Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), generally considered to be the greatest artist of his century, owes his fame mainly to his many masterful paintings, prints and drawings depicting events from the Bible. In his own day, however, what paid the rent were the portraits he painted. During the 17th c., as a consequence of Holland's rise to the leading position in the rapidly expanding Capitalist World System, gold flowed into the small nation in unprecedented amounts, enriching not only the big merchants but the petty bourgeoisie as well. Unlike the analogous situation when the U.S. became the center of World Capitalism after WWII, there weren't a lot of investment opportunities for this new-found wealth -- no stock market, appliances, automobiles, real estate to absorb the money. So the middle classes invested in paintings: good for their status, don't take up much space, and possibly they'll go up in value. As the demand rose, so did the supply of painters to meet it. For every painter of talent there were, as might be expected, a hundred hacks. The new buying public wasn't too discriminating in its taste either: if the portrait resembled what they thought they looked like, they were satisfied. Ironically, the portraits for which Rembrandt is today remembered are mostly portraits of civic groups like "The Night Watch" and "The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild." These types of portraits paid handsomely, but Rembrandt didn't get many commissions for them, making his living mainly from painting individual portraits. Painters were also craftsmen, and craftsmen were used to working cheap. So, if Rembrandt wanted 50 florins, and the hack down the street would take 49, they went to the hack. Rembrandt's style wasn't considered "classical" enough for the toney fellows who made the big commissions, like the Town Hall, so he relied mainly of portraits of the middle class for income. He even ran a "painting factory" of sorts, letting a dozen or so employees handle the routine stuff under his supervision. Either he was a horrible businessman, or the economic cards were stacked against him, for he seems to have been perpetually in debt. This gallery includes all the portraits, individual or group, that can be attributed to Rembrandt or his studio. As is the custom with all MWW galleries, the works are presented in chronological order and the majority are accompanied by commentaries. (Click "See More" to the right of the full-screen image to access these.)
A Museum Without Walls Rembrandt összes portréja című, 332 fényképet tartalmazó albuma: >>>
Rembrandt van Rijn, in full 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 of the greatest storytellers in the history of art, possessing an exceptional ability to render people in their various moods and dramatic guises. Rembrandt is also known as a painter of light and shade and as an artist who favoured an uncompromising realism that would lead some critics to claim that he preferred ugliness to beauty.
Early in his career and for some time, 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 as well as more-formal self-portraits, a fact that has led to much speculation.
The core of Rembrandt’s oeuvre, however, consists of biblical and—to a much 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 colour, his brushwork, and (in his drawings and etchings) his treatment of line and tone—are subject to gradual (or sometimes abrupt) transformation, even within a single work. The painting known as Night Watch (1640/42) was clearly a turning point in his stylistic development. These changes are not the result of an involuntary evolution; rather they should be seen as documenting a conscious search in pictorial and narrative respects, sometimes in discussion, as it were, with his great predecessors.
Rembrandt quickly achieved renown among Dutch art lovers and an art-buying public for his history paintings and etchings, as well as his portraits and self-portraits. His unusual etchings brought him international fame during his lifetime, and his drawings, which in fact were done as practice exercises or as studies for other works, were also collected by contemporary art lovers.
According to the myth that evolved after his death, Rembrandt died poor and misunderstood. It is true that by the end 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 point he was regarded as one of the greatest figures in art history. In the Netherlands itself, his fortunes have once again risen, and he has become a symbol of both greatness and Dutch-ness.
A Museum Without Walls Rembrandt van Rijn: fény és árnyék című, 250 fényképből álló albuma: >>>