The Painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Superstar during the Golden Age of the NetherlandsBy Bert Alexander Petzold

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Anyone who looks at Rembrandt van Rijn sees more than Baroque painting. They see light that grows out of darkness, faces full of inwardness, and a kind of painting that still feels like a conversation today. What makes Rembrandt’s art so distinctive that his pictures in the Rembrandt Museum and in the great collections of the world hold people spellbound, from art lessons at school to art history at university, from Amsterdam to far beyond it? This non-fiction book invites you on a fact rich cultural journey through the Golden Age and the Dutch Baroque, told in an accessible way and at the same time full of precise observation. You discover Rembrandt’s biography and Rembrandt’s works as keys to seeing, you learn to classify Rembrandt paintings with confidence, and you understand why Rembrandt’s self portrait, history painting and etching set new standards. Anyone interested in painting, Old Masters and the big questions of how images work will find orientation and moments of recognition here, even if ‘Die Nachtwache’ has long been fixed in the mind but its artistic logic has remained puzzling. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, born on 15 July 1606 in Leiden, grew up in a respectable middle class environment that encouraged education and made ambition possible. Early on, his eye for physiognomies and his courage for strong light and dark effects became apparent. After Latin school he began his training, studied with Jacob Isaacsz. van Swanenburgh and then moved to the studio of the Amsterdam history painter Pieter Lastman. Back in Leiden he founded a shared studio with Jan Lievens, and even as a young master he trained his first pupil, Gerrit Dou. When Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam in 1632, fame came quickly, and with it commissions, prosperity and the great stage of the metropolis. His marriage to Saskia van Uylenburgh, the niece of his art dealer, became a centre of his life, and at the same time a series of masterpieces emerged that the book makes vivid and understandable, ‘Die Anatomie des Dr. Nicolaes Tulp’, ‘Belshazzars Gastmahl’ and the world famous ‘Die Nachtwache’. These examples make it tangible how Rembrandt combined the direction of light, composition and psychological depth, and why his figures feel like living characters. Yet life did not remain at the peak of success. Saskia’s death struck him hard, and later he lived with Hendrickje Stoffels, who sat for him as a model and became his companion. Family disputes and financial difficulties led to decline in the 1650s, until Rembrandt eventually declared bankruptcy. It was precisely in this crisis that works of great power were created, ‘Christus heilend die Kranken’, often referred to as the ‘Hundertguldenblatt’, ‘Die drei Kreuze’, ‘Ecce Homo’ and ‘Aristoteles mit der Büste des Homer’. The book shows how Rembrandt, in etchings and paintings, grasped the human ever more intensely, and how shadows did not conceal but revealed. In his final years he created late works of particular warmth and dignity, ‘Die Staalmeesters’ and ‘Die Judenbraut’. At the same time, the account explains why scholarship and attributions changed, because new paintings appeared and other works were assigned to his pupils. In this way it becomes clear how alive the field of Baroque painting remains to this day, and how Rembrandt’s influence shaped generations. The author of the book is Bert Alexander Petzold, and it is ideally suited to preparation for examinations leading to the higher education entrance qualification and for study at university. Secure this book and experience Rembrandt’s pictures as a school of seeing, clear, exciting and well grounded. Rediscover the most renowned Baroque painter of the Golden Age and take with you the knowledge that will deepen your encounter with painting for good.

The Painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

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