Rembrandt is now thought to be the greatest Dutch painter and also one of the greatest painters of all time. He was born in Leiden in the Netherlands in 1606. At the age of 14, Rembrandt began studying at the famous University of Leiden, but academic life did not suit him. In 1624 Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, where he was apprenticed to the much more fashionable Pieter Lastman, but he only remained there for a year and then returned to Leiden.
Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. In a number of biblical works, including The Raising of the Cross, Joseph Telling His Dreams and The Stoning of Saint Stephen, Rembrandt painted himself as a character in the crowd. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography.
As well as portraits, he produced baroque history paintings such as 'Belshazzar's Feast'. Rembrandt seems never to have been interested in perfection. There is almost the feeling that he was constantly dissatisfied with his work and tried to find a different solution each time.
Among the more prominent characteristics of Rembrandt's work are his use of chiaroscuro, the theatrical employment of light and shadow derived from Caravaggio. The influence of Caravaggio is evident in Rembrandt's work from the 1630s. He developed a new way of describing faces with patterns of light and shadow, rather than simply lighting one side and shading the other.
In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population.
In a letter to Huygens, Rembrandt offered the only surviving explanation of what he sought to achieve through his art: the greatest and most natural movement. It is likely Rembrandt made many more drawings in his lifetime than 2,000, but those extant are more rare than presumed. Two experts claim that the number of drawings whose autograph status can be regarded as effectively "certain" is no higher than about 75, although this is disputed.
April 23, 2013
I. C.
