Rembrandt van Rijn
b Leiden, 15 July 1606; d Amsterdam, 4 Oct 1669, bur 8
Oct 1669).
Dutch painter, draughtsman and etcher. From 1632 onwards he signed his
works with only the forename Rembrandt; in documents, however, he
continued to sign Rembrandt van Rijn (occasionally van Rhyn),
initially with the addition of the patronymic ‘Harmensz.’. This was no
doubt in imitation of the great Italians such as Leonardo, Michelangelo,
Raphael and Titian, on whom he modelled himself, sometimes literally. He
certainly equalled them in fame, and not only in his own country. His
name still symbolizes a whole period of art history rightfully known as
‘Holland’s Golden Age’. In 1970–71 a great exhibition in Paris was
devoted to it under the eloquent title Le Siecle de Rembrandt. A
century before, a popular work of cultural history by C. Busken Huet
referred to the Netherlands as ‘the land of Rembrandt’. His fame is
partly due to his multi-faceted talent. Frans Hals was perhaps at times
a greater virtuoso with the brush but remained ‘only’ a portrait
painter. Vermeer may have excelled Rembrandt in the art of illusion but
was less prolific. Rembrandt was not only a gifted painter but also an
inspired graphic artist: he has probably never been surpassed as an
etcher, and he often seems inimitable as a draughtsman. His subjects
reflect his manifold talent and interests. He painted, drew and etched
portraits, landscapes, figures and animals, but, above all, scenes of
biblical and secular history and mythology. Contemporary critics
ascribed the highest artistic value to his history paintings, as opposed
to his portraits, which were regarded as a necessary evil. Rembrandt
combined theory and practice, inventing, for instance, a new kind of
painting, the ‘tronie’ or portrait head, a compromise between
portraiture and history painting. His most famous portrait commission
was that of the Militia Company of Capt. Frans Banning Cocq and Lt
Willem van Ruytenburch, a picture known by its nickname, the
‘Night Watch’ (1642; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.); it was praised in 1678
by Samuel van Hoogstraten on the grounds that the artist had made it
into a ‘history’ instead of a mere group portrait. In 1641, the year
before it was completed, J. J. Orlers, the artist’s first biographer,
described Rembrandt as ‘one of the most famous painters of our age’.
