side when he died on October 4, 1669, and was buried in an unmarked grave.
