Rembrandt - Painter, Engraver and Draftsman - Volume 2

Émile Michel

Rembrandt

Painter, Engraver and Draftman

Volume 2

Author: after Émile Michel

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No parts of this publication may be reproduced or adapted without the permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world. Unless otherwise specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers. Despite intensive research, it has not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case, we would appreciate notification.

ISBN: 978-1-78525-679-0

Contents

Rembrandt’s Reputation and Saskia’s Death

Rembrandt’s Increasing Fame

The Night Watch

Saskia’s Death

Rembrandt’s Technique and His Genius

Rembrandt’s Technique

The Art of the Portrait

His Landscapes

Rembrandt’s Home

A Strenuous Twilight

Rembrandt’s Financial Difficulties

Exile

The Syndics

His Last Years

Conclusion

Bibliography

List of Illustrations

1. Artemis, 1634. Oil on canvas, 143 x 154.7 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

Rembrandt’s Reputation and Saskia’s Death

Rembrandt’s Increasing Fame

Rembrandt’s talents, and the popularity he enjoyed at Amsterdam, had now made him widely known. His etchings, which had been well-received from the first, spread his fame not only throughout his own country but in foreign lands, and many pupils came to seek instruction from him. We do not believe, however, that he received any into his studio in the very early days of his residence. At the time, he was less extensively known. Additionally, those who were discovered to have been his first pupils were not old enough to be his apprentices until several years after his arrival. When he had more time at his disposal, he found it impossible to refuse all of the many applicants for admission. He was at once the most fashionable portraitist, and the most prominent historical painter of the day. Various circumstances, as we shall see, combined with his superiority over his rivals to secure his preeminence.

We have seen that the master, in addition to his studies from the human body, turned to everything around him for his own instruction. The animals, still-life subjects, and objects he used were also copied by his pupils. Several of their studies, and some of those retouched by Rembrandt himself, are enumerated in his inventory. He was careful to vary such work as much as possible, and to this end, he made his house a perfect museum of curiosities, seeming never to weary of adding new acquisitions to his stores such as costly materials, stuffed animals, richly ornamented weapons, plasters, casts from nature or antiquities, pictures and engravings by various masters. He transacted business with all the principal art dealers, and was a frequent attendant at sales. As early as 1635, he bought a number of drawings, chiefly by Adriaen Brauwer.

Rembrandt was often accused of avarice; however, few artists have actually shown an equal lack of worldly wisdom regarding their financial affairs, a lack of wisdom from which he cruelly suffered at the end of his career. He squandered his money in the most reckless manner, including that which Saskia brought him, no less than his own earnings, and the inheritances that fell to him from time to time. Far from watching keenly over his own interests, he was always too ready to neglect them, and in the administration of family affairs he was invariably guided by his natural generosity, and by a kindliness which often led him to extravagance. As his money came in, it was immediately spent on acquisitions of all sorts. He also drew largely on his credit: regarding ornaments for his beloved Saskia, nothing was too magnificent.

The pearls, precious stones, rich necklaces, clasps, and bracelets of every kind she wears in her portraits and in the pictures for which she sat, were not gems of Rembrandt’s imagination, created by a stroke of the brush. From these portraits and pictures we could make an inventory of the young wife’s jewel-case. Prompted both by his love for Saskia and his devotion to his art, Rembrandt found it impossible to resist the temptation of these purchases. In addition to the silver basins, ewers, and cups he introduces in many of his compositions, note the jewels that sparkle in the hair and ears, on the arms, neck and breast of the Artemis in the Prado, and Samson Proposing the Riddle at the Wedding Feast at Dresden (Vol.1, pp. 130-131), in addition to the sole adornment of the Danae in the Hermitage (Vol.1, p. 231).

Certain of Saskia’s relatives, prompted either by jealousy or genuine disapproval of the young couple’s lavish expenditures and unconventional behaviours, began to criticise the household with some severity. Divisions had sprung up in the family in connection with the distribution of old Rombertus’ estate. A series of lawsuits engaged in by the disputants caused mutual estrangements. Rembrandt supported the cause of the Gerard van Loo, who had his entire confidence. On the eve of his marriage he had, in fact, placed all his interests in Friesland in Gerard’s hands. By a deed drawn up at Rotterdam, on July 22, 1634, Gerard was empowered to deal with all sums due to the young couple and to sign all contracts and receipts for them. Having rendered a judgment favourable to Van Loo, the opponents no doubt vented their chagrin and spoke a bit too freely about Rembrandt, his wife, and the life they led, implying that Saskia had squandered her inheritance in jewels and display.

Greatly incensed by attacks which he felt to be wholly groundless, Rembrandt brought an action against Albert van Loo, and supported by his brother-in-law, Ulric van Uylenborch, he demanded damages for slander in no respect true, declaring that he and his wife were on the contrary richly and even superabundantly provided with means, and that they had, therefore, just claims to compensation. The court, however, judged his grievance insufficient in a decree of July 16, 1638.

In spite of his assertion of solvency, Rembrandt had already had difficulties, and even before 1637 was obliged to borrow money. When writing to the Prince’s secretary, on January 27, 1639, to announce the completion of the two pictures, The Entombment and The Resurrection, he begged for immediate payment, as the money would be very acceptable just now. He further spoke with the Treasurer, Uytenbogaerd, who told him that payment could be made at his office. On the thirteenth of February following, Rembrandt, having agreed to the proposed price of 600 florins each for his pictures, plus 44 florins for frames and case, returned to the charge, asking that payment might be made as quickly as possible at Amsterdam. There was, however, a further delay of some days, prompting him to repeat his request more urgently than before, begging that the order might be made out immediately.

From other sources we also learn further causes for Rembrandt’s impatience, and his solicitations for payment. By then, he had bought a house. Upon his arrival in Amsterdam, he took up his quarters in a warehouse on Bloemgracht. His letters to Huygens mention various subsequent residences. In February 1636, he lived on New Doel Straet; three years later he relocated to a house called the Sugar Refinery on a new quay on Binnen Amstel Street at the end of the town. Such changes were not to the taste of a recluse like Rembrandt; he felt the need of a home in which he could set up his studio, install his pupils, and arrange his collections. On January 5, 1639, he bought the second house beyond the bridge, belonging to the heirs of P. Beltens in Joden-Breestraat. This house, in the very heart of the Jewish quarter, adjoined that of the Jew, Salvador Rodriguez, on the east, and on the west, that of Rembrandt’s brother-artist, Nicolaes Elias. The price was 13,000 florins, a fourth of which was to be paid a year after possession and the remainder in five or six years. A sum so considerable in those days shows that the property was a valuable one. The house must have been in excellent repair, for it was a comparatively new building, as we know from the date, 1606, inscribed in a stone on the second story. Rembrandt evidently counted on his annual gains for these successive payments. He now received considerable sums, ranging from 500 to 600 florins, for his portraits and pictures. He was beginning to make a good price for his etchings; he had further the payments from his pupils, and the occasional inheritance that fell to him. This had enabled him to pay off half the purchase price of his house, and thus proclaim his intention of paying the whole debt as soon as possible. Unfortunately, his virtuous zeal was short-lived. He made no further payments, and the accumulated interest on the debt eventually became one of the main causes of his ruin.

2. Bellona, 1633. Oil on canvas, 127 x 97.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

3. Cupid, 1634. Oil on wood, 75.7 x 92.6 cm. Collection of the duke of Liechtenstein, Vaduz.

In May of the year 1639, he took up residence in this house. His home had always been dear to him, and in this one which he hoped would be permanent, he delighted to store everything pleasing to the eye and serviceable to his art. The life he marked out for himself was now, as always, methodical; everything was made subordinate to his work. On this point, his biographers are all agreed. When he was painting he would not have given audience to the greatest monarch on earth, but would have compelled even such one to wait, or to come again when he was available. Though his pupils, Flinck, Bol, Koninck, and Van den Eeckhout, all figured more or less prominently in public life, he himself was a person apart. His name, unlike theirs, appears neither among the members of the Painters’ Guild nor among those of the Civic Guards. When in 1638 Marie de Medici announced her intention of visiting Amsterdam, the municipality arranged to give her a magnificent reception. Rembrandt was excluded. He never put himself forward, and was readily forgotten, nor did he take much pleasure in dealing with the polished devotees of classic culture who gave the tone to society who, on their part, had little appreciation for him. Rembrandt, for his part, preferred those simpler folks whose minds were more in touch with the familiar life of the nation, and whose tastes agreed with his own. He profited more from the intimacy with small tradespeople and with the lower classes that scandalised his detractors more than from the acquaintances he might have cultivated among the great, had he been so minded. Among the poor and lowly he found opportunities to observe the lively and spontaneous manifestation of feelings he could never have studied in patrician society. Herein lay his strength, that by virtue of the truth and intense vitality of his art, he was able to revivify apparently exhausted themes. By giving shape to the vague aspirations then simmering among the masses, he had shown the eternal freshness of the greatest subjects.

Though he admitted but few to his own fireside, among his relatives and friends he could count many distinguished men in whose society he took genuine pleasure. We know that he had secured the lasting affection of members of Saskia’s family. He had recently lost the aged Sylvius, who had always shown the warmest attachment to him. The minister died November 19, 1638, after marrying his son in May of the same year. But through the intermediary of the Sylviuses, Rembrandt had made the acquaintance of other clergy of the city, such as Alenson, Eleazar Swalm, and Renier Anslo, whose portrait he afterwards painted. With them, as with the Rabbis and Hebrew scholars of his quarter, he was able to discuss the sacred writings and their interpretations of them. Among his intimates were also collectors and art dealers, such as his cousin, Hendrick van Uylenborch, and a certain number of artists, chiefly landscape painters, like R. Roghman, one of his most constant friends; also a few favourite pupils whom he admitted to his domestic circle.

4. Study for The Abduction of Ganymede, 1635 (?). Drawing pen and bister tints with white highlights, 18.5 x 16.1 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden.

5. The Abduction of Ganymede, 1635. Oil on canvas, 177 x 130 cm. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.

His own home, however, was sufficient for him. There he found the two things dearest to him on earth; his work and his wife, the loving companion who anticipated his every wish, and shared his joys and his sorrows. Unhappily, Saskia’s health had given him great cause for anxiety for some time. Her strength had been severely taxed by the birth of several children. She had lost her eldest son, who was born at the end of 1635. A daughter, born on July 1, 1638, was baptised Cornelia, after Rembrandt’s mother, at the Oude Kerk on July 22 of the following year. But this child too died on July 29, 1640.

Faithful to his early habits, Rembrandt continued to take Saskia for his model, and the etchings he made of her at this period mark the gradual decline of a constitution that was never robust. She is represented