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REMBRANDT 

VAN   RUN 


BY 


MALCOLM   BELL 

AUTHOR    OF     "SIR    EDWARD     BURNE- JONES 
A  RECORD   AND   REVIEW,"   ETC. 


LONDON 

GEORGE  BELL  &  SONS 

1901 


UBRARV          Q 


PREFACE 

IN  order  to  reduce  the  volume  on  Rembrandt,  published 
in  1899,  to  the  smaller  dimensions  demanded  by  the 
"  Great  Masters  "  series,  it  became  necessary  to  dispense 
with  some  of  the  material  included  in  it.  This,  it  is 
hoped,  has  been  done  without  seriously  affecting  the 
usefulness  of  the  book.  The  story  of  the  painter's  life 
and  work  has  been  to  some  extent  compressed,  but 
everything  essential  has,  it  is  believed,  been  retained. 
The  chief  omissions  are  the  short  descriptions  of  the 
pictures  and  the  lists  of  the  etchings,  which,  while 
occupying  much  space,  were  thought  to  be  more  suit- 
able to  a  work  of  reference  than  to  a  handbook.  The 
student  who  desires  fuller  information  on  these  points 
will  find  it  in  the  earlier  volume. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS vii 

BIBLIOGRAPHY ix 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE xiii 

PART   I— REMBRANDT  THE   MAN 

Chapter  I.     BIRTH  AND  EARLY  YEARS      ...  i 

II.     ART  EDUCATION  AND  EARLY  WORKS      .  8 

III.  DAYS  OF  PROSPERITY      .        .        .        .  16 

IV.  DAYS  OF  DECLINE  .        .        .        .        .  32 

PART   II.— REMBRANDT  THE   PAINTER 

V.     EARLY  YEARS  (1627-1633)      .        .  48 

VI.     TIME  OF  PROSPERITY      .        .        .        .  61 

VII.     YEARS  OF  DECLINE         .        .        .        .  71 

PART   III.— REMBRANDT   THE   ETCHER 

VIII.     THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  ETCHINGS    .        .  85 

IX.     THE  AUTHENTIC  ETCHINGS     ...  93 

CATALOGUE  OF  WORKS 117 

INDEX        . 157 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The  Shipbuilder  and  his  Wife,  1633,  Frontispiece 

Buckingham  Palace 
Portrait    of    Rembrandt's    Mother, 

about  1628 The  Hague  6 

Portrait     of    Rembrandt's     Father, 

about  1631           .         .         .                  .         .         Cassel  12 

Portrait  of  Saskia,  1632   .         Prince  Liechtenstein,  Vienna  18 

Rembrandt  and  Saskia,  about  1635          •         •      Dresden  24 

Portrait  of  Rembrandt,  1640    .   National  Gallery ',  London  28 

Portrait  of  Saskia,  1641 Dresden  30 

Portrait  of  Hendrickje  Stoffels,  about  1662       .        Louvre  44 
Portrait  of  Rembrandt,  about  1664 

National  Gallery,  London  46 

Portrait  called  Coppenol,  1631         .         .    The  Hermitage  54 

Portrait  of  a  Man,  1630-1632  .  Imperial  Museum,  Vienna  56 
Portrait  of  a  Woman,  1630-1632 

Imperial  Museum,  Vienna  56 

The  Anatomy  Lesson,  1632     .         .         .          The  Hague  58 

Portrait  of  Jan  Herman  Krul,  1633          .         .         Cassel  58 

The  Elevation  of  the  Cross,  1633     .         .         .      Munich  60 

Portrait  of  an  Old  Woman,  1634  National  Gallery,  London  62 
The  Burgomaster  Pancras  and  his 

Wife,  about  1635          .         .         .     Buckingham  Palace  62 

Portrait  of  a  Man,  1635   .         .  National  Gallery,  London  62 

Danae,  1636 The  Hermitage  64 

vii 


viii  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Portrait  of  a  Man,  1636  .         Prince  Liechtenstein ,  Vienna  64 

Portrait  of  a  Lady,  1636  Prince  Liechtenstein,  Vienna  64 

Portrait  called  Sobieski,  1637  .         .    The  Hermitage  66 

The  Man  with  the  Bittern,  1639      .         .         .      Dresden  66 

Portrait  of  Elizabeth  Bas,  about  1640       .          Amsterdam  68 

Anslo  consoling  a  Widow,  1641        .         .         .        Berlin  68 

The  Lady  with  the  Fan,  1641  .     Buckingham  Palace  70 

Portrait  of  a  Man,  1641  .  .  Brussels  70 

The  Woman  taken  in  Adultery,  1644 

National  Gallery,  London  72 

A  Girl  at  a  Window,  1645        •         •         Dulwich  Gallery  72 

Portrait  of  a  Rabbi,  1645         ....        Berlin  74 

A  Winter  Scene,  1646 Cassel  74 

Christ  at  Emmaus,  1648  .         ...        Louvre  76 

John  the  Baptist  preaching,  1656  .         .        Berlin  78 

The  Syndics  of  the  Drapers,  1661    .         .         Amsterdam  80 

ETCHINGS 

The  Numbers  given  are  those  of  BartscWs  Catalogue 

Christ  healing  the  Sick  (74) 86 

Clement  de  Jonghe  (272)         .         .         .         .         .         .90 

The  Three  Trees  (212)    .         .         .         .         .         .         .92 

Rembrandt's  Mill  (233)          .         .         .         .         .         .98 

Beggars  at  the  Door  of  a  House  (176)      ....   100 

The  Shell  (159) .         .102 

Jan  Lutma  (276) 106 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

AMAND-DURAND.     "(Euvre  de  Rembrandt  reproduit  et  public 

par."     2  parts.     Paris,  1880. 
BALDINUCCI,    FILIPPO.     "  Cominciamento   e   progresso    dell' 

arte  dell'  intagliare  in  rame."     Florence,  1686. 
BARTSCH,  ADAM.     "  Catalogue  raisonne  de  toutes  les  estampes 

qui  forment  1'oeuvre  de  Rembrandt  et  ceux  de  ses  principaux 

imitateurs."     2  vols.     Vienna,  1797. 
BELL,  MALCOLM.    "  Rembrandt  van  Rijn  and  his  Work."    4to. 

London,  1899. 
BLANC,  CHARLES.     "L'oeuvre  complet  de  Rembrandt,  decrit 

et  comment^  par."     Paris,  1864  and  1880. 
BODE,    W.       "Studien    zur    Geschichte    der    hollandischen 

Malerei."     Brunswick,  1883. 
BREDIUS,  A.,  and  DE  ROEVER,  N.     Oud-Holland.    A  magazine 

published  at  Amsterdam. 

BREDIUS,  A.     "  Les  chefs-d'oeuvre  du  Musee  royal  d' Amster- 
dam."    Paris,  1890. 
BREDIUS,  A.     "Die  Meisterwerke  der  Koniglichen  Gemalde 

Galerie  im  Haag."     Munich,  1890. 
BURGER,  W.     "Les   Musses  de  Belgique  et  de  Hollande." 

Paris,  1858,  1860,  and  1862. 

BUSKEN-HUET.     "Het  Land  van  Rembrandt."    Harlem,  1886. 
CHALON,  JOHN.     Works  of  Rembrandt,  etched  by.     London, 

1822. 
CLAUSSIN,   CHEVALIER   DE.     "  Catalogue  raisonne  de  toutes 

les  estampes  qui  forment  Fceuvre  de  Rembrandt."     Paris, 

1824. 


x  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CLAUSSIN,    CHEVALIER   DE.     "Supplement  au  Catalogue  de 

Rembrandt."     Paris,  1828. 
DARGENVILLE.     "  Abre"ge"  de  la  Vie  des  plus  fameux  peintres." 

Paris,  1745. 
DAULBY,  DANIEL.     "  A  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  works  of 

Rembrandt  and  of  his  scholars."     London  and  Liverpool, 

1796. 
DESCAMPS.      "Vies    des   peintres    flamands    et    hollandais." 

Marseilles,  1840. 
DYK,  J.  VAN.     "  Beschryving  van  alle  de  Schilderyen  op  het 

Stadhuis  van  Amsterdam."     Amsterdam,  1758. 
DUTUIT,    E.     "L'ceuvre    complet   de   Rembrandt   decrit   et 

catalogue  par."     Paris,  1880. 
ECKHOFF.     "  La  femme  de  Rembrandt."     1862. 
FELIBIEN.     "  Entretien  sur  les  Vies  et  les  Ouvrages  des  plus 

excellents  peintres."     1666-1688. 
FROMENTIN,  EUGENE.       "Les   Maitres   d'autrefois."      Paris, 

1877. 
GALLAND,  G.     "  Geschichte  der  hollandischen  Baukunst  und 

Bildnerei."     Leipzig,  1890. 
GERSAINT.     "Catalogue   raisonne"   de  toutes  les   pieces   qui 

forment  1'oeuvre  de  Rembrandt."     Paris,  1751. 
HAMERTON,  P.  G.     "  Etching  and  Etchers."     London,  1868. 
HAMERTON,     P.     G.       Rembrandt's    Etchings.       Portfolio. 

London,  1894. 
HAVARD,  HENRI.     "L'art  et  les  artistes  hollandais."     Paris, 

1879. 
HOOGSTRATEN,  SAMUEL  VAN.    "  Inleyding  tot  de  hooge  School 

der  Schilderkonst."     Rotterdam,  1678. 
HOUBRAKEN,  ARNOLD.     "  De  groote  Schoubourgh  der  neder- 

landsche  Kontschilders."     Amsterdam,  1718-1719. 
HUMPHREYS,  NOEL.     Rembrandt's  Etchings.     London,  1871. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xi 

HUYGENS,  CONSTANTIN.     "  Autobiographic  ine*dite."     Library 

of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  Amsterdam. 
KOLLOFF,    EDOUARD.      "Rembrandt's   Leben   und   Werke," 

included   in   Historisches    Taschenbuch   of   von   Raumer. 

Leipzig,  1854. 
LANGBEHN,    DR.      "Rembrandt  als   Erzieher."      Published 

anonymously,  Leipzig,  1890. 
LEMCKE,  C.     Rembrandt  van  Rijn,  in  the  Kunst  and  Kunstler, 

Leipzig,  1877. 
LIPPMANN,  F.     Original  drawings  by  Rembrandt  reproduced 

in  Phototype.     London,  Berlin,  and  Paris,  1889-1892. 
MADSEN,  KARL.     "  Studier  fra  Sverig."     Copenhagen,  1892. 
MICHEL,    EMILE.      "Rembrandt   sa  vie,    son   ceuvre  et  son 

temps."     Paris,  1893. 

MIDDLETON,   C.  H.     "Notes  on  the  Etched  Work  of  Rem- 
brandt."    London,  1877. 
MIDDLETON,  C.  H.     "  A  descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Etched 

Work  of  Rembrandt."     London,  1878. 

ORLERS,  J.  J.    "Beschryving  der  Stad  Leiden."   Leyden,  1641. 
OUD-HOLLAND.     See  Bredius. 

PILES,  R.  DE.     "  Abrege  de  la  vie  des  Peintres."     1699. 
RIEGEL,   HERMAN.      "Beitrage  zur  niederlandischen  Kunst- 

geschichte."     Berlin,  1882. 

ROVINSKI,  DMITRI.     "L'ceuvre  grave*  de  Rembrandt."    Re- 
productions  of  all   the   states   of  all   the   etchings.     St 

Petersburg,  1890. 
SANDRART,    JOACHIM    DE.       "Academia    nobilissimae    artis 

pictoriae."     Nuremberg,  1675-1683. 
SCHELTEMA,  DR.     "  Rembrandt,  Discours  sur  sa  vie  et  son 

genie."     Paris,  1866. 
SCHMIDT,  W.     "  Handzeichnungen   alter   Meister  in    Konig- 

lichen  Kupferstich  Kabinet  zu  Miinchen.     Munich. 


xii  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

SCHNEIDER,  L.    "  Geschichte  der  niederlandischen  Litteratur." 

Leipzig,  1888. 
SEIDLITZ,  VON.      "Rembrandt's  Radirungen."     Published  in 

Zeitschrift  fiir  bildende  Kunst.     1892. 
SEYMOUR  HADEN,  SIR  FRANCIS.      "  Introductory  Remarks  to 

the  Catalogue  of  the  Etched  Work  of  Rembrandt,  selected 

for  exhibition  at  the  Burlington  Fine  Arts  Club,  London, 

1877." 

SEYMOUR  HADEN,  SIR  FRANCIS.     "L'ceuvre  grave  de  Rem- 
brandt."    Paris,  1880. 
SEYMOUR   HADEN,    SIR   FRANCIS.      "The   Etched   Work   of 

Rembrandt,  True  and  False."     London,  1895. 
SMITH,  JOHN.     "  Catalogue  raisonne  of  the  Works  of  the  most 

eminent  Dutch,  Flemish,  and  French  Painters."     London, 

1829-1842. 
SPRINGER,    ANTON.       "  Bilder    aus    der   neueren    Kunstges- 

chichte.      Vol.    II.      Rembrandt   und   seine  Genossen." 

Bonn,  1886. 
VOSMAER,  CHARLES.      "Rembrandt  Hermannsz.      Sa  vie  et 

ses  ceuvres."     Paris  and  the  Hague,  1877. 
WEYERMAN,    J.    CAMPO.      "De   Levens    Beschryvingen   der 

nederlandsche  Konstschilders."     The  Hague,  1 749. 
WILLIGEN,  VAN  DER.     "  Les  artistes  de  Harlem."     1870. 
WILLSHIRE,    W.   H.     "An   Introduction   to   the   Study   and 

Collection  of  Ancient  Prints."     London,  1877. 
WILSON,  T.     A  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Prints  of  Rem- 
brandt.    Published  as  by  "An  amateur."     London,  1836. 
WOLTMANN,  A.,  and  WOERMANN,  K.    "  Geschichte  de  Malerei." 

Leipzig. 
YVER,  PIERRE.     "  Supplement  au  Catalogue  raisonne  de  MM. 

Gersaint,  Helle,  et  Glomy."     Amsterdam,  1756. 


CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE 


EVENTS  IN 
REMBRANDT'S  LIFE 


PRINCIPAL  WORK  DATED 


IMPORTANT 
HISTORICAL  EVENT 


Born  July  I5th. 


Entered     at      Leyden 
University,  and 

later    Swanenburch's 
Studio. 


Went      to      Lastman's 

Studio. 
Returned  to  Leyden. 


First  known  pictures. 
Gerard     Dou     became 
his  pupil. 


His  father  died. 

Left  Leyden  for  Amster- 
dam. 

Living  on  the  Bloem- 
gracht. 

Moved  to  Saint  An- 
thonie's  Breestraat 
(about). 


St  Paul  in  Prison. 
Capture  of  Samson. 

Portrait      of     Himself 

(Gotha). 
Joseph  interpreting  his 

Dreams. 
Presentation  in  the 

Temple. 
The  Anatomy  Lesson. 

The    Shipbuilder    and 
his  Wife. 


Milton  born. 

Truce  between  Spain 
and  Holland. 

The  Colony  of  Virginia 
established. 

Henry,  Prince  of  Wales, 
died. 

Shakespeare  died. 

Thirty  Years'  War 
began. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers 
landed  in  New  Eng- 
land. 

Renewal  of  War  with 

Spain. 
Charles  went  to  Spain. 

Manhattan  founded. 

Charles  I.  came  to  the 
throne.  Prince 

Frederick- Henry  be- 
came Stathouder. 

Expedition  to  Rochelle. 

Assassination  of  Buck- 
ingham. 

Charter  granted  to 
Massachusetts. 

Puritan  emigration  to 
New  England. 

Dryden  born. 

Gustavus         Adolphus 

killed  at  Lutzen. 
Milton's  V Allegro  and 
//  Penseroso. 


XIV 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


YEAR 

EVENTS  IN 
REMBRANDT'S  LIFB 

PRINCIPAL  WORK  DATED 

IMPORTANT 
HISTORICAL  EVENT 

1634 

Married  on  June  22nd. 

Descent  from  the  Cross 

The       Exchange        at 

(Hermitage). 

Amsterdam  built. 

1635 

Rombertus  born. 

Abraham's  Sacrifice. 

Ben  Jonson  died. 

I636 

Living       in       Nieuwe 

Danae. 

Doelstraat 

1637 
1638 

Cornelia  born. 

Susannah  at  the  Bath. 
Christ        and        Mary 

Trial  of  Hampden. 
Milton's  Lycidas. 

Magdalen. 

1639 

Moved        to        Jode- 

Resurrection. 

Massinger  died. 

Breestraat. 

1640 

His  mother  died. 

Portrait    of    Elizabeth 

The    Long    Parliament 

Bas. 

met. 

1641 

Titus  born. 

Portrait  of  Anslo. 

Execution  of  Strafford. 

1642 

Saskia  died. 

The  Night  Watch. 

The  Civil  War  began. 

1643 

... 

Bathsheba. 

Death  of  Hampden. 

1644 

... 

Woman  taken  in  Adul- 

The Battle  of  Marston 

tery. 

Moor. 

1645 

... 

Holy   Family  (Hermi- 

Battle of  Naseby. 

tage). 

1646 

Finished    two    pictures 

Adoration  of  the  Shep- 

Charles I.  surrendered 

for  the  Stathouder. 

herds. 

to  the  Scots. 

1647 

An   estimate    made  of 

Susannah       and       the 

William     II.     became 

Saskia's  property. 

Elders. 

Stathouder. 

1648 

... 

Christ  at  Emmaus. 

Peace  of  Westphalia. 

1649 

Hendrickje  Stoffels  first 

No  dated  picture. 

Execution  of  Charles  I. 

heard  of. 

1650 

Deposition. 

John  de  Witt  became 

Grand  Pensioner. 

1651 

... 

Noli  me  tangere. 

Battle  of  Worcester. 

1652 

Hendrickje's             first 

Portrait  of  Bruyningh. 

War  between   England 

daughter  born. 

and  Holland. 

1653 

Borrowed     money     in 

Portrait  called  Van  der 

Peace  restored. 

large  sums. 

Hooft. 

1654 

Birth        of        second 

Bathsheba  (Louvre). 

Oliver  Cromwell  made 

daughter,  Cornelia. 

Lord  Protector. 

J655 

Joseph  accused  by  Poti- 

Cromwell       pensioned 

phar's  Wife. 

Manasseh  ben  Israel. 

1656 

Declared  bankrupt. 

Parable  of  Labourers  in 

War  between  Spain  and 

the  Vineyard. 

England. 

1657 

Sale    of    his    property 

Portrait      of      Catrina 

Cromwell  refused  title 

ordered. 

Hoogh. 

of  King. 

1658 

Pictures,  etc.,  sold. 

An  Old  Woman  cutting 

Cromwell  died. 

her  Nails. 

1659 

... 

Jacob    wrestling     with 

Treaty  of  the  Hague. 

the  Angel. 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


xv 


YEAR 

EVENTS  IN 
REMBRANDT'S  LIFE 

PRINCIPAL  WORK  DATED 

IMPORTANT 
HISTORICAL  EVENT 

1660 

Association  formed   by 

Portrait      of      Himself 

Charles   II.    landed  at 

Hendrickj  e  and  Titus. 

(Louvre). 

Dover. 

1661 

The  last  known  etching. 

The  Syndics. 

Mazarin  died. 

1662 

Hendrickje    (probably) 

No  dated  picture. 

Charter  given  to  Royal 

died. 

Society. 

1663 

Homer. 

1664 

Moved  to  the  Laurier- 

Lucretia. 

War  between   Holland 

gracht. 

and  England. 

1665 

Titus  awarded  his  pro- 

Portrait    of     a      Man 

Plague  in  London. 

perty. 

(Metrop.  Mus.,  New 

York). 

1666 

Portrait  of  J.  de  Decker. 

Fire  of  London. 

1667 

... 

Portrait  of  an  Old  Man. 

Peace     between     Eng- 

land and  Holland. 

1668 

Titus'     marriage     and 

The  Flagellation. 

Alliance  between  Hol- 

death. 

land,    England,    and 

Sweden. 

1669 

Rembrandt  died. 

No  dated  picture. 

... 

REMBRANDT  VAN   RUN 

CHAPTER   I 

BIRTH  AND   EARLY  YEARS 

DOWN  to  the  middle  of  the  present  century  the  story  of 
Rembrandt,  as  generally  accepted,  was  nothing  but  a 
mass  of  more  or  less  ill-natured  fiction.  His  drunken- 
ness, his  luxury,  his  immorality,  his  avarice,  were 
heaped  together  into  a  somewhat  inconsistent  midden- 
heap  of  infamy.  It  was  not  indeed  until  his  true  rank 
among  painters  began  to  be  properly  appreciated  that 
it  occurred  to  anyone  to  ask  whether  this  harsh 
judgment  did  not  need  revision  ;  nay,  more,  to  inquire 
upon  what  evidence  it  had  been  first  delivered,  and 
the  investigation  had  not  long  been  set  on  foot  before 
the  question  took  the  form — "  Is  there  any  evidence, 
good  or  bad,  at  all?" 

There  were  soon  many  workers  in  this  untried  field, 
and  to  all  the  thanks  of  the  artist's  admirers  are  due, 
but  it  is  chiefly  to  M.  Charles  Vosmaer  that  his 
complete  rehabilitation  is  to  be  credited,  and  it  is  bare 
justice  to  say  that  without  availing  himself  freely  of 
his  researches  and  of  M.  Michel's  equally  careful  and 
critical  marshalling  of  the  facts,  then  and  since  obtained 
by  others,  no  future  historian  of  Rembrandt  can  hope 
A 


2  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

to  advance  beyond  the  threshold  of  his  subject.  One 
by  one  the  cobwebs  of  myth  with  which,  partly  through 
malice,  partly  through  ignorance,  the  master's  image 
had  been  overwhelmed  have  been  torn  away,  and  we 
begin  at  last  to  see  him  as  he  really  was,  not  impec- 
cable, but  intensely  human,  a  kindly,  patient,  laborious, 
much  -  tried  soul  —  one  whom  fortune,  not  altogether 
without  his  own  provoking  be  it  frankly  owned,  sorely 
buffeted,  but  one  who,  though  well-nigh  crushed,  was 
never  subdued  ;  one  whose  courage  sustained  him  to 
the  last,  whose  one  refuge  against  her  flouts  was  in 
his  art ;  who  met,  uncomplaining,  neglect  and  contempt 
in  his  later  years  as  he  had  in  the  heyday  of  his  career 
received,  unspoiled,  unstinted  praise  and  well-earned 
fame,  and  who  said  of  himself  in  the  height  of  his 
prosperity,  "  When  I  want  rest  for  my  mind,  it  is  not 
honours  I  crave,  but  liberty." 

Much  concerning  Rembrandt  has  been  revealed  by 
M.  Vosmaer  and  his  fellow-workers,  by  MM.  Bredius 
and  Scheltema,  de  Vries  and  Immerzeel,  Elzevier  and 
Eckhoff,  van  der  Willigen,  and  other  patient  seekers, 
but  much,  nevertheless,  still  remains  in  doubt  or 
darkness. 

Even  as  to  the  date  of  his  birth,  there  is  considerable 
uncertainty.  Orlers,  a  burgomaster  of  Leyden,  in  a 
description  of  that  town  published  in  1641,  and  there- 
fore while  not  only  Rembrandt  himself  but  many  people 
who  must  have  remembered  his  birth  were  still  alive, 
states  that  Rembrandt,  the  son  of  Hermann,  the  son 
of  Gerrit,  and  Neeltje,  the  daughter  of  Willems  of 
Suydtbroeck,  was  born  on  the  I5th  of  July  1606,  and 
later  writers  for  more  than  two  hundred  years  accepted 


BIRTH   AND   EARLY   YEARS  3 

his  assertion  without  question.  Dr  Bredius  has,  how- 
ever, shown  that  on  May  25th,  1620,  Rembrandt  was 
entered  as  a  student  in  the  Faculty  of  Letters  at  the 
University  of  Leyden  and  his  age  is  given  in  the  same 
document  as  fourteen,  Rembrandt  Hermanni  Leidensis 
14  jare  oud,  and  as  this  was  before  his  birthday  in  that 
year  the  question  arises  as  to  whether  the  statement 
means  that  he  was  in  his  fourteenth  year  or  that  he 
had  passed  the  fourteenth  anniversary  of  his  birthday. 
For,  the  day  of  his  birth  not  being  in  dispute,  if  we  take 
the  latter  and  more  obvious  interpretation  it  would 
necessarily  follow  that  the  fourteenth  anniversary  was 
in  1619  and  that  he  completed  his  first  year  on  25th 
May  1606,  so  that  the  actual  day  itself  must  have  been 
in  1605.  There  is  further  and  still  conflicting  evidence 
to  be  reckoned  with.  In  the  British  Museum  there  is  a 
proof  of  an  etched  portrait  of  himself  dated  1631  [B.  7], 
on  which  is  written,  in  what  is  believed  to  be  his  own 
hand,  "  aet.  24,  1631."  If  this  was  written  before  the 
1 5th  of  July  it  would  point  to  1606  as  his  birth  year, 
thus  agreeing  with  Orlers'  statement,  while  if  it  was 
written  after  that  day  it  would  imply  1607.  It  should, 
however,  be  observed  that  M.  Blanc  reads  the  figures 
on  the  etching  as  25,  and  if  he  be  correct  in  this  the 
choice  must  lie  between  1607  and  1608 ;  while,  to  add 
further  to  the  mystification,  Mr  Sidney  Colvin  reads 
the  age  as  27,  which  makes  the  birth  year  1603  or  1604. 
Nor  is  1607  without  further  support.  Dr  Scheltema 
discovered  in  the  marriage  register  of  Amsterdam  the 
record  of  Rembrandt's  official  engagement  to  duly 
obtain  his  mother's  consent  to  his  marriage,  signed  by 
himself,  and  in  this  he  gives  his  age  onjjuly  loth,  1634, 


4  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

as  twenty-six,  in  which  case  his  birthday  would  have 
fallen  in  1607,  but  we  know  that  he  was  at  all  times 
very  vague  as  to  dates  and  figures.  On  a  delightful 
pencil  drawing  on  vellum,  in  the  Berlin  Museum,  of  his 
wife  Saskia,  there  is  an  inscription  in  his  handwriting 
"  Dit  is  naer  myn  huysfrow  geconterfeit  do  sy  2 1  jaer 
oud  was  den  derden  dach  als  wy  getroudt  waeren  due  8 
junyus  1633  " — "  This  is  a  portrait  of  my  wife  when  she 
was  21  years  old,  on  the  third  day  after  our  marriage, 
the  8th  of  June  1633,"  a  simple  statement,  which  never- 
theless contains  a  remarkable  number  of  errors  for  so 
brief  a  document.  Saskia,  it  is  true,  was  twenty-one  in 
1633,  but  the  marriage  took  place  on  the  22nd  of  June 
and  in  the  year  1634. 

If,  then,  Rembrandt  could  misdate  an  event  so  in- 
timately connected  with  his  life's  chief  joy,  how  should 
we  expect  him  to  be  more  accurate  about  one,  which 
indeed  concerned  him  nearly,  but  of  which  he  naturally 
had  no  personal  recollection.  That  he  was  uncertain 
we  have  happily  positive  proof,  thanks  once  more  to 
Doctor  Bredius,  for  on  the  i6th  of  September  1653, 
in  giving  his  opinion  as  an  expert  in  a  trial  concerning 
the  authenticity  of  a  certain  picture  by  Paul  Bril,  he 
can  only  declare  that  he  is  about  forty-six. 

Such  is  the  evidence  upon  this  fortunately  not  very 
important  point,  and  it  is  small  wonder  that  of  the  two 
great  authorities,  M.  Michel  and  M.  Vosmaer,  the  first 
accepts  1606  and  the  second  1607  as  the  true  date. 
The  question  must  still  remain  an  open  one,  but  when 
we  consider  that  Rembrandt's  mother  did  not  die  until 
1640,  only  one  year  before  Orlers  published  his  book, 
and  at  a  time  when  he  had  probably  collected  most  of 


BIRTH   AND   EARLY   YEARS  5 

his  material,  and  that  nothing  is  more  likely  than  that 
he  should  have  applied  to  her  for  details,  we  may  with 
safety  conclude  that  the  balance  of  probability  is  in 
favour  of  his  date  1606. 

Concerning  the  place  of  his  birth  there  are  no  such 
doubts.  If  the  visitor  to  Leyden,  on  his  way  from  the 
station  to  the  town,  turns  sharp  to  the  right  after  cross- 
ing the  second  bridge,  and  on  traversing  a  third  keeps 
again  to  the  right  and  continues  with  that  branch  of  the 
Rhine  known  as  the  Galgewater  on  his  right  hand,  he 
will  before  long  find  himself  on  the  west  side  of  the 
town,  in  a  triangular  open  space,  washed  on  two  sides 
by  the  moat  surrounding  it,  where  once  stood  the 
White  Gate  guarding  the  entrance  of  the  high-road 
from  the  Hague.  On  the  left  side  of  this,  as  one  comes 
in  from  the  country,  and  at  right  angles  to  it,  close  to 
where  the  buildings  of  the  Zeemans  -  Kweekschool, 
or  Naval  School,  now  are,  ran  a  short  street  called 
the  Weddesteeg,  in  No.  3  of  which  Rembrandt  was 
born. 

It  must  have  been  a  pleasant  situation,  facing  the 
setting  sun,  with  nothing  but  the  town  ramparts  and 
the  gleaming  moat  between  it  and  the  wide  champaign. 
On  the  right  hand  the  slow  barges  crept  up  and  down 
the  river,  on  the  left  the  slow  carts  creaked  to  and  from 
the  town,  while  in  front  the  broad  sails  of  windmills 
swung  round,  and  the  whirr  of  the  stones  grinding  malt 
for  making  beer  hummed  through  the  open  doors.  Up 
against  the  sky  rose  two,  one  almost  opposite  the 
windows  of  the  house,  the  other  a  little  to  the  left  on 
the  border  of  the  Noordeinde,  just  inside  the  gate,  of 
which  Rembrandt's  father  owned  half,  while  his  step- 


6  REMBRANDT  VAN   RIJN 

father  Cornelis,  the  son  of  Claes,  with  his  son  Claes, 
shared  the  other  half  between  them. 

He  was  a  prosperous  and  respected  man  was 
Hermann,  or  Harmen — the  name  occurs  in  both  forms 
— the  son  of  Gerrit,  called  after  the  fashion  of  the  time 
Harmen  Gerritsz,  to  which  he  himself  added  van  Rijn, 
as  his  son  did  after  him.  Besides  his  own  residence, 
and  his  share  of  the  mill,  he  owned  houses  within  the 
town  and  gardens  without,  with  plate  and  jewellery  and 
house-plenishings  and  all  things  proper  about  him,  and 
had  been  appointed  by  his  fellow-citizens  to  a  municipal 
office  of  importance,  representing  the  ward  of  the 
Pelican,  in  which  he  lived,  where  he  did  so  well  what 
was  asked  of  him  that  he  was  selected  again  for  it  some 
years  later.  He  was  at  the  former  date  thirty-five  or 
thirty-six,  and  at  the  time  when  this,  his  fifth  and 
youngest  child  but  one,  was  born,  he  had  been  married 
fifteen  years,  his  wedding-day  having  been  the  8th  of 
October  1589. 

Rembrandt's  childhood,  considering  the  condition  of 
his  father,  was,  we  may  be  sure,  at  least  a  comfortable 
one,  though  of  details  we  have  none.  We  cannot  even 
say  where  he  learned  to  read  and  write,  for  neither  of 
which  exercises  did  he  subsequently  exhibit  much 
affection.  Probably  at  home,  where  maybe  Coppenol, 
the  great  master  of  writing,  at  that  time  included 
among  the  fine-arts  under  the  style  of  Caligraphy, 
taught  him,  and  possibly  gave  him  his  first  lessons  in 
drawing  also  ;  for  the  art  he  professed,  with  its  elabora- 
tion of  curves  and  flourishes,  and  its,  to  our  eyes, 
somewhat  childish  pictorial  perversions,  was  a  singular 
commingling  of  the  two.  One  thing  at  least  we  may 


[Bredius  Collection,  the  Hague 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT'S  MOTHER 

(ABOUT  1628) 


BIRTH   AND   EARLY   YEARS  7 

feel  certain  of,  that  it  was  at  his  mother's  knee  he  began 
the  study  of  the  Bible,  which  she  herself  read  so  con- 
stantly, if  we  may  judge  by  its  frequent  appearance  in 
his  portraits  of  her,  and  which  he,  following  in  her 
footsteps,  knew  so  thoroughly  and  drew  upon  so  often 
for  inspiration. 

The  next  fact  we  find  chronicled  is  a  passage  in 
Orlers  to  the  effect  that  his  parents  sent  him  to  school 
to  learn  the  Latin  tongue,  in  preparation  for  the 
University  of  Leyden,  that  when  he  came  of  age  he 
might  by  his  knowledge  serve  the  City  and  Republic ; 
and  in  fulfilment  of  this  laudable  ambition  we  find  that 
entry  on  May  25th,  1620,  as  a  student  in  the  Faculty  of 
Letters,  which  has  already  been  noted  in  another  con- 
nection. But  by  this  time,  by  what  means  we  know 
not,  the  art  craving  was  fully  aroused,  and  his  parents' 
ambitious  scheme  for  his  serving  the  City  and  Republic 
was  as  nothing  beside  his  own  irresistible  desire  to 
express  himself  in  form  and  colour.  He  proved,  we 
are  told,  but  an  unwilling  scholar,  the  lines  of  Virgil 
and  Ovid  were  lifeless  to  him,  in  comparison  with  those 
of  Lucas  van  Leyden ;  and  his  elders,  yielding  with  a 
fortunate  wisdom  to  the  inevitable,  gave  up  the  effort 
to  make  a  statesman  of  him,  and  consented  to 
apprentice  him,  according  to  his  wish,  to  a  painter 
to  learn  first  principles  from  him. 


CHAPTER   II 

ART   EDUCATION   AND   EARLY  WORKS 

THE  exact  date  of  this  first  step  on  the  road  to  fame 
is  also  still  somewhat  uncertain.  Vosmaer  believes  it 
was  in  1619,  but  the  assertion  of  Orlers  that  when  his 
parents  allowed  him  to  abandon  the  unloved  Latin, 
they  apprenticed  him  to  a  painter,  is  so  precise,  that  it 
is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  his  father  should  have 
returned  to  the  attack.  We  may  consequently  assume 
that  the  final  desertion  of  the  Muses  and  enlistment  in 
the  cause  of  the  Arts  came  after,  not  before,  that  enrol- 
ment at  the  University — that  is  to  say,  late  in  1620  or 
perhaps  early  in  1621.  Further  facts  go  to  prove  this 
point.  His  first  apprenticeship,  in  accordance  with  the 
rules  of  the  Guilds  of  Saint  Luke,  lasted  three  years, 
and  came  to  an  end  therefore  in  1623  or  early  in  1624. 
He  then  went  to  a  second  master  in  Amsterdam,  but 
remained  with  him  only  six  months ;  so  that  in  either 
case  the  date  of  his  leaving  Amsterdam  and  returning 
to  Leyden  would  have  been  some  time  in  1624.  Now 
there  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  in  1624  that  this  took 
place,  and  the  only  obvious  conclusion  is  that  his  first 
apprenticeship  did  not  commence  before  1620. 

The  painter  who  was  then  chosen  for  the  honour  of 
first  guiding  the  hand  of  the  young  Rembrandt,  by 
which  honour  he  is  nowadays  almost  alone  distin- 
guished, was  Jacob  van  Swanenburch.  A  man  of  good 

8 


ART   EDUCATION    AND   EARLY   WORKS     9 

position,  the  son  of  one  painter,  the  brother  of  another, 
and  of  an  engraver,  he  was  not,  judging  by  his  only 
known  picture,  "  A  Papal  Procession  in  the  Piazza  of 
St  Peter,"  artistically  speaking,  of  much  account,  and 
it  was  probably  more  for  personal  reasons,  and  because 
of  his  propinquity,  than  for  his  conspicuous  talents  that 
he  was  selected.  He  was  able  only  to  impart  "  the  first 
elements  and  the  principles"  of  his  art  to  his  young 
pupil,  as  Orlers  tells  us ;  but  indeed  these  were  all  that 
were  needed  by  one  with  such  an  overmastering  per- 
sonality, with  so  powerful  an  artistic  inspiration  and 
energy.  So  successful  was  the  process  that  Orlers 
describes  his  advance  in  craftsmanship  as  so  swift  and 
steady  that  his  fellow-citizens  were  completely  as- 
tounded by  it,  and  could  already  foresee  the  brilliant 
career  to  which  he  was  destined.  We  must,  however, 
remember  in  weighing  this  statement  that  it  was  written 
when  that  career  was  at  its  most  brilliant  stage,  and  is 
to  some  extent  the  proverbial  safe  prophecy  of  one  who 
knows. 

That  Rembrandt  did  make  considerable  progress 
during  the  following  three  years  is,  of  course,  certain ; 
and  when  his  apprenticeship  drew  to  an  end  the 
question  arose  as  to  what  was  to  come  next.  The 
experience  of  a  young  fellow-artist  probably  suggested 
the  answer.  About  the  time  Rembrandt  entered 
Swanenburch's  studio  Jan  Lievensz,  a  fellow-citizen, 
a  year  younger  than  Rembrandt,  who  had,  however, 
entered  upon  his  artistic  studies  while  Rembrandt  was 
still  struggling  with,  or  against,  the  detested  Latin, 
returned  from  completing  his  studies  in  the  studio  of 
Pieter  Lastman  at  Amsterdam.  The  father  of  Jan 


io  REMBRANDT  VAN   RIJN 

was  a  farmer,  a  man  in  the  same  rank  of  life  as 
Hermann  the  miller,  and  probably  had  business  con- 
nections with  him,  so  that  the  acquaintanceship  between 
the  two  sons,  destined  to  ripen  into  warm  friendship, 
doubtless  began  in  early  boyhood. 

Certain  it  is,  at  anyrate,  that  when  Jan  returned  from 
Lastman's  studio  to  astound  his  townsmen  with  his 
precocity,  the  intimacy  between  him  and  Rembrandt 
became  close ;  in  a  few  years  their  names  seem  to  have 
become  as  inseparable  as  those  of  Damon  and  Pythias, 
and  it  was  no  doubt  from  the  enthusiasm  of  Lievensz 
that  the  impulse  arose  which,  in  1624,  sent  Rembrandt 
also  to  study  under  Lastman.  The  experiment,  how- 
ever, was  not  a  success.  Lievensz  had  remained  with 
him  two  years ;  Rembrandt  wearied  of  it  in  six  months. 
And,  truly,  though  he  enjoyed  at  that  time  an  incom- 
prehensibly large  measure  of  popularity  and  success, 
Lastman,  though  a  far  better  artist  than  Swanenburch, 
was  not  one  of  those  whose  names  we  nowadays 
inscribe  on  the  roll  of  great  painters.  He  had  been, 
moreover,  one  of  the  large  group  who  had  trudged  to 
far-away  Rome,  and  come  under  the  influence  of 
Elsheimer  there,  and  the  exotic  and  ill-adapted  tradi- 
tions and  conventions  of  the  school  were  not  calculated 
to  appeal  to  so  ardent  and  eager  a  seeker  after  truth  as 
Rembrandt.  He  wanted  to  find  nature,  and  was  not  to 
be  put  off  by  a  diluted  semi-Italian  imitation  of  it ;  and 
so,  after  a  few  months'  trial,  he  packed  up  his  paints 
and  canvases,  and  returned  to  his  family  in  Leyden  "  to 
study  and  practise  painting  alone  and  in  his  own  way," 
to  quote  again  the  garrulous  Orlers. 

That    so   indefatigable    and   untiring    a   worker    as 


ART   EDUCATION   AND   EARLY   WORKS     11 

Rembrandt  did  not  waste  time,  when  once  he  was  safely 
established  in  his  father's  house,  is  certain,  for  Orlers 
says  that  he  worked  incessantly  as  long  as  the  light 
lasted  ;  but  we  know  of  nothing  that  he  produced  until 
three  years  later,  when  he  painted  two  still  existing 
pictures,  signing  and  dating  both. 

From  this  time  his  reputation  and  that  of  Lievensz 
ripened  rapidly.  Arent  van  Buchel,  in  his  "  Res 
Pictoriae,"  mentions  him  in  1628 ;  and  Constantin 
Huygens,  in  a  manuscript  autobiography,  discovered  in 
1891  by  Dr  Worp  of  Groningen,  and  written  probably 
between  1629  and  1631,  was  enthusiastic  concerning 
both,  "  still  beardless  yet  already  famous  " — an  appreci- 
ation that  was  not  to  be  without  its  favourable  influence 
on  Rembrandt's  future.  Nor  was  this  growing  fame 
productive  of  mere  empty  praise.  In  February  1628, 
when  he  was  only  one-and-twenty,  Gerard  Dou,  his 
first  pupil,  came  to  him  and  remained  until  he  left 
Leyden  for  Amsterdam  three  years  later. 

Many  causes  probably  combined  to  promote  this 
change  of  residence.  On  the  twenty-seventh  of  April 
1630  the  first  break  in  the  united  family  circle  was 
brought  about  by  the  death  of  his  father.  The  blow 
must  have  been  a  heavy  one,  for  he  must  have  been  a 
kindly  and  sympathetic  companion  to  his  children,  if 
we  may  judge  by  the  refined  and  sensitive  face  which 
looks  out  at  us  from  the  portraits  believed  to  be  his,  and 
a  merry  one  to  boot,  with  a  pretty  humour  of  his  own, 
if  M.  Michel  be  justified  in  his  conclusion  that  the 
etching  of  the  bald  man  with  a  chain  (B.  292)  is  also  a 
portrait  of  him.  The  loss  further  brought  changes  into 
the  family  arrangements.  The  eldest  brother,  as  far 


12  REMBRANDT  VAN   RIJN 

back  as  1621,  had  been  crippled  by  an  accident,  and  on 
March  i6th  of  that  year  a  life-interest  in  the  estate  to 
the  amount  of  125  florins  per  annum  had  been  formally 
established  for  his  maintenance,  so  that  the  superin- 
tendence of  the  affairs  of  the  mill  fell  to  the  second  son 
Adriaen,  who  abandoned  his  trade  of  shoe-making  to 
undertake  it,  and  made  nothing,  or  worse,  of  it. 

The  young  artist's  reputation  as  a  portrait  painter 
had,  moreover,  spread  to  Amsterdam  some  time  before, 
and  many  commissions  came  to  him  thence.  For  a 
while  he  merely  went  over,  stayed  long  enough  to  do 
the  work,  and  returned  again  to  Leyden,  but  as  the 
demands  upon  his  time  increased  this  must  have  proved 
a  wasteful,  inconvenient,  and  finally  impossible  proceed- 
ing. Leyden,  again,  was  a  University  town,  where 
religion  and  philosophy  were  more  thought  of  and 
more  sought  after  than  such  a  trifle  as  art,  as  indeed 
is  still  the  case  in  some  University  towns  that  could 
be  mentioned ;  while  Amsterdam  was  a  city  of 
prosperous  traders  making  more  money  than  they 
knew  how  to  spend  or  employ,  and  ready  enough  to 
devote  some  of  their  superfluity  to  portraits  of  them- 
selves and  wives,  or  pictures  of  incidents  and  places, 
and  it  was  clearly  desirable  that  one  able  and  willing 
to  satisfy  their  wishes  in  this  respect  should  be  upon 
the  spot. 

The  little  coterie  of  artists,  too,  was  on  the  verge 
of  dispersal  in  any  case,  by  the  loss  of  Rembrandt's 
closest  tie  with  it,  Jan  Lievensz.  He  had  sold  a  picture 
of  a  man  reading  by  a  turf  fire  to  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
who  had  presented  it  to  the  English  Ambassador,  and 
he  in  turn  had  passed  it  on  to  that  king  of  picture 


[Cassel  Gallery 


PORTRAIT   OF   REMBRANDT'S   FATHER 

(ABOUT  1631) 


ART   EDUCATION   AND   EARLY   WORKS     13 

lovers,  Charles  the  First,  who  had  been  so  well  pleased 
with  it  that  a  pressing  invitation  to  visit  England  had 
been  sent  to  the  painter,  and  accepted.  Nor,  probably, 
was  it  only  the  chance  of  obtaining  more  employment 
that  attracted  Rembrandt.  The  famous  "  Anatomy 
Lesson"  bears  the  date  1632,  and,  even  if  the  com- 
mission for  it  had  not  actually  been  offered  during 
the  preceding  year,  it  may  very  well  have  been  sug- 
gested in  the  course  of  conversation  by  the  doctor 
who  had  added  to  his  name,  Claes  Pietersz,  that  of 
Tulp,  taking  it  from  a  tulip  which  was  carved  on  the 
front  of  his  house,  who  figures  so  conspicuously 
in  it.  If  this  were  so,  it  must  have  been  evident  to 
Rembrandt  that  to  undertake  so  large  and  important 
a  picture  while  living  in  another  city  would  mean 
either  risking  the  uniformity  and  continuity  of  his 
work,  or  settling  down  for  a  prolonged  period  in 
lodgings  in  Amsterdam,  and  this  may  well  have 
confirmed  his  decision  to  at  once  establish  himself 
there  permanently. 

Finally,  I  like  to  fancy,  though  it  certainly  cannot 
be  proved,  that  Rembrandt  had  already,  in  one  of  his 
flying  visits  to  that  city,  met  the  girl  upon  whom, 
while  she  lived,  the  larger  part  of  his  life's  happiness 
was  to  depend.  The  evidence  is,  it  must  be  owned, 
slight,  but  is  not  altogether  wanting.  Among  the 
pictures  of  the  year  1630,  and,  according  to  M.  Michel, 
even  of  1628  and  onwards,  we  find  a  series  of  portraits 
of  a  fair-haired  girl  with  a  round,  full  forehead,  and 
rather  small  eyes  and  mouth,  which  Dr  Bode  believes 
to  be  portraits  of  the  painter's  sister  Lysbeth,  while 
M.  Michel  considers  that  some  of  the  later  ones  are 


14  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

really  portraits  of  Saskia,  urging  the  objection  that 
many  of  them  were  undoubtedly  painted  after  his 
removal  to  Amsterdam,  whither  there  is  not  the 
slightest  reason  to  suppose  that  Lysbeth  accompanied 
him,  what  evidence  there  is  pointing  directly  to  the 
contrary.  On  the  other  hand,  M.  Michel  admits  that 
the  type  which  is  known  to  be  Saskia  blends  almost 
indistinguishably  with  that  supposed  to  be  Lysbeth, 
and  offers  the  distinctly  dubious  explanation  that 
Rembrandt  was,  so  to  speak,  so  imbued  with  the 
features  of  his  sister  that  he  unconsciously  transferred 
them  to  a  large  extent  to  the  girl  he  loved.  If,  how- 
ever, as  we  may  quite  reasonably  suppose,  Rembrandt 
had  met  and  admired  Saskia  during  his  first  stay  in 
Amsterdam,  and  continued  to  do  so  during  his  after- 
visits,  the  occurrence  of  her  features  in  his  work  would 
be  what  we  ought  to  expect. 

There  was,  on  the  other  hand,  but  a  single  objection 
to  the  scheme — the  parting  with  his  mother;  and  to 
such  an  affectionate  and  home-loving  nature  as 
Rembrandt's  the  difficulty  can  have  been  no  small 
one.  Still,  a  man  has  to  do  a  man's  work  in  this 
life.  Adriaen,  his  brother,  and  Lysbeth,  his  sister, 
were  there  to  minister  to  her  comfort,  while  Amsterdam 
was  no  great  distance  away ;  and  though,  doubtless, 
it  was  not  altogether  without  tears  that  the  widowed 
Neeltje  consented  to  the  departure  of  her  youngest  son, 
the  decision  was  taken,  and  the  consent  yielded  at  last. 

Indeed,  it  was  inevitable  that  so  great  and,  at  one 
time,  so  popular  an  artist  should,  sooner  or  later, 
gravitate  to  the  capital  of  his  country ;  for,  since  the 
decay  of  Antwerp,  Amsterdam  was  without  a  rival 


ART   EDUCATION   AND   EARLY  WORKS     15 

in  the  world  for  prosperity  —  the  head -centre  of 
commerce,  the  hub  of  the  trade-universe.  Sir  Thomas 
Overbury,  in  1609,  describes  it  as  surpassing  "Seville, 
Lisbon,  or  any  other  mart  town  in  Christendom." 
Evelyn,  writing  in  1641,  says  in  his  diary,  "that  it  is 
certainly  the  most  busie  concourse  of  mortalls  now  upon 
the  whole  earth  and  the  most  addicted  to  com'erce." 

Neither  tempest  nor  battle  could  check  her  energy ; 
and  throughout  the  long  desultory  war  from  1621  to 
1648  between  Spain  and  Holland,  her  traders  hurried 
to  and  from  the  enemy's  ports,  supplying  her  even 
with  the  very  munitions  of  war  to  carry  on  the 
contest ;  while  for  all  this  accumulated  wealth  there 
was  but  a  limited  outlet.  Necessities  being  super- 
abundant, it  must  be  either  hoarded  or  expended  on 
luxuries,  and  among  these  pictures  held  high  place. 
Quoting  once  more  from  Evelyn,  we  find  him  writing 
on  August  1 3th,  1641  :  "We  arrived  late  at  Roterdam, 
where  was  their  annual  marte  or  faire,  so  furnished 
with  pictures  (especially  Landskips  and  Drolleries, 
as  they  call  those  clounish  representations),  .that  I 
was  amaz'd.  Some  I  bought  and  sent  into  England. 
The  reson  of  this  store  of  pictures  and  their  cheap- 
ness proceedes  from  their  want  of  land  to  employ 
their  stock,  so  that  it  is  an  ordinary  thing  to  find  a 
common  Farmer  lay  out  two  or  three  thousand  pounds 
in  this  comodity.  Their  houses  are  full  of  them, 
and  they  vend  them  at  their  faires  to  very  great 
gaines."  So,  for  a  time,  the  Dutch  painters  drove  a 
thriving  trade ;  and  as  Amsterdam  was  by  far  the 
richest  city,  to  Amsterdam  the  successful  painter 
must  needs  repair. 


CHAPTER  III 

DAYS   OF   PROSPERITY 

SOME  time  then  in  1631  the  die  was  cast,  and  the 
removal  accomplished.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that 
he  went  at  first  to  stay  or  lodge  with  Hendrick  van 
Uylenborch,  a  dealer  in  pictures  and  other  objects  of 
art.  Among  his  first  proceedings  on  his  arrival,  was 
one  sufficiently  characteristic  of  him  and  destined  to  be 
repeated  only  too  often  in  the  future.  He  lent  Hendrick 
money,  one  thousand  florins,  to  be  repayable  in  a  year 
with  three  months'  notice.  Soon  after,  if  not  before, 
this  indiscreet  financial  operation,  as  it  proved  later, 
he  found  the  suitable  residence  he  had  meanwhile  been 
seeking,  on  the  Bloemgracht,  a  canal  on  the  west  side 
of  the  town,  running  north-east  and  south-west  between 
the  Prinsen  Gracht  and  the  Lynbaan  Gracht,  in  a 
district,  at  that  time  on  the  extreme  outskirts  of  the 
town,  known  as  the  Garden,  from  the  floral  names 
bestowed  upon  its  streets  and  canals. 

Here  he  settled  to  his  work,  and  here  in  a  short 
time  fortune  came  to  him.  The  enthusiasm  aroused 
by  "The  Anatomy  Lesson,"  when  it  was  finished  and 
hung  in  its  predestined  place  in  the  little  dissecting- 
room  or  Snijkamer  of  the  Guild  of  Surgeons  in  the 
Nes,  near  the  Dam,  was  immediate  and  immense.  The 
artist  leapt  at  once  into  the  front  rank,  and  became  the 
fashionable  portrait  painter  of  the  day.  From  three 

16 


DAYS   OF   PROSPERITY  17 

portraits,  other  than  those  of  his  own  circle,  painted 
in  1631,  and  ten  in  1632,  the  number  rose  to  forty 
between  that  year  and  1634 ;  or,  taking  all  the 
surviving  portraits  between  1627  and  1631,  we  have 
forty-one,  while  from  the  five  following  years,  from 
1632  to  1636,  there  are  one  hundred  and  two.  Com- 
missions, indeed,  flowed  in  faster  than  he  could  execute 
them,  so  Houbraken  assures  us,  and  the  not  infrequent 
occurrence  of  a  pair  of  portraits,  husband  and  wife,  one 
painted  a  year  or  more  after  the  other,  tends  to  confirm 
this ;  so  that  those  who  wished  to  be  immortalised  by 
him  had  often  to  wait  their  turn  for  months  together, 
while  all  the  wealth  and  fashion  of  the  city  flocked  to 
the  far-off  studio  in  the  outskirts,  the  more  fortunate 
to  give  their  sittings,  the  later  comers  to  put  down 
their  names  in  anticipation  of  the  future  leisure.  From 
the  beginning,  too,  pupils  came  clamouring  to  his  doors, 
Govert  Flinck  and  Ferdinand  Bol,  Philips  Koninck, 
Geerbrandt  van  den  Eeckhout,  Jan  Victors,  Leendeert 
Cornelisz,  and  others,  eager  to  pay  down  their  hundred 
florins  a  year,  as  Sandrart  says  they  did,  and  work  with 
and  for  the  lion  of  the  day. 

Not  Fortune  alone,  however,  with  her  retinue  of 
patrons,  and  Fame,  with  her  train  of  pupils,  sought 
him  out ;  Love,  too,  came  knocking  at  his  portal,  and 
won  a  prompt  admission.  To  the  many  admirable 
works  produced  at  this  time  I  shall  return  later,  but 
three  of  those  painted  in  1632  call  for  further  notice 
now.  One  is  an  oval  picture,  belonging  to  Herr  Haro 
of  Stockholm,  representing  the  half-length  figure  of 
a  girl  in  profile,  facing  to  the  left,  fair-haired,  and 
pleasant-looking  rather  than  pretty ;  the  second,  in 
B 


i8  REMBRANDT  VAN   RIJN 

the  Museum  at  Stockholm,  shows  us  the  same  girl 
in  much  the  same  position,  but  differently  dressed ; 
while  the  third,  in  the  collection  of  Prince  Liechtenstein 
at  Vienna,  is  a  less  pleasing  representation  of  her  in  full 
face,  wherein  the  tendency  to  stoutness  and  the  already 
developing  double  chin  detract  from  the  piquancy  of 
her  expression  and  make  her  look  more  than  her  actual 
age,  which  we  know  to  have  been  twenty  at  the  time 
that  these  were  painted. 

We  have  heard  her  name  casually  already,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  arrangements  for  Rembrandt's  marriage, 
when  discussing  the  date  of  his  birth — for  this  is  Saskia 
van  Uylenborch,  a  cousin  of  his  friend  Hendrick,  which 
fact  may  haply  have  had  something  to  do  with  that 
ready  loan  of  a  thousand  florins.  Though  poor 
Rembrandt,  be  it  said,  was,  unhappily  for  him,  never 
backward  with  loan  or  gift  when  he  had  money  to  give 
or  lend.  Saskia  was  born  in  1612  at  Leeuwarden,  the 
chief  town  of  Friesland  in  the  north,  across  the  Zuider 
Zee,  and  at  the  time  when  Rembrandt  met  her  was  an 
orphan,  her  mother,  Sjukie  Osinga,  having  died  in  1619, 
and  her  father,  Rombertus,  a  distinguished  lawyer  in 
his  native  place,  in  1624.  The  family  left  behind  was 
a  large  one,  consisting,  besides  Saskia,  of  three  brothers, 
two  being  lawyers  and  one  a  soldier,  and  five  sisters,  all 
married,  who,  as  soon  as  the  worthy  Rombertus  was 
laid  to  rest,  seem  to  have  begun  wrangling  among 
themselves  concerning  the  estate ;  the  quarrel,  chiefly, 
as  it  appears,  being  sustained  by  the  several  brothers- 
in-law,  and  leading  shortly  to  an  appeal  to  law. 

Among  the  less  close  relations  was  a  cousin  Aaltje, 
who  was  married  to  Jan  Cornells  Sylvius,  a  minister  of 


^Liechtenstein  Gallery,  Vienna 
PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA 
(I632) 


DAYS   OF   PROSPERITY  19 

the  Reformed  Church,  who,  coming  from  Friesland,  had 
settled  in  Amsterdam  in  1610,  and  with  them  Saskia 
was  in  the  habit  of  coming  to  stay.  Where  and  when 
Rembrandt  first  met  her  we  do  not  know.  Probably  at 
the  house  of  Hendrick ;  it  may  have  been,  as  has  been 
said,  in  1628  or  earlier,  for,  if  the  acquaintance  began 
in  1631,  it  ripened  rapidly.  Without  accepting  un- 
hesitatingly all  M.  Michel's  identifications  of  her,  not 
only  in  portraits  and  studies  but  in  subjects,  such  as 
that  one  which  is  known  as  "  The  Jewish  Bride,"  now 
in  the  collection  of  Prince  Liechtenstein,  there  is  no 
question  that  she  sat  to  him  several  times  during  the 
two  years  1632  and  1633.  The  attraction  was  mutual ; 
Rembrandt  soon  became  a  welcome  visitor  to  the 
Sylvius  household,  and,  in  token  doubtless  of  the  kind- 
ness and  hospitality  which  he  there  met  with,  he  etched, 
in  1634,  a  portrait  of  the  good  old  minister  (B.  266). 

The  course  of  true  love  in  this  case  ran  smoothly 
enough ;  the  young  people  soon  came  to  an  understand- 
ing ;  no  difficulties  were  raised  by  Sylvius,  who  acted  as 
Saskia's  guardian  ;  and  the  marriage  was  only  deferred 
till  Saskia  came  of  age.  The  union,  indeed,  from  a 
worldly  point  of  view,  was  unexceptionable.  Saskia,  it 
is  true,  was  of  a  good  family,  while  Rembrandt  sprang 
from  the  lower  middle  class,  but  he  had  already  carved 
out  for  himself  a  rank  above  all  pedigrees.  Saskia  was 
twenty,  and  he,  with  all  his  fame,  was  only  twenty-six. 
The  wedding,  then,  was  decided  on,  and  Rembrandt, 
painting  Saskia  yet  again,  put  into  her  hands  a  sprig  of 
rosemary,  at  that  time  in  Holland  an  emblem  of  betrothal. 
It  was  possibly  even  fixed  for  some  date  late  in  1633, 
when  Saskia  would  have  passed  her  twenty-first  birthday. 


20  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

Just  at  this  time,  to  confirm,  if  that  had  been  needed, 
Rembrandt's  increasing  reputation  and  prospects  of 
future  prosperity,  he  was  brought  into  business  relations 
with  the  chief  personage  in  the  land,  Prince  Frederick- 
Henry,  who  in  1625,  on  the  death  of  his  brother  Maurice, 
had  succeeded  to  the  office  of  Stathouder,  as  the  head 
of  the  Republic  was  officially  entitled.  Constantin 
Huygens,  whose  earlier  enthusiasm  for  Rembrandt's 
work  we  have  already  noted,  was  the  Prince's  Secretary, 
acting  in  that  quality  as  intermediary  in  his  many  deal- 
ings with  artists,  and  clearly  found  time  in  the  intervals 
of  his  duties  to  continue  his  acquaintance  with  Rem- 
brandt. It  was  probably  on  his  recommendation  that 
the  artist  had  painted  in  1632  the  portrait  of  his  brother 
Maurice,  and  it  was  certainly  at  his  suggestion  that  the 
Stathouder  bought  "  The  Raising  of  the  Cross,"  now  at 
Munich.  Rembrandt,  indeed,  says  as  much  in  a  letter 
to  Huygens,  still  existing  in  the  British  Museum,  in 
which  he  invites  him  to  come  and  inspect  the  com- 
panion picture,  "  The  Descent  from  the  Cross,"  for  which, 
though  offering  to  leave  it  to  the  Prince's  generosity, 
he  considers  two  hundred  livres  would  be  a  reasonable 
price.  The  picture  was  bought,  and  so  content  was  the 
Prince  with  his  purchase  that  soon  afterwards  he  com- 
missioned three  other  pictures  to  complete  the  set.  The 
exact  date  of  this  event  is  unknown,  but  it  cannot  have 
been  long  delayed,  for,  in  a  letter  written  early  in  1636 
the  painter  informs  Huygens  that  one  of  the  three,  "  The 
Ascension,"  is  finished  and  the  other  two  half  done. 

With  such  guarantees  of  continued  good  fortune, 
there  was  nothing,  when  Saskia  was  once  of  age,  to 
necessitate  longer  delay,  in  the  completion  of  his  happi- 


DAYS   OF   PROSPERITY  21 

less,  but  in  the  autumn  she  was  peremptorily  called 
away  to  Franeker,  a  town  in  Friesland,  between 
Leeuwarden  and  the  sea,  where  her  sister  Antje,  the 
wife  of  Johannes  Maccovius,  professor  of  Theology, 
was  lying  ill,  and  where,  on  November  the  ninth,  she 
died.  This  untoward  occurrence  put  an  end  to  the 
possibility  of  an  immediate  marriage,  and  Saskia  went 
to  spend  the  winter  with  another  sister,  Hiskia,  who 
was  married  to  Gerrit  van  Loo,  a  secretary  of  the 
government,  and  lived  at  Sainte  Anne  Parrochie,  in  the 
extreme  north-west  of  Friesland ;  while  Rembrandt, 
discontentedly  enough,  no  doubt,  toiled  through  the 
long  winter  months  in  his  studio  at  Amsterdam. 

In  the  spring  of  1634,  however,  the  sunshine  returned 
again  into  his  life,  and  he  commemorated  the  advent, 
appropriately  enough,  by  painting  the  bringer  of  it  in 
the  guise  of  Flora.  The  period  of  mourning  was  now 
at  an  end,  and  some  time  in  May,  probably,  Saskia 
once  more  returned  to  Hiskia's  to  make  preparation 
for  the  approaching  day  ;  while  Sylvius,  as  her  repre- 
sentative, and  Rembrandt  began  to  arrange  the  more 
formal  business  matters.  On  June  loth,  as  recorded 
by  Dr  Scheltema,  Sylvius,  as  the  bride's  cousin,  engaged 
to  give  full  consent  before  the  third  asking  of  the 
banns ;  while  Rembrandt,  on  his  part,  promised  to 
obtain  his  mother's  permission.  Whether  he  merely 
wrote  to  Leyden  for  this,  or  whether,  as  is  more  prob- 
able, he  went  in  person,  we  do  not  know ;  but  in  either 
case  he  wasted  no  time,  for  on  the  fourteenth  he  pro- 
duced the  necessary  documents,  and  prayed  at  the  same 
time  that  the  formal  preliminaries  might  be  cut  as  short 
as  possible.  His  appeal  was  evidently  received  with 


22  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

favour,  for  eight  days  later,  on  June  22nd,  at  Bildt,  in 
the  presence  of  Gerrit  and  Hiskia  van  Loo,  he  was 
duly  married,  first  by  the  civil  authorities,  and  after- 
wards by  the  minister  Rodolphe  Hermansz  Luinga  in 
the  Anna-kerk. 

As  far  as  domestic  happiness  depending  upon  their 
relations  with  one  another  went,  there  is  every  reason 
to  suppose  that  this  union  was  a  thoroughly  successful 
one ;  but  we  cannot  help,  nevertheless,  feeling  some 
doubts  as  to  whether  it  was  altogether  the  best  that 
might  have  been  for  Rembrandt.  Frank  and  joyous, 
but  strong-willed,  not  to  say  obstinate,  recklessly 
generous  and  prodigal,  and  without  a  thought  for 
what  the  future  might  bring  forth,  he  needed  some 
firm  yet  tender  hand  to  check,  without  seeming  too 
much  to  control,  his  lavish  impulses.  Impossible  to 
drive,  yet  easy  enough  to  lead,  a  giant  in  his  studio, 
a  child  in  his  business  relations  with  the  world  outside 
its  doors,  he  should  have  found  some  steady  practical 
head  to  regulate  his  household  affairs  and  introduce 
some  order  and  economy  into  his  haphazard  ways. 
Such,  unfortunately  for  him  in  the  end,  Saskia  was 
not.  Devoted  to  him,  she  yielded  in  everything,  and 
his  will  was  her  law.  As  her  love  for  him  led  her 
to  let  him  do  always  as  he  would,  so  his  passion  for 
her  led  him  to  shower  costly  gifts  upon  her — pearls 
and  diamonds,  gold-work  and  silver-work,  brocades 
and  embroideries  ;  nothing  that  could  serve  to  adorn 
her  was  too  good  or  too  expensive.  She  would  have 
been  as  happy  in  plain  homespun,  as  long  as  he  was 
there ;  but  to  give  largely  was  in  the  nature  of  the  man, 
and  the  very  fortune  that  she  brought  with  her  was 


DAYS   OF  PROSPERITY  23 

an  evil,  even  at  the  time,  in  that  it  led  him  to  further 
extravagances,  while  in  the  future  it  proved  a  still 
more  serious  one. 

Furthermore,  Rembrandt,  hot-headed  and  impetuous 
as  he  was,  must  needs  fling  himself  into  the  family 
quarrels  and  suits-at-law,  taking  therein  the  part  of 
the  one  who  had  stood  by  him  and  Saskia  at  the  altar, 
Gerrit  van  Loo,  in  whom,  though  he  had  possibly 
never  set  eyes  on  him  till  he  went  north  to  his  wedding, 
he  had  already  developed  so  complete  a  confidence 
that,  exactly  one  month  later,  on  July  22nd,  as  Dr 
Scheltema  discovered,  he  gave  him  a  full  power  of 
attorney  to  act  for  him  in  all  affairs  connected  with 
the  property  in  Friesland.  From  this  sudden  and 
violent  partisanship  still  more  trouble  arose  in  due 
course,  owing  largely  to  the  fact  that  his  championship 
of  Gerrit  was  soon  after  justified  by  his  winning  one 
of  the  many  cases  brought  before  the  court  of  Fries- 
land  in  the  course  of  the  prolonged  dispute. 

For  the  time,  however,  there  is  no  doubt  their 
happiness  was  supreme,  and  if  for  her  sake  he  was 
energetically  brewing  the  storm  that  was  to  burst 
upon  him  later,  there  were  as  yet  no  threatening 
clouds  upon  the  horizon.  Nor,  be  it  said,  was  it  on 
her  account  alone  that  he  scattered  money  broadcast. 
The  impulse  to  collect  works  of  art,  pictures,  engrav- 
ings, casts  and  statues,  armour  and  curious  objects, 
had  begun  to  influence  him  even  in  early  days  at 
Leyden,  and  had  become  by  that  time  a  perfect 
mania.  On  February  22nd,  1635,  we  find  his  name 
as  a  purchaser  at  the  Van  Sommeren  sale,  and  there- 
after he  reappears  again  and  again  as  buyer  at  various 


24  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

auctions.  But  not  even  in  this  could  he  attempt  to  be 
business-like.  Baldinucci,  a  Florentine,  in  a  volume 
published  in  1686,  gives  many  interesting  details  anent 
Rembrandt,  which  he  obtained  at  first  hand  from  one 
of  his  later  pupils,  Bernard  Keilh,  a  Dane,  and  among 
them  relates  that,  when  at  a  sale  he  saw  anything  he 
coveted,  he  ran  it  up  in  one  bid  to  a  wholly  impossible 
price,  thus  making  sure  of  it,  and  at  the  same  time, 
as  he  explained,  paying  honour  to  his  art. 

The  Van  Uylenborch  family  quarrels  happily  did 
not  extend  to  the  sisters,  amongst  whom  the  most 
amicable  relations  appear  to  have  prevailed.  At  any 
rate,  in  the  summer  of  1635,  we  find  Saskia  revisiting 
Sainte  Anne  Parrochie,  to  be  with  Hiskia  during  her 
confinement,  and  subsequently  at  the  baptism  of  the 
child,  a  mark  of  kindly  feeling  the  more  notable  in 
that  she  herself  was  about  to  become  a  mother.  In 
the  early  winter,  having  returned  meanwhile  to  her 
home,  she  gave  birth  to  a  son,  who,  on  December 
1 5th,  in  the  Oudekerk,  was  christened  Rombertus, 
after  her  father.  Rembrandt's  delight  in  this  small 
person  is  indicated  by  numerous  sketches  of  him  and 
his  mother;  but  the  happiness,  like  all  that  he 
experienced,  was  short-lived,  for  the  child  did  not 
long  survive  its  birth. 

Rembrandt,  at  some  time  before  his  marriage,  had 
removed  from  the  Bloemgracht  to  Saint  Antonies 
Breestraat,  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  close  to  the 
Nieuwe  Markt,  and  by  1636  had  moved  once  more  to 
the  Nieuwe  Doelstraat,  whence  the  letter  to  Huygens, 
already  referred  to,  was  addressed.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  change  was  an  improvement,  for  the 


[Dresden  Gallery 


REMBRANDT  AND  SASKIA 
(ABOUT  1635) 


DAYS   OF   PROSPERITY  25 

artist  must  then  have  been  at  the  height  of  his 
prosperity  and  fame. 

Throughout  Holland,  imitators  of  his  style  were 
springing  up,  for  the  public  would  have  no  other. 
His  studio  was  freely  sought  by  pupils ;  his  home- 
life  was  passed  in  a  circle  of  trusted  friends,  and  the 
broadly  sympathetic  nature  of  the  man,  which  aided 
so  largely  in  raising  him  to  the  first  place  among 
portrait  painters,  is  seen  in  the  various  pursuits  of 
these. 

Fellow  -  painters,  apart  from  his  pupils,  were  not 
conspicuous  among  them,  and  those  we  find  are 
chiefly  landscape  painters  —  Roghman  and  van  der 
Heist,  Ruysdael  and  Berchem,  van  de  Cappelle  and  Jan 
Asselyn.  With  ministers  he  was  largely  acquainted, 
probably  through  Jan  Sylvius,  who,  however,  died  on 
November  iQth,  1638,  among  them  being  Alenson, 
Henry  Swalm,  and  Anslo ;  while  Tulp  probably  first 
introduced  the  medical  element,  Bonus,  van  der  Linden, 
and  Deyman.  Several  dealers  in  objects  of  art, 
brought  in  by  Hendrick  van  Uylenborch,  or  picked 
up  in  the  course  of  business  transactions,  were  among 
his  friends — Pieter  de  la  Tombe,  Clement  de  Jonghe, 
Abraham  Francen,  and  others  ;  while  the  worthy  though 
conceited  Coppenol,  and  the  jeweller,  Jan  Lutma,  to- 
gether with  the  burgomaster  Six,  were  among  those 
who  remained  faithful  to  the  last. 

Rembrandt's  championship  of  Gerrit  van  Loo  in  the 
family  differences  began  about  this  time  to  bear  trouble- 
some fruit.  The  losers  in  the  action  already  mentioned, 
in  the  course  of  the  year  1634  seem  to  have  nursed  an 
especial  grudge  against  Saskia,  and,  to  relieve  their 


26  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

ruffled  feelings,  had  been  spreading  abroad  reports  re- 
flecting on  her,  asserting  that  she  had  "  dissipated  her 
paternal  inheritance  in  dress  and  ostentation."  There 
was,  as  far  as  Rembrandt  himself,  at  least,  was  con- 
cerned, too  much  truth  in  the  story  to  render  the  scandal 
altogether  stingless.  The  thrust  at  Saskia,  moreover, 
angered  him  more,  probably,  than  one  at  himself  alone 
would  have  done,  and  we  find  him  accordingly  rushing 
headlong  into  the  law-courts  with  an  action  for  damages 
against  one  Albert  van  Loo,  declaring  that  "  he  and  his 
wife  were  amply,  even  superabundantly,  provided  for." 

Whether  he  was  ever  called  upon  to  prove  this  state- 
ment does  not  appear ;  probably  not,  since  the  court 
found,  in  July  1638,  that  he  had  not  sufficient  grounds 
for  action.  It  is  doubtful  how  far  he  could  have 
established  its  truth  had  he  been  required  to  do  so. 
There  can  be  small  question  that  he  believed  it  to  be 
true,  though  his  paying  637  florins  the  previous  year 
for  a  book  of  drawings  and  engravings  by  Lucas  van 
Leyden,  and  again,  in  October  of  the  same  year,  530 
florins  for  a  picture  of  Hero  and  Leander  by  Rubens, 
might  only  indicate  his  habitual  indifference  to  ways 
and  means.  We  know  also  that  at  the  time  he  was 
getting  from  five  to  six  hundred  florins  for  his  portraits, 
but,  judging  by  the  number  known  to  exist — a  very 
imperfect  test  it  need  scarcely  be  said — the  demand 
for  these  was  beginning  to  fall  off,  there  being  seven 
for  1636,  four  for  1637,  two  for  1638,  and  four  for  1639, 
while  even  these  small  numbers  include  three  of  himself, 
and  one  believed  to  be  his  mother. 

The  strongest  reason  for  supposing  that  he  was  in  some 
financial  embarrassment  is  found  in  his  correspondence 


DAYS   OF   PROSPERITY  27 

at  the  beginning  of  the  latter  year  with  Huygens.  Writ- 
ing in  January  from  the  Suijkerbackerij,  a  house  on  the 
borders  of  the  Binnen-Amstel,  whither  he  had  removed 
at  an  unknown  date,  he  announces  the  completion  of 
the  last  two  of  the  Stathouder's  commissions,  and  only 
fifteen  days  later  he  presses  for  immediate  payment  of 
the  1244  florins  due  to  him,  on  the  grounds  that  the 
money  would  be  then  extremely  useful  to  him.  Since 
there  was  some  delay,  he  renewed  the  appeal,  though 
Huygens,  on  February  i/th,  had  already  given  orders 
for  the  discharge  of  the  debt.  This  unceremonious 
dunning,  though  by  proxy,  of  a  powerful  Prince,  does 
not  seem  altogether  to  indicate  that  superabundance 
of  which  Rembrandt  boasted  ;  but  there  was,  as  we 
know,  a  special  reason,  apart  from  any  financial  diffi- 
culties, which  may  have  accounted  for  this  urgent  need 
of  ready  money. 

He  had  decided  to  settle  himself  finally,  not  long 
after  the  birth  on  July  ist,  1638,  of  his  second  child, 
a  daughter,  christened  at  the  Oudekerk  on  July  22nd, 
Cornelia,  after  his  mother,  and  on  January  5th,  1639, 
had  purchased  from  one  Christoffel  Thysz  a  house  in 
the  Joden-Breestraat,  now  Number  68,  for  13,000  florins. 
Though  only  one  quarter  of  this  sum  had  to  be  paid 
within  one  year,  the  rest  being  distributed  over  the 
following  five  or  six,  he  seems  for  once  to  have  been 
actually  eager  to  pay  the  money,  and  by  May  had 
discharged  half  the  cost  and  taken  possession. 

One  birth  and  three  deaths  mark  the  year  1640. 
The  first,  of  another  daughter,  on  July  29th,  who  was 
also  christened  Cornelia,  the  elder  child  bearing  that 
name  having  died  in  the  meantime.  The  name,  how- 


28  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

ever,  seems  to  have  been  an  ill-omened  one,  for  its 
second  bearer  did  not  survive  a  month,  its  burial  being 
recorded  in  the  Zuiderkerk  on  August  25th.  Of  the 
other  deaths  the  first  was  that  of  an  aunt  of  Saskia, 
who  was  possibly  also  her  godmother,  as  she  bore  the 
same  name,  and  certainly  left  her  some  property,  since 
Ferdinand  Bol  was  sent,  on  August  3Oth,  to  Leeuwarden 
with  formal  authority  to  take  possession  on  her  behalf. 
The  other  death  must  have  been,  to  Rembrandt  at  any 
rate,  a  far  heavier  blow,  for  by  it  he  lost,  in  September 
or  October,  his  mother,  to  whom  he  was  cordially 
attached,  and  from  whom  his  residence  in  Amsterdam 
had  only  partially  separated  him,  since  we  know  by 
various  portraits,  painted  subsequent  to  1631,  that  either 
he  visited  her  or  she  him  with  considerable  frequency. 

An  event  arising  out  of  the  consequent  settlement 
of  the  estate  has  given  rise  to  the  suspicion  that,  then 
at  all  events,  Rembrandt  was  in  difficulties,  but  it  is 
again  possible  to  take  another  point  of  view.  The  in- 
heritance of  each  child  amounted  to  2490  florins,  and 
a  further  1600  remained  to  be  divided  later.  The 
business  was  entrusted  to  Adriaen  and  Lysbeth,  and 
Rembrandt,  unhesitatingly  accepting  every  suggestion 
made  by  them,  contented  himself  with  a  mortgage  on 
half  the  mill,  the  redemption  of  which  was  to  be 
postponed  indefinitely.  No  sooner,  however,  was  the 
arrangement  completed  than  he  authorised  his  brother 
Willem  to  sell  his  rights  for  what  they  would  fetch. 
This  may  mean,  as  M.  Michel  supposes,  that  he  wanted 
the  money  promptly,  yet  wished  to  deal  tenderly  with  a 
brother  who  was  himself  by  no  means  beforehand  with 
the  world  ;  but  the  two  reasons  seem  somewhat  incon- 


{National  Gallery,  London 


PORTRAIT   OF   REMBRANDT 

(1640) 


DAYS    OF   PROSPERITY  29 

sistent  with  the  facts.  That  Rembrandt,  even  though 
pressed  for  money  himself,  should  have  practically  for- 
gone his  due,  and  consented  to  take  a  small  annual 
interest  which  he  could,  in  case  necessity  arose,  easily 
forgo,  is  quite  reconcilable  with  what  we  know  of  him  ; 
but  that,  having  acted  so,  he  should  have  at  once  undone 
the  good  he  proposed,  by  selling  his  claim  to  some 
stranger,  who  would  certainly  demand  the  full  letter  of 
his  bond,  is  hard  to  believe. 

Any  other  evidence  concerning  these  presumed  em- 
barrassments is  certainly  against  them.  At  this  very 
time  he  was  cheerfully  accepting  security  for  consider- 
able sums  of  money  lent,  in  addition  to  the  original  one 
thousand  florins,  to  Hendrick  van  Uylenborch ;  and 
in  later  years,  when  his  affairs  came  to  be  inquired  into, 
Lodewyck  van  Ludick  and  Adriaen  de  Wees,  dealers 
both,  swore  that  between  1640  and  1650  Rembrandt's 
collections,  without  counting  the  pictures,  were  worth 
1 1,000  florins,  while  a  jeweller,  Jan  van  Loo,  stated  that 
Saskia  had  two  large  pear-shaped  pearls,  two  rows  of 
valuable  pearls  forming  a  necklace  and  bracelets,  a 
large  diamond  in  a  ring,  two  diamond  earrings,  two 
enamelled  bracelets,  and  various  articles  of  plate. 
Finally,  Rembrandt  also,  at  a  later  date,  estimated 
that  his  estate  at  the  time  of  Saskia's  death  amounted 
to  40,750  florins ;  and  though  the  estimate  was  made 
under  circumstances  calculated  to  incline  him  to 
exaggerate  rather  than  diminish  the  amount,  it  must 
be  considered  as  approximately  correct. 

Poor  Saskia  was  not  destined  to  enjoy  much  longer 
her  plate  and  jewellery.  Death,  having  entered  the 
family,  was  thenceforth  busy.  Titia  died  at  Flushing 


30  REMBRANDT   VAN    R1JN 

on  June  i6th,  1641  ;  and  Saskia  herself,  after  the  birth  of 
Titus  in  September  of  that  year,  possibly  never  enjoyed 
really  good  health  again.  By  the  following  spring  she  was 
unmistakably  failing,  and  at  nine  in  the  morning  of  June 
5th,  1642,  she  made  her  will.  She  was  not  even  then 
without  hope  of  recovery,  for  there  are  express  stipula- 
tions as  to  any  further  children  she  might  bear,  but  the 
pitiful  irregularity  of  her  signature  at  the  end  of  the  docu- 
ment shows  how  forlorn  this  hope  was  ;  and,  in  fact,  she 
died  within  the  following  fortnight,  and  was  buried  on 
the  I Qth  of  June  in  the  Oudekerk,  where  Rembrandt 
subsequently  purchased  the  place  of  her  sepulture. 

Upon  what  this  loss  must  have  meant  to  Rembrandt, 
with  his  affectionate  nature  and  almost  morbid  devotion 
to  a  home-life  I  need  not  dwell,  nor  did  Fate  rest  content 
with  dealing  him  this  single  blow.  The  great  picture, 
which  forms  the  chief  ornament  of  the  Ryksmuseum  at 
Amsterdam,  "  The  Sortie  of  the  Company  of  Banning 
Cocq,"  better  known  under  the  inaccurate  title  of  "  The 
Night-Watch,"  was  no  sooner  completed,  in  the  course 
of  the  same  year,  than  it  aroused  a  storm  of  vituperative 
criticism.  The  reasons  for  this  I  must  defer  till  I  come 
to  the  consideration  of  the  paintings,  and  must  only 
note  the  fact  here,  and  the  dwindling  of  Rembrandt's 
popularity,  which  appears  to  have  been,  to  some  extent 
at  least,  the  consequence. 

One  dim  ray  of  consolation  alone  seems  to  beam 
through  the  darkness  that  overshadowed  him.  Lievensz, 
who  had  long  been  absent,  first  in  England  and  sub- 
sequently in  Antwerp,  came  to  settle  in  Amsterdam, 
and  doubtless  did  all  that  in  him  lay  to  comfort  his 
doubly-stricken  friend.  In  the  meantime  the  business 


[Dresden  Gallery 


PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA 


DAYS   OF   PROSPERITY  31 

matters  so   loathed   by  him,  and   now  aggravated  by 
their  intimate  connection  with  his  bereavement,  had  to 
be  attended  to,  though,  through  the  consideration  of 
Saskia's  relatives,  they  were  made  as  easy  for  him  as 
well    might  be.      Saskia,   by  her    will,   left   everything 
practically   to    Rembrandt,    confident    that    he    would 
properly     educate     Titus     and     start     him     in     life. 
Ostensibly,  indeed,  her  share  of  the  estate  was  left  to 
Titus  and  any  other  children  she  might  bear,  but  she 
expressly  stipulated  that  he  was  not  to  be  asked  to 
provide  any  inventory  or  guarantees  to  anyone  whatso- 
ever.    She  particularly  forbade  the  interference  of  any 
Chamber  of  Orphans,  in  especial  that  at  Amsterdam. 
Rembrandt  alone  was  to  have  control,  and  the  property, 
principal  and  interest,  was  to  all  intents  his  own,  unless 
— an  important  exception  as  we  shall  find — he  married 
again.     In  that  case  half  of  the  joint  estate  at  the  time 
of  her  death  was  to  be  put  in  trust  for  the  child  or 
children,   though    Rembrandt    was    still    to   enjoy   the 
interest  for   life.     It  was  obvious  that  the  making  at 
once  of  an  inventory  of  all  the  property  in  his  posses- 
sion was  the  only  right  course  to  pursue,  in  order  that 
the  share  which  might  eventually  revert  to  Titus  should 
be  accurately  known,  for  Rembrandt  was  but  six-and- 
thirty,  and  his  re-marriage  by  no  means  impossible.    He, 
however,  wished  to  avoid  this  course,  doubtless  through 
that   over-mastering   distaste   for  business   to  which   I 
have  had   and    shall   have   occasion  to  refer  so  often, 
and  having  the  consent  of  Hendrick  van  Uylenborch, 
obtained  permission  from  the  Chamber  of  Orphans,  on 
December  iQth,  to  enter  into  possession  of  the  estate 
without  any  estimate  of  its  value  being  recorded. 


CHAPTER   IV 

DAYS  OF   DECLINE 

HE  was  then  starting  upon  the  downward  course  which 
was  leading  him  to  utter  ruin.  In  the  course  of  the 
following  years,  Fashion,  who  had  decreed  that  he  was 
the  one  painter  to  patronise,  shook  her  fickle  wings 
and  flew  off  to  others,  and  thenceforth  decried  her 
former  favourite  with  the  more  ignorant  dispraise 
because  of  her  equally  ignorant  paeans  in  the  past. 

It  was  in  vain  that  the  Stathouder  continued  his 
patronage,  giving  him  a  commission  for  two  pictures, 
"The  Circumcision"  and  "The  Adoration  of  the 
Shepherds,"  for  which,  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  Septem- 
ber 1646,  he  paid  the  sum  of  2400  florins,  just  double 
what  he  had  paid  before.  It  was  in  vain  that  the 
rising  artists  could  not  fail  to  perceive  his  transcendent 
merits,  and  that  pupils  from  all  Europe  sought  him 
out,  Michiel  Willemans,  Ulric  Mayr,  and  Franz 
Wulfhagen,  Christoph  Paudiss,  Juriaen  Avens,  Bernard 
Keilh,  Cornelis  Drost,  Nicholas  Maes,  Carel  Fabritius, 
Samuel  van  Hoogstraten,  and  many  more.  He  had 
ceased,  apparently,  to  attract  the  public.  At  any  rate, 
though  his  productive  energy  was  unabated,  his  affairs 
grew  ever  more  and  more  involved. 

In  1647,  Saskia's  relations  began  to  be  alarmed, 
demanding  that  the  valuation  of  the  property  at  the 
date  of  her  death  should  be  ascertained  without  delay, 

32 


DAYS   OF   DECLINE  33 

and  Rembrandt  replied  that  to  the  best  of  his  belief 
it  had  been  40,750  florins.  It  is  a  little  difficult  to 
understand  what  right  they  had  to  formulate  this 
demand,  since,  according  to  the  will,  the  property  was 
virtually  Rembrandt's  own,  unless  he  married  again, 
and  this,  to  all  appearance,  he  had,  at  that  time,  no 
idea  of  doing,  though  rumours  to  the  contrary  may 
well  have  reached  their  ears.  A  certain  Geertje  Dircx, 
the  widow  of  one  Abraham  Claesz,  who  had  been  en- 
gaged, probably  not  long  after  Saskia's  death,  as  nurse 
to  the  infant  Titus,  who  was  always  delicate,  came  in 
time  to  hope  that  she  might  aspire  to  rank  as  his 
step -mother;  on  January  24th,  1648,  she  made  her 
will,  neglecting  the  relations  we  know  her  to  have  had 
and  bequeathing  everything  she  legally  could  to  Titus. 
Within  two  years,  however,  on  October  1st,  1649,  she 
repudiated  her  will,  gave  Rembrandt  warning,  and 
brought  against  him  the  equivalent  of  an  action  for 
breach  of  promise  of  marriage,  to  which  he  replied  by 
an  affidavit  denying  that  their  relations  had  ever  been 
other  than  those  of  master  and  servant.  In  fact,  her 
pretensions  seem  to  have  been  only  the  delusions  of 
her  disordered  brain,  for  in  the  course  of  the  next 
year,  1650,  she  had  to  be  removed  and  placed  in  con- 
finement in  a  madhouse  at  Gouda,  for  which  Rembrandt 
advanced  the  expenses,  and,  needless  to  say,  never  got 
them  back. 

We  have  not,  moreover,  far  to  seek  for  a  reason  for 
her  explosion  of  temper  in  1649  if  she  really  believed 
her  master  meant  to  marry  her,  for  on  that  very  same 
October  1st,  in  reference  to  some  otherwise  unimportant 
disturbances  of  the  neighbourhood  by  a  drunken  man, 
C 


34  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

we  find  a  certain  Hendrickje  Stoffels,  of  Ransdorp,  in 
Westphalia,  giving  evidence  on  Rembrandt's  behalf. 
Of  the  subsequent  relations  between  her  and  Rembrandt 
there  can  be,  unfortunately,  no  doubt  whatever.  She 
was  at  that  time  three -and -twenty,  and  a  pleasant- 
looking  girl  enough,  as  her  portrait,  now  in  the  Louvre, 
makes  clear,  and  that  her  devotion  to  Rembrandt  was 
not  at  all  events  self-seeking,  the  future  made  abundantly 
evident.  As  long  as  she  lived,  she  remained  attached 
to  him,  through  evil  fortune  and  ill-report,  and,  though 
there  was  too  good  reason  for  the  step,  she  is  generally 
believed  to  have  never  asked  or  expected  him  to  "  make 
an  honest  woman  of  her,"  as  the  phrase  goes.  To  this 
belief,  however,  I  hesitate  to  subscribe ;  indeed,  I  in- 
cline to  the  conviction  that  the  description  of  her  given 
in  a  lawsuit  on  October  27th,  1661,  as  his  lawful  wife, 
"  huysfrouw,"  the  very  title  he  himself  gave  to  Saskia, 
was  strictly  accurate.  There  is  not,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, another  particle  of  direct  evidence  that  it  was 
so,  though  this  in  itself  is  not  to  be  despised,  but 
there  are  circumstances  not  a  few  that  point  in  the 
same  direction. 

While  the  connection  was  irregular,  and  to  begin 
with,  at  least,  it  undoubtedly  was  so,  there  was  never 
any  concealment  or  shamefacedness  about  the  matter, 
nor  do  Rembrandt's  friends,  not  even  the  respectable 
Burgomaster  Six,  seem  to  have  looked  askance  upon 
it.  It  is  true  that  in  1654  she  was  summoned,  some- 
what tardily,  before  the  Consistory  of  her  church, 
severely  admonished,  and  forbidden  to  communicate. 
That,  of  course,  was  inevitable  from  their  point  of 
view,  and  only  shows  how  absolutely  open  the  arrange- 


DAYS   OF   DECLINE  35 

ment  was.  How  improbable  it  is  then  that  in  later 
years  she  should  have  deliberately  perjured  herself  on 
the  question  when,  if  it  were  perjury,  the  evidence  to 
convict  her  must  have  been  overwhelming.  There  can, 
indeed,  have  been  no  doubt,  long  before  this  church 
summons,  as  to  the  relations  between  them,  for  in 
1652  she  gave  birth  to  a  child  which  did  not,  however, 
survive  long,  as  we  know  that  it  was  buried  in  the 
Zuiderkerk  on  August  I5th. 

In  October  1654,  a  second  daughter  was  born,  and 
was  christened  on  October  3Oth,  Cornelia,  in  itself  a 
somewhat  significant  circumstance.  We  cannot,  I  fear, 
claim  any  very  subtle  delicacy  of  taste  for  Rembrandt, 
it  appertained  not  to  his  race  or  time ;  but  it  seems 
more  than  strange  that  he  should  have  given  to  an 
illegitimate  child  the  name  which  had  been  borne  by 
his  mother  and  by  two  luckless  infants  of  the  dead 
Saskia.  Taking  all  these  facts  together,  I  venture 
to  conjecture  that  we  may  still  hope  to  hear  some 
day  of  the  discovery  of  proof  that  some  time,  probably 
between  July  when  she  was  rebuked,  and  October  when 
the  child  was  baptised,  Rembrandt,  moved  perhaps 
by  the  public  disgrace  of  the  girl  once  more  about 
to  become  the  mother  of  his  child,  was  duly  married 
to  her. 

Indeed,  if  he  had  not  married  someone,  how  came 
it  that  in  1665  Louis  Crayers,  the  guardian  of  Titus, 
was  able  to  establish,  before  the  Grand  Council,  his 
claim  on  behalf  of  his  ward  against  Rembrandt's  estate, 
then  in  bankruptcy,  for  20,375  florins,  the  half  of  the 
property  at  the  time  of  Saskia's  death  three-and-twenty 
years  before?  Unless  Rembrandt  had  married  again 


36  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

Titus  would  appear  to  have  had  no  shadow  of  a  claim 
to  principal  or  interest,  yet  the  case  was  fought  out 
to  the  bitter  end,  and  it  seems  quite  incredible  that 
the  creditors  should  have  been  ignorant  of,  or  should 
have  failed  to  produce,  so  important  a  piece  of  evidence 
in  their  favour.  Since  Titus'  claim  was  allowed,  it  is 
obvious  that  Rembrandt  must  have  remarried,  and,  if 
so,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  to  the  true  and 
faithful  Hendrickje. 

I  have,  however,  been  led  to  anticipate  too  far  in 
the  attempt  to  make  this  reasoning  clear,  and  must 
return  to  1649,  in  which  year  Rembrandt  took  a  second 
step  on  his  road  to  bankruptcy  by  ceasing  to  pay  either 
instalments  of  the  sum  remaining  due  for  the  house, 
or  even  the  interest  upon  it.  Indications  of  the  ap- 
proaching disaster  now  follow  thick  and  fast.  At 
some  time  between  1650  and  1652  the  pearl  necklace 
which  appears  in  so  many  of  the  pictures  was  sold  to 
Philips  Koninck.  In  1651,  so  wholly  out  of  favour 
was  Rembrandt's  art  deemed  to  be,  that  Jan  de  Baer, 
a  young  artist,  on  leaving  the  studio  of  Backer,  under 
whom  he  had  been  studying,  after  hesitating  for  awhile 
as  to  whether  he  should  turn  to  Rembrandt  or  Van 
Dyck  for  further  instruction,  chose  the  latter,  because 
his  style  was  most  durable. 

By  1653  Rembrandt  seems  to  have  finally  abandoned 
himself  to  the  current  which  was  drifting  him  so  rapidly 
to  wreck.  On  January  29th  he  borrowed  4180  florins 
from  Cornelis  Witsen  on  the  hopeless  undertaking  to 
repay  it  in  a  year,  and  three  days  later,  on  February 
ist,  his  long-suffering  landlord  Thysz  entered  a  claim 
for  8470  florins  still  owing  to  him.  Rembrandt,  with 


DAYS   OF   DECLINE  37 

a  sharpness  due  probably  rather  to  his  lawyer  than  to 
himself,  demanded  that  the  title-deeds  should  be  de- 
livered to  him  first.  Then,  on  March  I4th,  he  borrowed 
a  further  4200  florins  from  Isaac  van  Heertsbeeck,  also 
repayable  in  a  year,  and  after  trying,  apparently  in 
vain,  through  Frangois  de  Koster,  to  recover  some  of 
the  large  sums  of  money  that  must  have  been  owing 
to  him,  he  obtained  from  Six  yet  another  loan  on  the 
guarantee  of  Ludowyck  van  Ludick.  With  this  tem- 
porary relief  he  in  part  paid  off  Thysz,  but  1170  florins 
still  remained  to  be  paid,  and  for  this  amount  the 
creditor  obtained  a  mortgage  on  the  house. 

The  end  was  now  drawing  near.  One  more  effort, 
however,  was  made  to  avert  the  crash.  A  certain  Dirck 
van  Cattenburch,  a  collector  of  works  of  art,  presuming 
that,  in  the  state  of  Rembrandt's  affairs,  the  large  house 
in  the  Breestraat  could  only  be  an  encumbrance  to  him, 
proposed  to  relieve  him  of  it  by  a  sufficiently  curious 
arrangement.  He  was  professedly  to  sell  him  another, 
doubtless  a  smaller  one,  for  4000  florins  ;  but,  in  fact, 
he  was  to  give  Rembrandt  the  house  and  1000  florins 
in  cash.  For  the  remaining  3000  florins  Rembrandt 
was  to  deliver  pictures  and  etchings  of  that  value,  and 
futhermore  to  etch  a  portrait,  in  a  style  not  less  finished 
than  that  of  Six,  of  Dirck's  brother  Otto,  the  secretary  of 
Count  Brederode  of  Vianen,  which  was  to  be  considered 
the  equivalent  of  400  florins.  How  far  this  elaborate 
transaction  was  carried  out  is  uncertain.  Rembrandt 
obtained  the  1000  florins,  and  handed  over  pictures  and 
etchings  of  his  own,  or  from  his  collection,  valued  by 
Abraham  Francen  and  van  Ludick  at  over  3000  florins, 
but  we  hear  no  more  of  the  house  or  the  portrait. 


38  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

It  was  in  vain  that  his  friends  seem  to  have  developed 
a  perfect  mania  for  being  etched  or  painted  by  him — 
Six  and  Tholinx,  Deyman  the  doctor,  the  two  Harings, 
father  and  son — neither  loans  nor  earnings  could  for 
long  stave  off  the  evil  day.  As  if  ill-luck  dogged  the 
family,  his  brother  Adriaen  had  so  managed  to  mis- 
conduct the  business  of  the  mill  that  he  and  the  sister 
Lysbeth  were  also  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  and  Rembrandt, 
in  the  midst  of  his  own  troubles,  had  to  come  to  their 
assistance.  Small  wonder,  then,  that  the  end  was 
hastened.  On  May  i/th,  1656,  one  Jan  Verbout  was 
appointed  guardian  to  Titus  in  the  place  of  Rem- 
brandt, and  on  the  same  day,  before  the  Chamber  of 
Orphans,  the  unfortunate  artist  transferred  his  rights  in 
the  house  to  his  son.  Soon  afterwards  he  was  formally 
declared  bankrupt,  and  on  July  25th  and  the  following 
day  an  inventory  was  made  "of  paintings,  furniture, 
and  domestic  utensils  connected  with  the  failure  of 
Rembrandt  van  Rijn,  formerly  living  in  the  Breestraat 
near  the  lock  of  St  Anthony."  The  inventory  still 
exists,  and  is  full  of  interest,  giving,  as  it  does,  a 
complete  description  of  every  room  in  the  house,  from 
the  pictures  in  the  studio  to  the  saucepans  in  the 
kitchen,  but  want  of  space  forbids  any  extended  ex- 
tracts from  it  here. 

The  law  seems  to  have  moved  slower  in  those  days 
even  than  in  these.  Rembrandt  continued  for  some 
time  to  dwell  in  the  house,  and,  apart  from  the  business 
worries,  the  little  family  appears  to  have  been  a  united 
and  contented  one.  How  united  we  discover  from  the 
will  that  Titus  made  on  October  2Oth,  1657,  and  rectified 
on  November  22nd.  By  that  time  Rembrandt's  utter 


DAYS   OF   DECLINE  39 

incapacity  for  business  was  probably  recognised  even 
by  himself,  and  all  that  Titus  possessed  was  left  to 
Hendrickje  and  her  daughter  Cornelia  in  trust  for  him. 
Nevertheless,  as  if  to  smooth  over  the  slur  upon  his 
father's  improvidence,  he  provided  that  Rembrandt 
might  draw  a  certain  share,  on  condition  that  he  did 
not  employ  it  to  pay  his  debts,  a  most  unlikely  use, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  for  him  to  put  it  to,  except,  like 
Falstaff,  "  upon  compulsion."  The  remainder  was  to 
go  to  Cornelia  on  her  marriage  or  coming  of  age.  The 
whole  of  the  interest,  in  the  event  of  Rembrandt's  death, 
was  to  go  to  Hendrickje  and  Cornelia,  and  there  are 
certain  other  arrangements  of  less  importance  con- 
cerning the  disposal  of  the  property  on  Cornelia's 
decease. 

A  month  later  the  law  at  last  gave  forth  its  pro- 
nouncement, and  the  commissioners  authorised  Thomas 
Jacobsz  Haring,  an  officer  of  the  Court,  to  sell  the  effects 
of  the  bankrupt  by  auction.  The  worst  had  befallen ; 
the  home  in  which  he  had  passed  eighteen  years,  many 
of  them  happy,  and  all  full  of  industry,  was  his  no  more. 
The  little  family  was  temporarily  broken  up.  Rembrandt 
moved  to  the  Crown  Imperial  Inn,  kept  by  one  Schumann 
in  the  Kalverstraat,  which  ran  southwards  from  the  Dam, 
a  handsome  and  commodious  house,  which  had  at  one 
time  been  the  Municipal  Orphanage,  and  was  then 
the  customary  place  for  holding  auctions.  Whether 
Hendrickje,  Titus,  and  Cornelia  went  with  him  we  do 
not  know.  M.  Michel  concludes,  from  the  fact  that 
Rembrandt's  daily  expenses,  included  in  the  records 
of  the  case,  were  three  or  four  florins,  that  they  certainly 
did  not;  but  if  the  already-mentioned  provision  of  125 


40  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

florins  a  year  was  considered  sufficient  support  for  the 
crippled  brother,  more  than  eight  times  that  amount 
might  surely  have  sufficed  for  four  people,  two  of  whom 
were  children. 

On  December  25th,  the  sale  of  Rembrandt's  property 
began  in  the  very  house  where  he  was  lodging,  but  only 
a  small  portion  of  the  goods  was  then  sold. 

The  wheels  of  the  law,  once  started,  ground  evenly 
and  small.  On  January  3Oth,  1658,  the  commissioners 
ordered  the  repayment  to  Witsen  and  van  Heertsbeeck 
of  the  money  they  had  lent.  The  heirs  of  Christoffel 
Thysz  were  also  paid,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  Louis 
Crayers,  who  had  by  then  replaced  Verbout  as  guardian 
of  Titus,  and,  as  such,  asserted  his  prior  claim  on  the 
estate  to  the  extent,  according  to  Rembrandt's  own 
estimate  in  1647,  of  20,375  florins.  The  other  creditors, 
taking  advantage  of  Rembrandt's  afore-mentioned  failure 
to  make  an  inventory  at  the  time,  protested  loudly  that 
the  demand  was  much  exaggerated,  and  a  cloud  of 
witnesses  was  summoned  to  give  such  evidence  as  they 
could  concerning  the  possessions  of  the  pair  at  the  time 
that  Saskia  died.  Several  of  these  statements  have 
already  been  referred  to  in  this  narrative ;  but,  in 
addition,  Jan  Pietersz,  a  draper,  Abraham  Wilmerdonx, 
director  of  the  East  India  Company,  Hendrick  van 
Uylenborch,  Nicholas  van  Cunysbergen,  and  others, 
gave  testimony  as  to  property  owned  by,  or  prices  paid 
to,  the  bankrupt  in  former  years. 

In  the  meantime,  on  February  1st,  1658,  at  the 
request  of  Henricus  Torquinius,  the  official  who  had 
charge  of  the  business,  the  house  in  the  Breestraat  was 
sold  to  one  Pieter  Wiebrantsz,  a  mason,  for  13,600 


DAYS   OF   DECLINE  41 

florins,  but  for  some  reason  the  bargain  was  not  com- 
pleted, and  a  second  purchaser  came  forward  with 
an  offer  of  12,000.  There  appear,  however,  to  have 
been  doubts  as  to  his  ability  to  pay,  and  it  was 
finally  transferred  to  a  shoemaker,  Lieven  Simonsz, 
for  1 1,2 1 8  florins.  Finally,  in  September,  the  pictures, 
engravings,  and  other  objects  of  art  were  sold  by 
auction,  bringing  in  the  ridiculous  sum  of  5000  florins, 
and  all  the  possessions  that  Rembrandt  had  collected 
with  such  loving  care  and  at  so  great  a  cost  were 
scattered  to  the  four  winds. 

It  is  pleasant  to  find  that,  in  all  this  tribulation, 
many  of  his  old  friends  still  stood  by  him  and  endear 
voured  to  help  him  to  commissions.  In  1660,  for 
example,  Govert  Flinck,  who  was  engaged  on  the 
decoration  of  the  Grand  Gallery  in  the  Town  Hall, 
having  died,  it  became  necessary  to  find  someone  to 
take  his  place.  Rembrandt  had  never  been  much  in 
favour  with  the  town  authorities,  but  on  this  occasion, 
possibly  through  the  efforts  of  his  old  friend  Tulp,  who 
had  been  treasurer  in  1658  and  1659,  he  was  invited 
to  carry  on  the  work,  and,  as  M.  Michel  has  conclu- 
sively shown,  painted  for  them  a  large  picture  of  the 
conspiracy  of  Claudius  Civilis.  The  opposition,  how- 
ever, apparently  proved  too  strong,  for  it  seems  doubt- 
ful if  the  picture  was  ever  seen  in  the  place  it  was 
intended  for.  It  did  not,  at  any  rate,  remain  there 
long. 

On  May  5th,  1660,  we  get  another  glimpse  of  the 
law  proceedings  when  Heertsbeeck  was  ordered  to  pay 
back  the  4200  florins  which  the  Court  had  formerly 
awarded  him,  though  Witsen  was  allowed  to  retain 


42  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

his  4180.  On  December  I5th  of  the  same  year 
Hendrickje  make  a  final  effort  to  restore  to  some 
extent  the  prosperity  of  the  household.  With  all 
proper  circumstance,  she  entered  on  that  day  into 
partnership  with  Titus,  legalising  an  association  be- 
tween them,  informally  established  two  years  before, 
for  the  purpose  of  dealing  in  pictures,  engravings,  and 
curiosities.  Both  he  and  she  contributed  everything 
that  they  possessed  to  a  common  fund,  and  each  was 
to  be  entitled  to  a  half  share  of  the  stock.  Rembrandt, 
partly,  no  doubt,  from  his  proved  incompetency  for 
business,  partly,  perhaps,  to  keep  out  of  the  clutches 
of  the  creditors,  was  allowed  no  share  whatever  in  the 
profits.  As,  however,  it  was  necessary  that  Hendrickje, 
who  knew  nothing  of  such  matters,  and  Titus,  who 
was  not  yet  of  age,  should  have  aid  and  assistance  in 
the  venture,  and  as  no  one  was  more  capable  of  giving 
this  than  Rembrandt,  it  was  provided  that  he  should 
make  himself  as  useful  as  possible  in  furthering  the 
interests  of  the  firm,  and  in  return  should  have  board, 
lodging,  and  certain  allowances. 

It  was,  perhaps,  as  judicious  an  arrangement  as  could 
be  made  for  Rembrandt's  sake,  but  it  is  not  wonderful 
that  the  creditors,  who  saw  all  chances  of  their  getting 
anything  further  vanishing  into  thin  air,  should  have 
been  fierce  in  their  protests.  How  far  the  association 
prospered  we  do  not  know.  Probably  not  too  well, 
for  Dr  Bredius  has  gathered  together  a  mass  of 
evidence  to  show  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  art- 
dealers  in  Amsterdam  at  that  period  came  to  dis- 
astrous financial  ends.  It  served,  at  any  rate,  to  keep 
a  roof  over  their  heads,  and  the  wolf  from  the  door, 


DAYS   OF   DECLINE  43 

for  we  find  them  again  settled  down,  this  time  in  the 
Rozengracht,  in  a  house  opposite  a  pleasure  garden 
called  the  Doolhof. 

In  1 66 1,  an  old  friend  again  came  to  his  support; 
for  it  was  probably  van  de  Cappelle,  who  was  a  dyer 
as  well  as  a  painter,  who  procured  for  him  the  com- 
mission to  paint  "  The  Syndics  of  the  Drapers'  Guild," 
which  he  so  splendidly  achieved.  By  this  time  there 
is  some  reason  for  supposing  that  yet  another  trouble 
was  coming  upon  Rembrandt.  As  far  as  we  know, 
he  never  executed  any  etchings  after  1661,  and 
M.  Michel  suspected  that  this  might  have  been  due 
to  failing  sight.  A  study,  moreover,  of  the  portraits 
painted  from  that  time  onwards,  reveals  the  fact  that 
a  large  majority  of  them,  if  not  actually  all,  were 
conspicuously,  some  even  enormously,  larger  than  life, 
and  that  would  in  all  probability  be  a  symptom 
of  the  same  misfortune.  These  two  facts  cannot,  of 
course,  be  considered  as  furnishing  absolute  proof, 
but  they  certainly  go  to  create  a  probability ;  nor  can 
we  regard  the  supposition  that  the  overstrained  nerves 
were  giving  way  at  last  as  in  any  way  unlikely  when 
we  reflect  how  incessantly  Rembrandt  had  worked 
his  eyesight,  and  how  minutely  finished  had  been 
much  of  his  work,  especially  among  the  etchings, 
many  of  which  were  undoubtedly  executed  by  arti- 
ficial light,  after  his  day's  painting  was  ended.  It 
would  be  but  one  more  burden  of  distress  laid  upon 
those  heavily-laden  shoulders. 

In  truth,  the  story  of  the  few  remaining  years  is 
but  a  record  of  stroke  after  stroke.  On  August  7th, 
1 66 1,  the  faithful  Hendrickje  was  so  seriously  ill,  that, 


44  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

in  spite  of  its  being  a  Sunday,  she  made  her  will,  leav- 
ing, as  was  but  right,  all  her  property  to  Cornelia,  but 
with  the  stipulation  that,  in  case  of  her  death,  Titus 
was  to  inherit,  though  his  father  was  to  enjoy  the 
income  as  long  as  he  lived.  That  she  recovered  at 
that  time  we  know  from  her  appearance  on  October 
27th,  as  a  witness  in  the  case  of  the  drunken  man 
already  referred  to ;  but  the  recovery  must  have 
been  only  temporary,  for,  after  this  last  appearance, 
we  hear  of  her  no  more,  though  we  do  not  know  the 
exact  date  of  her  death.  There  is,  however,  M.  Michel 
believes,  a  reason  for  supposing  it  to  have  occurred  in 
the  autumn  of  1662.  On  October  2/th  in  that  year 
Rembrandt  sold  the  vault  he  had  purchased  in  the 
Oudekerk,  which  was  no  longer  his  parish  church.  It 
was,  nevertheless,  an  odd  thing  to  do,  since  poor  little 
Saskia  lay  there ;  and  M.  Michel,  in  seeking  an  ex- 
planation, conjectures  that  he  was  at  that  time  under 
the  necessity  of  providing  for  the  burial  of  Hendrickje 
in  the  Westerkerk,  and  that  the  sale  was  a  sheer 
necessity.  There  is,  at  any  rate,  no  portrait  of  her 
known  to  have  been  painted  after  1662,  and  the  con- 
jecture that  she  died  that  year  is  at  least  a  plausible 
one. 

In  the  course  of  the  same  year,  we  hear  of  the  last 
pupil  coming  to  Rembrandt,  Aert  de  Gelder,  whose 
youthful  enthusiasm  may  have  brought  some  bright- 
ness, we  may  hope,  into  the  life  of  the  poor  broken 
old  man.  Meanwhile,  the  echoes  of  the  law  courts 
still  rumbled  in  his  ears,  for,  on  December  22nd,  Isaac 
van  Heertsbeeck,  who  had  evidently  not  complied 
with  the  previous  order  of  the  Court  in  1660,  was 


[Louvre,  Paris 


PORTRAIT  OF  HENDRICKJE  STOFFELS 
(ABOUT  1652) 


DAYS   OF   DECLINE  45 

again  commanded  to  refund  the  4200  florins,  and 
again  appealed. 

Rembrandt  had  by  then  so  completely  dropped 
out  of  public  ken,  that  we  only  get  dim  and  fleeting 
glimpses  of  him.  In  1664,  we  hear  of  him  moving 
to  the  Lauriergracht,  still  farther  to  the  south-east, 
and  it  is  not  until  affairs  draw  him  from  seclusion 
that  we  learn  more  of  him,  and  then  only  indirectly. 
We  may,  perhaps,  conclude,  however,  from  the  scarcity 
of  his  works  during  these  last  years,  that  his  eyes, 
and  possibly  general  health,  were  getting  ever  worse. 

On  January  27th,  1665,  van  Heertsbeeck's  protracted 
struggle  came  to  an  end,  and  the  Grand  Council  decided 
that  by  June  2Oth  the  money  must  be  repaid.  On  June 
1 9th,  Rembrandt  and  Titus  appealed  to  the  law  to 
anticipate  the  coming  of  age  of  the  latter,  so  that  he 
might  be  legally  considered  of  years  of  discretion 
before  the  actual  arrival  of  his  twenty-fifth  birthday, 
a  request  which  must  have  been  connected  with  a 
foreknowledge  of  the  decision  delivered  the  next  day, 
June  2Oth,  in  favour  of  Louis  Crayers.  This  meant 
that  the  rights  of  Titus  to  the  full  amount  of  his 
mother's  fortune  of  20,375  florins  were  allowed  ;  but 
only  6952  florins  remained,  and  of  this,  on  November 
5th,  Titus  was  authorised  to  take  possession  in  his 
own  name.  It  was  but  a  scanty  fraction  of  what  he 
should  have  had,  but  it  was  something,  and  the  little 
windfall  may  have  had  some  part  in  the  return  of 
the  family  to  the  Rozengracht.  Of  the  next  two 
years  we  know  nothing,  except  that  we  learn  from 
a  portrait  of  Jeremias  de  Decker,  a  poet  who  wrote 
eulogistic  verses  on  the  painter,  that  neither  the  man 


46  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

nor  the  artist  was  entirely  neglected.  The  first  sounds 
that  come  again  to  us  out  of  the  darkness  are  those 
of  wedding  bells  on  the  occasion  of  the  marriage  of 
Titus  with  his  cousin  Magdalena,  the  daughter  of 
Cornelia  van  Uylenborch  and  of  Albert  van  Loo, 
whose  quarrel  with  Rembrandt  years  before  had 
clearly  been  forgotten.  The  note  of  merriment  was, 
however,  too  quickly  changed  for  one  of  dolour,  for 
ere  the  year  was  out  Titus  was  dead,  as  we  learn 
from  the  record  of  his  burial  in  the  Westerkerk,  on 
September  4th,  1668. 

In  March  1669,  the  widowed  Magdalena  gave  birth 
to  a  daughter,  and,  on  the  twenty-second  of  that  month, 
Rembrandt  stood  by  while  the  only  grandchild  he  was 
to  see  was  christened  Titia.  We  catch  thereafter  some 
murmurs  of  that  business  which  he  so  hated,  in  con- 
nection with  the  settlement  of  the  respective  shares 
which  the  little  Titia  and  Cornelia  were  to  draw  from 
the  remainder  of  the  old  association  between  their 
respective  parents ;  and  then  again  comes  silence, 
until,  from  an  entry  in  the  Doelboek,  the  registry  of 
deaths  in  the  Westerkerk,  we  learn  that  the  long, 
slow,  downward  path  has  ended,  where  all  paths  end, 
in  the  grave. 

"Tuesday,  8  October,  1669,  Rembrandt  van  Rijn, 
painter,  on  the  Rozengracht,  opposite  the  Doolhof. 
Leaves  two  children." 

He  was  buried,  at  the  cost  of  thirteen  florins,  at  the 
foot  of  a  staircase  leading  up  to  a  pulpit  on  a  pillar  on 
the  left-hand  side  as  you  go  up  the  church ;  but  when, 
some  years  back,  a  coffin,  supposed  to  have  been  his, 
was  opened,  not  a  trace  of  his  ashes  was  to  be  found. 


[National  Gallery,  London 


PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT 
(ABOUT  1664) 


DAYS   OF   DECLINE  47 

The  subsequent  history  of  the  family  may  be  briefly 
sketched.  Within  a  fortnight  of  Rembrandt's  death, 
on  October  I3th,  his  daughter-in-law  Magdalena  was 
also  dead.  On  the  i6th  and  i8th  of  March,  and 
again  on  April  I5th,  Abraham  Francen,  the  old  and 
faithful  friend,  and  Christian  Dusart,  acting  on  behalf 
of  Cornelia,  settled  with  Francois  van  Bylert,  acting 
on  behalf  of  the  baby  Titia,  their  respective  portions 
of  the  small  inheritance.  Francois  would  seem  to  have 
been  a  kindly  guardian,  and  Titia  to  have  had  a  happy 
home,  for,  on  June  i6th,  1686,  at  the  church  of  Slooten, 
she  married  his  son,  also  named  Frangois,  a  jeweller, 
living  in  the  Kloveniers-Burgwal,  in  the  heart  of  her 
native  town.  Here  she  bore,  and  buried  also  in  the 
Westerkirk,  three  children,  one  in  1688,  one  in  1695, 
and  one  in  1698,  and  herself  died  November  22nd, 
1725,  leaving  a  fourth  child,  who  only  survived  her 
three  years. 

Cornelia  married  a  man  named  Suythoff,  and  with 
him  travelled  to  Java,  where,  in  the  town  of  Batavia, 
she  gave  birth  to  two  sons,  one  on  December  5th, 
1673,  called  Rembrandt,  the  other,  on  July  I4th,  1678, 
named  Hendrick. 


REMBRANDT  THE   PAINTER 

CHAPTER  V 

EARLY  YEARS      (1627-1633) 

OF  the  blank  spaces  in  the  record  of  Rembrandt's 
career,  none  is  so  long  or  so  inexplicable  as  that  which 
begins  with  his  return  from  Amsterdam  to  Leyden  in 
1624.  Here  the  track  breaks  off  abruptly,  and  we  can 
be  sure  of  nothing  until  we  come  to  the  first  known 
pictures  signed  by  him,  and  dated  1627. 

We  will  take  first  the  picture  discovered  by  Sir  J.  C. 
Robinson  about  twenty  years  ago,  and  presented  by 
him  to  the  Berlin  Gallery.  It  represents  a  wrinkled  old 
man,  seated  at  a  table.  Papers  and  account  books  lie 
around  him,  and  are  heaped  up  in  the  background,  and 
on  his  left,  resting  on  a  thick  volume,  stands  a  fat  purse. 
A  pair  of  scales  are  in  front  of  him,  and  beside  them  a 
dozen  or  so  of  coins.  Lifting  a  candle  in  his  left  hand, 
he  throws  the  light  of  it  upon  a  piece  of  money.  The 
work,  though  promising,  is  in  no  way  startling,  and  he 
would  have  been  an  acute  critic  who  could  have  fore- 
told from  it  the  lofty  height  to  which  the  painter  of  it 
was  to  soar.  It  is  signed,  with  one  of  the  ever-varying 
forms  of  his  signature,  R.H.,  combined  in  a  monogram, 
followed  by  the  date  1627. 

The  other  picture  known  to  belong  to  this  first  year, 

43 


EARLY  YEARS  49 

"  St  Paul  in  Prison,"  is  in  the  Museum  at  Stuttgart 
[No.  225],  and  presents  much  the  same  merits  of  close 
observation,  much  the  same  defects  of  timid  execution 
as  the  last.  It  represents  the  saint  seated  in  a  straw- 
strewn  dungeon,  lighted  by  a  single  beam  of  sunlight, 
surrounded  by  books,  with  the  sword  that  symbolises 
him,  meditating  before  writing.  The  signature  in  this 
case  is  a  double  one :  the  first,  consisting  of  his  full 
name,  with  one  of  his  curious  mis-spellings,  Rembrand, 
and  underneath  fecit ;  the  second  an  elaborate  R 
followed  by  f.  1627,  and  below  the  down  stroke,  cross- 
ing the  tail  of  the  R,  a  smaller  L,  which  Dr  Bode 
suggests  stands  for  Leydensis. 

Three  other  pictures,  all  undated,  are  attributed  to 
this  year  or  the  next,  a  "Philosopher  reading  by 
Candle-light,"  painted  on  copper,  "  A  Study  of  Him- 
self," at  Cassel  [No.  208],  and  a  "Portrait  of  his 
Mother,"  which  was  lent  for  a  time  to  the  Ryksmuseum 
at  Amsterdam,  but  is  there  no  longer. 

In  the  Cassel  picture,  small  as  it  is,  the  breadth  and 
vigour  of  treatment,  the  courage  of  the  work  are  so 
remarkable  that  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  it  is  of  the 
same  period  as  the  previous  pictures.  It  is  a  study  of 
little  more  than  the  head,  presenting  one  of  those  effects 
of  contrasted  light  and  shade  which  he  so  loved  that 
pseudo-art  slang  has  nicknamed  them  of  late  years 
Rembrandt  effects.  The  shadows  are  a  little  dark,  the 
contrasts  are  a  little  forced,  wanting  the  true  grada- 
tions, but  the  power  displayed  is  so  great,  the  frankness 
of  the  handling  so  certain  that,  especially  in  a  photo- 
graph, the  little  study  has  all  the  appearance  of  a  life- 
sized  picture. 
D 


50  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

There  are  again  two  pictures  dated  in  the  following 
year,  1628.  "  Samson  captured  by  the  Philistines,"  at 
Berlin,  is  a  not  too  successful  first  attempt  at  a  com- 
position of  several  figures,  but  it  is  of  interest  to  the 
student  as  showing  the  sternly  practical  bent  of 
Rembrandt's  imagination,  the  intense  craving  for  a 
strictly  probable  conception  of  the  scene  which,  though 
at  times  it  led  him  over  the  border  of  the  simple  into 
the  absolutely  ludicrous,  more  often  gives  that  wonder- 
fully impressive  vitality  and  depth  of  feeling  to  his 
pictures.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  he  aims  not  at  all  at 
heroic  attitudes  and  over-dramatic  effect ;  he  makes  no 
attempt  to  invent  the  scene  as  it  ought  to  have  looked, 
but  endeavours  to  realise  how  it  did  look.  The 
Philistines,  he  knew,  were  afraid  of  Samson,  and  he 
will  not  bate  a  jot  of  their  terrors.  One  of  them 
advances  in  fear  and  trembling,  carefully  keeping 
Delilah  between  himself  and  the  object  of  his  dread  ; 
while  the  other  hides  unequivocally  behind  the  bed- 
curtains. 

Here,  also,  we  find  an  instance  of  his  habit  of  paint- 
ing in  accessories  because  they  were  picturesque  and 
available,  quite  regardless  of  their  appropriateness,  in 
the  Malay  kriss  thrust  into  Samson's  belt ;  and  here  we 
find  for  the  first  time  that  blending  of  the  features  of 
the  two  earlier  monograms,  the  R.H.  of  the  one,  with 
the  L.  of  the  other,  into  the  thenceforth  frequent  com- 
bination R.H.L.  with  the  date  1628. 

The  second  picture,  bearing  the  same  monogram  and 
date,  is  in  the  possession  of  Herr  Karl  von  der  Heydt 
of  Elberfeld,  showing  a  man  in  full  armour,  standing  by 
a  fire  in  a  courtyard,  and  closely  observed  by  soldiers 


EARLY  YEARS  51 

and  servants,  which  Dr  Bode  not  unreasonably  believes 
to  represent  "The  Denial  of  St  Peter."  Seven  other 
pictures  are  attributed  to  about  that  date,  one  of 
which  is  believed  by  its  possessor,  Dr  Bredius,  to  be  a 
"Portrait  of  Rembrandt's  Mother"  (see  illustration,  p.  6). 
There  are  also  a  copy  of  this,  showing  a  little  more  of 
the  figure,  attributed  to  Rembrandt,  but  probably  by 
another  hand ;  two  portraits  supposed  to  be  "  The 
Painter's  Father,"  one  lent  by  Dr  Bredius  to  the  Museum 
at  the  Hague  [No.  565],  the  other  in  the  Museum  at 
Nantes;  a  "Portrait  of  a  Boy,"  at  Hinton  St  George,  and 
a  doubtful  one  of  "  A  Young  Girl,"  called  Rembrandt's 
sister  Lysbeth,  at  Stockholm  [No.  591].  A  "Judas 
with  the  Price  of  the  Betrayal,"  in  the  collection  of 
Baron  Arthur  de  Schickler  of  Paris,  is  considered  by 
M.  Michel  to  be  the  identical  picture  to  which 
Constantin  Huygens  referred  in  that  eulogy  which  has 
been  mentioned  in  the  painter's  life.  A  "  Raising  of 
Lazurus,"  in  the  collection  of  Mr  Yerkes  in  New  York, 
completes  the  list. 

There  is  only  one  picture  bearing  the  date  1629,  a 
small  "Portrait  of  Himself,"  at  Gotha  [No.  181];  but 
there  are  eleven  others  believed  to  have  been  painted 
about  that  time.  Two  are  in  the  Mauritshuis  at  the 
Hague.  A  "Bust  of  Himself"  [No.  148]  is  a  strong, 
resolute  piece  of  work,  and  a  marked  advance  on  all 
that  he  had  done  before.  The  other  picture  at  the 
Hague  [No.  598]  is  supposed  to  be  his  elder  brother 
Adriaen.  There  is  less  doubt  about  a  portrait  in  the 
Ryksmuseum  at  Amsterdam  [No.  1248],  painted  about 
that  time,  though  bearing  a  forged  signature  and  the 
impossible  date  1641.  It  is  that  of  a  man  with  a 


52  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

short  peaked  beard  and  grey  moustaches  martially 
brushed  up,  and  a  long  aquiline  nose.  The  same 
features  occur  frequently  in  the  earlier  pictures  and 
etchings,  and  M.  Michel  has  made  out  a  very  good  case 
for  their  being  those  of  Harmen  Gerritsz,  the  painter's 
father. 

There  are  three  other  "Portraits  of  Himself,"  "A 
Head  of  a  Boy,"  "  A  Young  Man  Laughing,"  and  a 
"  St  Peter,"  all  painted  about  that  time ;  but  of  more 
importance  are  two  small  subject-pictures.  The  first, 
signed  R.H.,  but  not  dated,  "Christ  at  Emmaus,"  in 
the  possession  of  Madame  Andr6-Jacquemart  of  Paris, 
is  the  earliest  example  of  that  presentment  of  a  group 
of  figures  lighted  by  artificial  light,  to  which  Rembrandt 
was  so  partial.  Here,  as  in  most  cases,  the  source  of 
the  light  is  hidden,  as  it  stands  on  a  table,  on  the  right 
of  the  picture,  in  front  of  which  Christ  is  seated,  in 
profile  to  the  left,  his  silhouette  sharply  cut  against  the 
radiance.  At  his  feet  one  of  the  disciples  kneels.  The 
second,  seated  in  the  centre,  on  the  further  side  of  the 
table,  lifts  up  his  hands  in  amazement.  On  the  left, 
in  the  background,  the  secondary  softer  illumination,  so 
frequently  introduced  in  similar  effects  by  Rembrandt, 
is  provided  by  the  glow  of  firelight  on  two  women 
engaged  in  cooking.  The  other  is  "The  Presentation 
in  the  Temple,"  in  the  collection  of  Consul  Weber  at 
Hamburg.  Like  the  last,  it  is  signed,  with  the  full 
name  Rembrandt  however,  but  is  not  dated,  and  the 
effect  is  to  some  extent  marred  by  the  harshness  of  the 
contrasts  of  light  and  shade,  his  later  complete  grasp  of 
subtle  transitions  being  still  imperfectly  developed. 

Six  out  of  the  seventeen  pictures  attributed  to  1630 


EARLY  YEARS  53 

or  thereabouts  are  signed  and  dated,  and  one,  a  re- 
production of  the  "  Portrait  of  his  Father,"  in  the 
Hermitage  at  St  Petersburg  [No.  814],  is  signed  with 
the  monogram  R.H.L.,  but  not  dated  ;  while  a  different 
portrait  of  the  same,  at  Rotterdam  [No.  237],  is 
signed  R.  alone.  Four  of  these  are  portraits :  one,  at 
Hamburg,  of  "  Maurice  Huygens,"  the  brother  of  the 
painter's  admirer  Constantin ;  one,  in  the  collection  of 
Count  Andrassy  at  Buda-Pesth,  his  own  ;  one,  at  Cassel, 
of  an  unknown  "  Old  Man "  [No.  209] ;  and  one,  in 
the  Ferdinandeum  at  Innsbruck,  though  called  "  Philon 
the  Jew,"  is  probably  his  father.  One  of  the  two 
subject-pictures,  in  the  Six  collection,  Amsterdam,  is 
a  sketch,  broadly  but  expressively  handled,  of  "  Joseph 
interpreting  his  Dreams,"  signed  with  the  full  name 
Rembrandt,  1630.  The  other,  signed  R.H.L.  1630,  in 
the  collection  of  Count  Stroganoff,  is  of  doubtful 
import.  It  represents  an  old  man  seated  in  a  cave, 
resting  his  head  upon  his  right  hand,  while  his  left  rests 
on  a  large  book.  Beside  him  lie  a  cloth  embroidered 
with  gold,  various  gold  vessels,  and  other  objects  of 
value.  In  the  distance  is  seen  a  town  in  flames,  from 
which  the  inhabitants  are  hurriedly  escaping.  What  it 
is  intended  to  represent  is  an  unsolved  riddle,  and  the 
title  of  "  A  Philosopher  in  Meditation,"  though  con- 
venient to  identify  it  by,  has  not  otherwise  much 
significance.  The  remaining  eleven  pictures  are  studies 
or  portraits,  of  which  the  old  woman,  belonging  to  the 
Earl  of  Pembroke,  a  bust  of  "A  Young  Girl,"  the 
property  of  Dr  Bredius,  and  lent  by  him  to  the  Hague 
Museum,  and  another  "Portrait  of  an  Old  Woman" 
resembling  somewhat  in  features  the  picture  at  Wilton, 


54  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

but  known,  for  some  mysterious  reason  as,  "The 
Countess  of  Desmond,"  may  be  mentioned. 

At  what  time  in  1631  Rembrandt  moved  to 
Amsterdam  we  have  no  means  of  judging,  nor  can  we 
say  with  any  certainty  which  pictures  of  that  year 
were  painted  before,  which  after,  his  change  of  residence. 
A  "Bust  of  his  Father,"  signed  R.H.L.  1631,  the 
property  of  Mr  Fleischmann,  was  probably  among  the 
former.  The  "  Young  Man  with  the  Turban,"  at 
Windsor,  must  also,  presumably,  have  been  painted 
before  his  removal,  if  M.  Michel  is  justified  in  his 
belief  that  it  is  a  portrait  of  Gerard  Dou.  Of  the 
others  we  know  nothing  that  points  either  way. 

Rembrandt  was  now  beginning  to  find  himself.  The 
dry  precision,  the  timid  carefulness  have  disappeared. 
His  hand  moves  easily  about  its  appointed  task,  not 
indeed,  as  yet,  with  the  splendid  freedom  of  later  years, 
but  with  an  assured  confidence.  He  knows  what  he 
wants  to  do,  and  begins  to  feel  that  he  can  do  it.  The 
commissions  that  finally  necessitated  his  establishment 
in  Amsterdam  showed  him  also,  we  may  suppose,  that 
other  people  appreciated  the  fact,  and  we  may,  perhaps, 
refer  to  this  growing  confidence  in  himself  the  great 
increase  in  the  number  of  pictures  signed  that  year. 
There  are  eleven,  bearing  both  date  and  signature,  two 
signed,  but  undated,  and  two  which,  though  bearing 
neither  date  nor  signature,  are  believed  to  have  been 
painted  about  that  time. 

Of  the  first  class,  a  picture  of  a  man  reading,  in  the 
Museum  at  Stockholm  [No.  579],  known  as  "  St 
Anastasius,"  bears  yet  another  version  of  the  painter's 
name,  the  d  being  absent  in  this  case,  so  that  it  reads 


[Hermitage,  St.  Petersburg 


PORTRAIT  CALLED  COPPENOL 
(1631) 


EARLY  YEARS  55 

Rembrant.  A  "  Holy  Family,"  at  Munich  [No.  234], 
signed  Rembrandt,  is  an  example  of  a  propensity,  which 
he  never  thoroughly  shook  off,  to  over-compose  his 
pictures. 

The  same  over-marked  arrangement,  though,  to  a 
far  less  degree,  is  also  observable  in  the  pyramidal 
group  in  the  otherwise  splendid  "  Presentation  in  the 
Temple,"  at  the  Hague  [No.  145].  This  is  signed  with 
the  initials  R.H.  alone,  interlaced,  but  seven  others 
bear  the  three,  R.H.L.,  including  the  portrait  of  Gerard 
Dou,  already  mentioned ;  a  portrait,  said  to  be  his 
mother,  at  Oldenburg  [No.  166],  wearing  a  semi- 
oriental  dress,  and  reading,  from  which  circumstance 
the  picture  has  obtained  the  name  of  "  The  Prophetess 
Anna " ;  and  the  "  Portrait  of  a  Merchant,"  long 
called  "Coppenol,"  in  the  Hermitage  at  St  Petersburg 
[No.  808]. 

Of  the  two  undated  pictures,  "  Zachariah  receiving 
the  Prophecy  of  the  Birth  of  John  the  Baptist,"  in 
the  collection  of  M.  Albert  Lehmann,  Paris,  bears  the 
full  name  Rembrandt.  The  mysterious  figure  at  Berlin 
[No.  8280.],  a  young  woman  in  a  rich  dress,  seated  by 
a  table,  on  which  lie  pieces  of  armour,  a  book,  and  a 
lute,  while  other  arms,  including  a  shield,  decorated 
with  a  gorgon's  head,  hang  on  the  wall  above  her, 
gaining  for  her  the  fanciful  titles  "  Judith  "  or  "  Minerva," 
has  only  vague  traces  of  the  initial  R.  Of  the  last  class, 
one  is  a  copy,  formerly  in  the  Beresford-Hope  collection, 
of  the  "  Portrait  of  his  Father,"  in  the  Ryksmuseum, 
the  other  is  a  small  figure  of  "  Diana  Bathing,"  in  the 
collection  of  M.  Warneck,  Paris. 

Once  satisfactorily  established  in  Amsterdam,  Rem- 


56  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

brandt  increased  his  annual  production  marvellously. 
The  number  of  pictures  known  or  believed  to  belong 
to  each  of  the  four  preceding  years,  are,  in  succession, 
four,  nine,  twelve,  and  twenty,  the  numbers  for  the  four 
succeeding  years  are,  respectively,  forty-two,  thirty, 
twenty-six,  and  twenty-seven  ;  or,  taking  the  average 
of  each  period,  we  find  that  the  first  would  give  a 
little  more  than  eleven  pictures  per  annum,  the  second, 
very  nearly  thirty.  1632,  in  especial,  when  he  was 
new  to  Amsterdam,  was  a  year  of  extraordinary  energy. 
We  find  also,  at  the  same  time,  a  vast  increase 
in  the  number  of  signed  pictures,  yet  still  note  a 
surprising  variety  in  the  form  the  signature  takes. 
No  less  than  thirty  are  signed,  and  all  but  two  of 
these  are  also  dated.  Nine  of  them  bear  the  monogram, 
R.H.L.,  and  ten  others  have  the  same,  with,  for  the 
first  time,  the  addition  van  Rijn,  while  one  has  the 
plain  initial  R.  with  van  Rijn  added.  One,  forming 
a  sort  of  transition  with  the  other  group,  is  signed 
Rembrandt  H.L.  van  Rijn,  and  nine  are  signed  with 
the  full  name,  in  three  of  which  the  d  is  missing. 
Thirty-four  of  the  pictures  are  portraits,  and  six  of 
them  form  pairs  representing  husband  and  wife — 
namely,  "  Burgomaster  Jan  Pellicorne,  with  his  son 
Caspar,"  and  "  Suzanna  van  Collen,  his  Wife,  and  her 
Daughter,"  in  the  Wallace  collection ;  an  unknown 
Man  and  his  Wife,  in  the  Imperial  Museum,  Vienna, 
though  these  four  are  only  believed  to  belong  to  that 
year;  the  portraits  of  "Christian  Paul  van  Beersteyn," 
and  "Volkera  Nicolai  Knobbert,"  his  wife,  in  the 
possession  of  Mr  Havemeyer  of  New  York,  alone  bear- 
ing the  date.  There  is  also  a  portrait  at  Brunswick 


\_Iwperial  Museum,  Viennt. 


PORTRAIT   OF  A  MAN 
(1630-1632) 


EARLY  YEARS  57 

[No.  232],  fantastically  called  "  Grotius,"  the  companion 
of  which  was  painted  next  year ;  another,  believed, 
with  good  reason,  to  represent  "Dr  Tulp,"  formerly 
in  the  collection  of  the  Princess  de  Sagan,  which  is 
also  one  of  a  pair,  though  the  picture  of  the  wife 
was  not  painted  until  two  years  later ;  and  a  third, 
in  the  collection  of  M.  Pereire,  Paris,  of  a  man,  whose 
wife  was  also  not  painted  till  the  following  year. 
Twelve  others  represent  actually  or  conjecturally 
known  individuals,  but  two  of  these,  if,  as  is  probable, 
they  represent  the  painter's  father,  must  have  been 
painted  earlier,  as  would  also  be  the  case  with  four 
others  more  doubtfully  described,  two  as  his  mother, 
two  as  his  sister.  One  at  Cassel  [No.  212]  almost 
certainly  represents  "  Coppenol,  the  Caligraphist,"  and 
an  admirable  picture  in  Captain  Holford's  collection, 
is  undoubtedly  "Martin  Looten,"  a  merchant  of 
Amsterdam  ;  while,  even  in  that  busy  year,  he  found 
time  once  to  paint  his  own  portrait.  The  other  four 
include  the  two  of  "  Saskia,"  already  mentioned  in 
the  Life,  and  two  men,  one  said  to  be  "  Matthys 
Kalkoen,"  and  one,  a  certain  "Joris  de  Caulery." 

So  engaged  was  he  on  portraiture,  that  he  only  found 
time  for  three  small  figure  subjects,  if,  indeed,  they  were 
painted  that  year,  for  none  is  dated.  One,  in  the 
Wallace  collection,  is  "  The  Good  Samaritan " ;  the 
second  at  Berlin  [No.  823],  represents  "  Pluto  in  his 
Chariot  carrying  off  Proserpine,"  quite  the  most  success- 
ful of  Rembrandt's  rare  appeals  to  classical  mythology 
for  inspiration;  while  the  third  at  Frankfort  [No.  183], 
is  a  somewhat  indifferent  rendering  of  "  David  playing 
the  Harp  before  Saul." 


58  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

I  have  left  to  the  last,  the  great  work  of  that  year, 
the  famous  "Anatomy  Lesson,"  at  the  Hague.  In 
producing  this,  the  largest  and  most  ambitious  work 
he  had  yet  attempted,  one,  moreover,  the  success  or 
failure  of  which  could  scarcely  help  having  a  marked 
influence  on  his  future  career,  Rembrandt,  we  cannot 
but  perceive,  was  not  altogether  at  his  ease.  There 
are  obvious  signs  that  the  hand  that  could  already 
move  with  such  courage  and  freedom,  when  the  mere 
satisfying  of  himself  was  in  question,  was  hampered 
by  a  return,  partial  at  least,  to  his  earlier  timidity,  when 
so  much  was  at  stake.  He  was  so  anxious  to  do  his 
best  that  the  spontaneity,  conspicuous  in  most  of  his 
work,  escaped  in  the  process.  The  result  is  a  little 
stiff  in  consequence,  and  the  work  somewhat  dry  and 
frigid  ;  but  the  life  and  expression  in  the  various  heads 
is,  nevertheless,  so  excellent,  that  it  is  impossible  to 
regard  it  without  delight  and  admiration. 

Portraits  again  took  up  much  of  his  time  in  1633, 
among  them  the  two  companions  to  the  portraits  of  the 
year  before,  and  another  pair,  "  Willem  Burchgraeff,"  at 
Dresden  [No.  1557],  and  "  Margaretha  van  Bilderbeecq," 
his  wife,  in  Frankfort  [No.  182].  The  painter's  master- 
piece, however,  in  matrimonial  groups,  is  the  "  Ship- 
builder and  his  Wife,"  at  Buckingham  Palace. 

There  are  thirteen  other  signed  portraits  of  that  year, 
including  one  of  "  Jan  Herman  Krul,"  at  Cassel  [No.  2 1 3], 
two  of  "  Saskia  " — one  at  Dresden  [No.  1 556] ;  one,  called 
however,  "  Lysbeth  van  Rijn,"  which  belonged  to  the  late 
Baroness  Hirsch-Gereuth — and  two  of  himself,  one,  the 
oval  portrait  in  the  Louvre  [No.  412],  and  the  other  in 
the  collection  of  M.  Warneck  at  Paris.  Out  of  these 


PORTRAIT    OF  JAN    HERMAN   KRUL 
(1633) 


[Cassel Gallery 


EARLY  YEARS  59 

twelve  signatures,  only  one  is  the  monogram  R.H.L., 
the  other  eleven  being  signed  with  the  full  name,  and 
from  only  one  of  these,  "  A  Head  of  a  Girl,"  in  the 
collection  of  Prince  Jousoupoff,  is  the  d  missing. 

Three  subject-pictures  also  belong  to  that  year,  in 
all  probability ;  "  An  Entombment,"  in  the  Hunterian 
Museum,  Glasgow  ;  a  small  picture  described  as  "  Peti- 
tioners to  a  Biblical  Prince,"  belonging  to  M.  Le"on 
Bonnat  of  Paris  ;  and  "  A  Philosopher  in  Meditation " 
[No.  2541],  in  the  Louvre.  The  last,  indeed,  though 
undated,  may  almost  certainly  be  attributed  to  that 
year,  since  its  companion,  another  "  Philosopher  in 
Meditation,"  also  in  the  Louvre  [No.  2540],  is  signed 
R.  van  Rijn,  1631.  But  the  great  event  of  the  year 
must  have  been  the  patronage  which  came  to  him 
from  Prince  Frederick-Henry,  resulting  in  the  purchase 
of  two  pictures,  both  of  which,  in  later  years,  after 
passing  to  the  gallery  at  Dusseldorf,  were  transferred 
to  Munich. 

In  both  we  see  Rembrandt  at  his  most  characteristic 
— his  determination  to  tell  his  story  clearly,  to  con- 
centrate his  light  upon  the  chief  figure,  the  keynote 
of  his  theme,  to  get  the  true  and  expressive  actions 
of  his  personages,  not  even  yet  free  of  some  exaggera- 
tion, without  troubling  a  jot  as  to  the  minor  detail  of 
correct  costume.  So,  in  the  first,  "The  Elevation  of 
the  Cross"  [No.  327],  the  cross,  with  the  tense  figure 
wrung  with  anguish,  slants  right  athwart  the  picture, 
and  stands  out  against  the  murky  sky  and  dim 
surrounding  crowds  with  startling  incisiveness.  So  the 
four  men  occupied  in  raising  it  display  an  almost 
passionate  energy ;  so  a  soldier  wears  a  more  or  less 


60  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

classical  helmet  and  breastplate  over  a  sleeved  doublet 
unknown  to  Rome ;  a  man  behind  is  dressed  in  the 
peasant's  ordinary  garb  of  Rembrandt's  day  ;  and 
another,  wearing  a  doublet  and  soft  flat  cap,  seems  to 
be  Rembrandt's  self;  while  the  centurion  on  horseback 
superintending  the  carrying  out  of  the  sentence  is  a 
frank  Turk  as  to  his  headgear,  a  nondescript  for  the 
rest  of  him.  The  other,  "  The  Descent  from  the  Cross  " 
[No.  326],  while  displaying  many  of  the  same  qualities, 
merits  and  defects  alike,  is  more  deliberately  com- 
posed, suffers  indeed  from  that  over-composition  already 
noticed,  being  too  obviously  built  up  into  that  high 
pyramidal  form,  which  we  found  in  "  The  Presentation 
in  the  Temple."  There  is,  nevertheless,  a  very  delicate 
sentiment  of  pathos  in  it,  and  that  Rembrandt  himself 
was  content  with  it,  is  shown  not  only  by  his  corre- 
spondence with  Huygens  on  the  subject,  but  by  the 
fact  that  he  repeated  it  on  a  larger  scale  during  the 
following  year.  Yet  so  curiously  capricious  was  he  in 
adding  or  withholding  date  and  signature  that  neither 
has  a  date,  and  only  "  The  Descent  from  the  Cross " 
is  inscribed  with  what  appears  to  be  C.  Rlembrant  f. 


[Munich  Gallery 


THE   ELEVATION   OF  THE  CROSS 
(1633) 


CHAPTER  VI 

TIME   OF   PROSPERITY  (1634-1642) 

AT  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  pictures  produced 
during  the  succeeding  nine  years  I  can  only  glance 
hastily.  There  are  eighteen  works  dated  1634,  and, 
no  less  than  seven  of  them  are,  or  are  called,  "  Portraits 
of  Himself."  One  at  the  Louvre  [No.  2553],  and  two 
at  Berlin  [Nos.  808  and  810],  are  unmistakably  so, 
and  one  now  in  America,  a  companion  to  a  "  Portrait 
of  Saskia,"  would  seem  to  be ;  but  the  "  Portrait  of 
Rembrandt  as  an  Officer,"  at  the  Hague  [No.  149], 
which,  however,  bears  no  date,  and  one  in  a  helmet, 
at  Cassel  [No.  215],  bear  only  the  most  general  re- 
semblance to  him.  He  furthermore  painted  a  portrait 
of  "  Saskia  disguised  as  Flora,"  called  "  The  Jewish 
Bride,"  in  the  Hermitage  at  St  Petersburg  [No.  812], 
a  very  similar  picture  in  the  collection  of  M.  Schloss, 
Paris,  and  a  third  at  Cassel  [No.  214].  There  are  eight 
dated  portraits,  and  one  probably  belonging  to  that 
year.  Among  the  portraits  are  the  pair  to  the  one 
of  "Dr  Tulp,"  and  two  other  pairs,  "Martin  Daey" 
and  "  Machteld  van  Doom,"  his  wife,  belonging  to 
Baron  Gustave  de  Rothschild,  and  "The  Minister 
Alenson"  and  "His  Wife,"  belonging  to  M.  Schneider, 
Paris,  a  "Portrait  of  Himself  in  a  Cuirass,"  in  the 
Wallace  collection,  one  of  "  A  Young  Girl,"  at  Bridge- 
water  House,  and  the  "Old  Lady,"  in  the  National 
61 


62  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

Gallery  [No.  775].  There  are  also  four  subjects. 
A  replica  of  "  The  Descent  from  the  Cross,"  formerly 
in  the  Cassel  Gallery,  but  removed  by  Napoleon  I.  to 
Malmaison,  whence  it  passed  to  the  Hermitage  [No. 
800].  It  is  of  interest  historically  as  showing  that 
high  as  Rembrandt's  reputation  stood  at  the  time,  he 
had  leisure  enough  to  paint  this  large  picture,  without 
any  immediate  purchaser  in  prospect,  and  it  remained 
in  fact  on  his  hands  until  the  enforced  sale  in  1656. 
A  second,  also  in  the  Hermitage  [No.  801],  is  "The 
Incredulity  of  St  Thomas,"  and  a  third,  in  the  Prado 
at  Madrid  [No.  1 544],  has  been  called  both  "  Queen 
Artemisia  receiving  the  Ashes  of  Mausolus"  and 
"  Cleopatra  at  her  Toilet."  There  is  also  a  doubtful 
"  Tobias  restoring  his  Father's  Sight,"  in  the  collection 
of  Due  d'Arenberg  at  Brussels,  but  it  is  a  matter  of 
doubt  whether  the  last  figure  of  the  date  is  4  or  6. 
Lastly,  there  is  an  undated  "  Prodigal  Son,"  belong- 
ing to  the  executors  of  the  late  Sir  F.  Cook,  which,  in 
spite  of  the  signature,  must  also  be  regarded  as  dubious. 

There  are  only  two  "Portraits  of  Himself"  dated 
1635,  and  one  of  "Saskia,"  but  there  are  two  others 
attributed  to  about  that  time,  and,  in  addition, 
two  large  and  highly  finished  pictures,  supposed  to 
represent  "Rembrandt  and  Saskia,"  both  signed 
Rembrandt,  and  believed  to  have  been  painted  in  or 
near  that  year.  The  one  at  Dresden  [No.  1559], 
contains,  without  doubt,  portraits  of  the  painter  and 
his  wife  (see  illustration,  p.  24).  The  other,  at 
Buckingham  Palace,  long  known  as  "  The  Burgomaster 
Pancras  and  his  Wife,"  is  less  certain. 

Apart   from   these,   there   are   nine    dated   portraits, 


{National  Gallery,  London 


PORTRAIT   OF   AN   OLD   WOMAN 

(1654) 


M 
to 

? 
oo 

3 
p 

z 

<3 

C/3 

II 


TIME   OF   PROSPERITY  63 

and  five  subject-pictures,  together  with  six  portraits 
and  one  subject  of  about  the  date.  Only  two  of  the 
portraits  bearing  dates  are  in  public  galleries,  one 
"A  Rabbi,"  at  Hampton  Court  [No.  381],  and  one 
"A  Man,"  in  the  National  Gallery  [No.  350],  while  two 
others  of  about  the  date  are  the  "  Portrait  of  Himself," 
in  the  Pitti  [No.  60],  and  "  A  Young  Woman,"  at  Cassel 
[No.  216].  In  subjects  the  artist  on  two  occasions  went 
out  of  his  way  to  court  failure  in  attempting  to  re- 
present classical  subjects,  with  the  spirit  of  which  he 
was  utterly  out  of  sympathy.  The  homely  truthfulness 
of  his  art,  though  it  may  occasionally  result  in  details 
somewhat  shocking  to  the  reverent  mind,  was,  never- 
theless, well  adapted  to  set  forth  the  humanising  side 
of  Scripture  incidents.  His  Christ  is  always  more 
the  Son  of  Man  than  the  God  Incarnate.  His  Virgin 
Mary  has  none  of  the  delicate  beauty  conceived  for 
her  by  Italian  painters,  but  she  is  first  of  all,  and 
beyond  all,  the  type  of  motherhood.  His  apostles 
have  none  of  the  heroic  dignity  of  Michael  Angelo's, 
yet  they  are  without  question  devout,  devoted  fishers 
of  men.  But  this  lack  of  wish  or  power  to  idealise, 
this  persistence  in  the  search  for  the  true  and  neglect 
of  the  beautiful,  is  entirely  at  variance  with  the  classical 
tradition.  There  are  no  great  fundamental  ideas  be- 
neath the  story  of  "  Actaeon,  Diana,  and  Callisto,"  or 
"The  Rape  of  Ganymede,"  for  the  artist  to  bring 
home  to  us,  and  the  representation  of  the  former  as 
coarse,  ungainly  peasants,  as  in  the  picture  belonging 
to  Prince  Salm-Salm  of  Anholt,  or  of  the  latter  as  a 
fat  and  extremely  hideous  baby  boy  blubbering  in 
terror  as  he  is  howked  upwards — no  more  dignified 


64  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

phrase  will  express  it — by  his  shirt-tail  in  the  claws 
of  an  eagle,  as  in  the  picture  at  Dresden  [No.  1558], 
serve  only  to  reveal  the  limitations  of  the  artist's 
imagination  without  disguise  or  compensation. 

Three  other  subject  pictures,  painted  in  or  about 
that  year,  are  also  in  public  galleries :  a  little  sketch 
of  "The  Flight  into  Egypt,"  at  the  Hague  [No.  579]; 
"The  Sacrifice  of  Abraham,"  in  the  Hermitage  [No. 
792] ;  and  "  Samson  threatening  his  Father-in-law," 
at  Berlin  [No.  802]. 

Seven  pictures  only  bear  the  date  1636,  of  which  one 
formed  a  further  addition  to  the  collection  of  Prince 
Frederick-Henry, — "  The  Ascension,"  now  at  Munich 
[No.  328],  quite  the  least  satisfactory  of  the  series. 
Rembrandt,  indeed,  was  not  in  a  happy  vein  this  year 
in  his  treatment  of  subjects.  Both  the  "  Samson  over- 
powered by  the  Philistines,"  in  the  collection  of  Count 
Schonborn  at  Vienna,  and  Lord  Derby's  "  Belshazzar's 
Feast,"  if  it  be  Rembrandt's,  which,  though  unsigned, 
is  attributed  to  that  year,  are  seriously  marred  by  a 
distinct  melodramatic  element  in  the  conception,  an 
extreme  exaggeration  of  pose,  gesture,  and  expression. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  find  the  most  pleasing  study  of 
the  nude  the  painter  ever  made,  in  the  "  Danae,"  at  the 
Hermitage  [No.  802],  which,  though  the  first  and  third 
figures  of  the  date  have  disappeared,  leaving  only  two 
sixes,  was  most  probably  painted  that  year. 

The  four  remaining  pictures  are  portraits ;  two, 
forming  a  pair,  a  young  man  and  his  wife,  belonging 
to  Prince  Liechtenstein  of  Vienna ;  one,  a  woman,  to 
Mr  Byers,  Pittsburg,  U.S.A. ;  and  also  a  woman,  to 
Lord  Kinnaird.  The  "Ecce  Homo,"  in  the  National 


DANAE 
(I636) 


[Hermitage,  St.  Petersburg 


{Liechtenstein  Gallery ;  Vienna 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN 
(1636) 


[Liechtenstein  Gallery,  Vienna 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  LADY 
(1636) 


TIME    OF   PROSPERITY  65 

Gallery  [No.  1400],  must  have  also  been  painted  that 
year,  if  not  before,  for  it  is  a  sketch  for  the  etching 
of  that  date.  Other  pictures  probably  dating  from 
that  year  are  a  "  Standard  Bearer,"  belonging  to  Baron 
Gustave  de  Rothschild,  from  which  the  last  figure  of 
the  date  is  missing ;  a  "  Portrait  of  an  Old  Lady," 
belonging  to  the  Earl  of  Yarborough ;  "  A  Saint," 
formerly  in  the  collection  of  Earl  Dudley ;  "  Saint 
Paul,"  at  Vienna  ;  and  the  "  Portrait  of  an  Oriental,"  in 
the  Hermitage  [No.  813]. 

1637  is  inscribed  on  eight  pictures,  but  in  one  case, 
that  of  a  "  Portrait  of  Himself,"  belonging  to  Captain 
Heywood-Lonsdale,  there  is  some  doubt  about  the 
correct  reading  of  the  last  figure,  and  in  that  of 
"  Susannah  and  the  Elders,"  in  the  collection  of  Prince 
JousoupofT,  the  genuineness  of  the  signature  is  not 
above  suspicion.  No  such  question,  however,  applies 
to  the  rendering  of  the  same  subject  at  the  Hague 
[No.  147],  the  "  Portrait  of  Himself,"  in  the  Louvre 
[No.  2554],  the  "Portrait  of  Henry  Swalm,"  at  Antwerp 
[No.  705],  that  of  another  "  Minister "  at  Bridgewater 
House,  or  to  the  "  Portrait  of  a  Man,"  in  the  Hermitage 
[No.  811],  once  absurdly  called  "Sobieski,"  and  now, 
with  scarcely  less  absurdity,  said  to  be  Rembrandt. 
The  remaining  work  is  "The  Parable  of  the  Master 
of  the  Vineyard,"  also  in  the  Hermitage  [No.  798]. 
Two  portraits,  one  of  himself,  belonging  to  Lord 
Ashburton,  and  one  of  a  "Young  Woman"  lacing 
her  bodice,  belonging  to  Dr  Bredius,  are  also  attri- 
buted to  that  year,  as  is  "The  Angel  quitting  Tobit," 
in  the  Louvre  [No.  2536],  in  which  once  more 
Rembrandt's  desire  for  actuality  has,  as  far  as  the 
E 


66  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

angel  is  concerned,  led  him  to  the  border-line  between 
the  ungraceful  and  the  ridiculous. 

In  the  following  year  we  find  him  for  the  first  time 
attempting  pure  landscape.  One,  signed  and  dated, 
an  entirely  imaginary  composition,  is  in  the  possession 
of  Herr  Georg  Rath  at  Buda-Pesth ;  another,  also 
signed  and  dated,  in  which  he  has  to  some  extent 
compromised  by  introducing  some  small  figures  illus- 
trating the  "  Parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan,"  is  in  the 
Czartoryski  Museum  at  Cracow.  "  Christ  and  Mary 
Magdalene  at  the  Tomb,"  in  Buckingham  Palace, 
though  the  figures  are  made  of  more  importance,  may 
also  be  included  in  the  transition  pictures  between 
landscape  and  subject,  for  the  garden,  tomb,  and 
distant  city  are  at  least  as  much  insisted  on  as  the 
figures.  The  important  picture  of  the  year,  however, 
was  a  figure  subject,  "  Samson  propounding  his  Riddle 
to  the  Philistines,"  the  great  canvas  in  the  Dresden 
Gallery  [No.  1560],  a  magnificent  piece  of  work,  but, 
apart  from  its  technical  qualities,  of  no  great  interest : 
the  only  other  pictures  dated  1638  being  a  "Portrait 
of  an  Old  Man,"  in  the  Louvre  [No.  2544],  and  a  "Bust 
of  a  Man  in  Armour,"  at  Brunswick  [No.  237]. 

Two  more  pictures  were  completed  for  the  Stathouder 
in  1639,  a  "  Resurrection"  [No.  329],  signed  and  dated, 
and  an  "Entombment"  [No.  330],  unsigned,  now  with 
the  others  at  Munich.  The  only  other  subject  treated 
that  year,  if  the  date  and  signature  are  genuine,  which 
M.  Michel  doubts,  was  "  The  Good  Samaritan  "  dressing 
the  wounds  of  the  injured  man,  in  the  collection  of 
M.  Jules  Porges,  for  "  The  Slaughter-house,"  belonging 
to  Herr  Georg  Rath,  is  a  study  rather  than  a  picture ; 


[Hermitage t  St.  Petersburg 
PORTRAIT  CALLED   SOBIESKI 

(1637) 


[Dresden  Gallery 


THE   MAN  WITH  THE   BITTERN 
(1639) 


TIME   OF   PROSPERITY  67 

and  the  "Man  with  the  Bittern"  at  Dresden  [No.  1561] 
as  much  a  portrait  as  a  study.  Other  portraits  are 
the  so-called  "  Lady  of  Utrecht,"  lent  by  the  family 
Van  Weede  van  Dykveld  to  the  Amsterdam  Museum ; 
that  of  "  Alotte  Adriaans,"  belonging  to  the  executors 
of  the  late  Sir  F.  Cook,  a  life-sized  full-length  figure  of 
"A  Man,"  at  Cassel  [No.  217],  at  one  time  erroneously 
called  "  Burgomaster  Six,"  and  a  so-called  "  Portrait  of 
Rembrandt's  Mother,"  at  Vienna  [No.  1141]. 

There  are  six  pictures  dated  1640 — four  subjects  and 
two  portraits — one  of  himself  in  the  National  Gallery 
[No.  672],  (see  ill.,  p.  28),  and  the  famous  one  of  "  Paul 
Boomer,"  better  known  as  "The  Gilder,"  now  in  the 
possession  of  Mr  Havemeyer  of  New  York.  The 
subjects  include  the  Duke  of  Westminster's  beautiful 
"  Salutation "  and  the  "  Expulsion  of  Hagar  and 
Ishmael,"  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  in  both 
of  which,  however,  the  concentration  of  light  on  a  small 
portion  is  so  intense  as  to  suggest  the  lime-light  of  a 
theatre  ;  the  charming  version  of  "  The  Holy  Family"  in 
the  Louvre  [No.  2542],  known  as  "  The  House  of  the 
Carpenter,"  where  the  contrasting  light  and  shade, 
though  equally  marked,  are  reasonably  brought  about ; 
and  the  mysterious  allegory,  in  the  Boymans  Museum  at 
Rotterdam  [No.  238],  known  as  "The  Concord  of  the 
Country,"  containing  a  rather  confused  mass  of  detail 
and  incident,  all  obviously  meaning  something,  but 
what  no  one  can  quite  decide. 

Other  pictures  supposed  to  have  been  painted  about 
the  same  time  are  a  "  Good  Samaritan " ;  a  "  Saving 
of  Moses,"  in  which  the  figures  play  a  part  quite  sub- 
ordinate to  the  landscape ;  three  pure  landscapes,  "  An 


68  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

Effect  of  Storm,"  at  Brunswick  [No.  236],  one  in  the 
Wallace  collection  ;  a  study  of  "  Dead  Peacocks,"  belong- 
ing to  Mr  W.  C.  Cartwright ;  and  several  portraits,  the 
most  noteworthy  of  which  is  the  one  of  "  Elizabeth  Bas  " 
in  the  Ryksmuseum  at  Amsterdam  [No.  249]. 

Six  pictures  again  bear  the  date  1641,  and  all  are 
portraits  except  the  great  "  Offering  of  Manoah  and 
his  Wife,"  at  Dresden  [No.  1563],  wherein  we  are 
distressed  once  more  by  the  artist's  unfortunate  con- 
ception of  an  angelic  being.  Two  of  the  portraits  form 
a  pair  now  widely  sundered,  the  admirable  "  Lady  with 
the  Fan"  being  at  Buckingham  Palace,  while  her 
husband  has  strayed  away  to  Brussels  [No.  397].  The 
portrait  of  "  The  Minister  Anslo  " — a  marvel  of  life-like 
expression  and  superb  painting — is  a  sad  example  of 
art  treasures  which  have  been  allowed  to  leave  England 
of  late  years,  having  passed  from  Lady  Ashburnham 
to  Berlin.  The  "  Portrait  of  Anna  Vymer,"  on  the  other 
hand,  the  mother  of  Burgomaster  Six,  is  one  of  a  very 
few,  if  it  be  not  the  only  one,  which  is  still  in  the 
possession  of  the  descendants  of  the  subject.  The 
remaining  picture  is  a  portrait  of  a  Young  Woman, 
called  "Saskia,"  at  Dresden  [No.  1562]. 

The  dated  pictures  of  1642  are  few.  There  is  one 
subject  in  the  Hermitage  [No.  1777]  long  known  as 
"  The  Reconciliation  of  Jacob  and  Esau,"  but  now 
recorded  in  the  catalogue  as  "  The  Reconciliation  of 
David  and  Absalom  "  ;  while  the  "  Christ  taken  from  the 
Cross,"  in  the  National  Gallery  [No.  43],  may  belong 
to  the  same  year,  since  it  is  a  sketch  probably  made 
for  the  etching  which  was  certainly  executed  then. 
There  are  also  four  portraits  :  one  of  "  A  Rabbi,"  be- 


{Amsterdam  Gallery 


PORTRAIT  OF  ELIZABETH  BAS 
(ABOUT  1640) 


o 
fc  •£• 

i* 


TIME   OF   PROSPERITY  69 

longing  to  M.  Jules  Porges  of  Paris ;  Lord  Iveagh's 
"  Portrait  of  a  Woman  "  ;  Mrs  Alfred  Morrison's  "  Por- 
trait of  Dr  Bonus  "  ;  and  "  An  Old  Man,"  at  Buda-Pesth 
[No.  235]. 

This  limited  production  was  probably  due  to  the  fact 
that  a  large  share  of  his  time  must  have  been  taken  up 
by  his  largest  and  most  famous  work,  "  The  Sortie  of 
the  Company  of  Francis  Banning  Cocq,"  for  many  years 
known  as  "  The  Night-watch,"  because  time  and  careless 
usage  had  so  blackened  it  that  the  original  illumination 
was  nearly  obscured,  and  the  figures  appeared  to  be 
dimly  visible  by  artificial  light  The  careful  restora- 
tion by  M.  Hopman  has,  of  late  years,  altered  all  this, 
and  that  the  sortie  is  taking  place  by  daylight,  the  con- 
densed, highly  localised  daylight  of  Rembrandt,  to  be 
sure,  has  been  established  beyond  cavil. 

One  would  have  supposed  that  such  devoted  art- 
patrons  as  the  Dutch  people  of  that  time,  would  have 
hailed  with  delight  the  creation  of  such  a  masterpiece 
by  one  of  themselves,  and  would  have  showered  praises 
and  commissions  upon  its  creator.  The  very  contrary 
seems  to  have  been  the  fact ;  nor  is  the  reason  far  to 
seek. 

Holland  at  that  time  abounded  in  Guilds  and  Com- 
panies, civil  and  military,  Boards  of  Management  of 
this  or  that  Hospital  or  charitable  Institution,  and  a 
perfect  craze  for  being  painted  in  groups  animated  one 
and  all.  The  galleries  are  full  of  these  "  Doelen  "  and 
"  Regent "  pictures  by  great  and  little  masters,  and  dreary 
objects  many  of  them  are.  Each  member  subscribed 
his  share,  and  each  expected  to  get  his  money's-worth ; 
so  the  painter  was  expected  to  distribute  his  light  and 


70  REMBRANDT  VAN   RIJN 

his  positions  with  an  impartial  hand,  and  a  comically 
stiff  and  formal  collection  of  effigies  was  often  the 
result 

To  all  such  considerations  Rembrandt  was  gloriously 
indifferent.  He  was  painting  a  picture  of  an  event  in 
real  life,  and  he  meant  it  to  be  a  picture  and  alive,  not 
a  mere  row  of  wax  figures  in  a  booth  ;  and  when  he 
had  finished,  the  subscribers  cried  aloud  in  wrath  and 
consternation. 

And  indeed  it  is  difficult  not  to  sympathise  with  the 
poor  amateur  soldiers  who  had  paid  to  be  painted,  not 
to  be  immortalised.  Even  if  they  could  have  known, 
they  would  have  cared  very  little  for  the  fact  that  their 
picture  was  to  rank  in  after  years  among  the  most 
famous  in  the  world,  since  their  worthy  citizen-faces 
were  not  to  be  discerned  in  it,  and  no  one  would  care 
to  read  the  names  which,  failing  to  move  the  domineer- 
ing painter,  they  caused  to  be  inscribed  upon  an 
escutcheon  in  the  background  so  that  they  might  get 
some  return  for  their  florins.  They  had  their  revenge, 
however,  after  a  kind,  for  they  left  it  to  blacken  with 
dirt  and  smoke ;  and  when  their  descendants  removed 
it  from  the  Doelen  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville  they  cut  it 
down  ruthlessly  on  either  hand  to  make  it  fit  a  smaller 
space,  as  a  copy  by  Lundens  in  the  National  Gallery 
[No.  289]  makes  evident 


{BuckingJiam  Palace 


THE   LADY   WITH   THE   FAN 

(1641) 


[Brussels  Gallery 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN 
(1641) 


CHAPTER   VII 

YEARS  OF   DECLINE   (1643-1658) 

THERE  is   still   no   lack   of  portraits  in   1643.     There 
are  two  pairs,  "  The  Gentleman  with  the  Hawk,"  and 
"  The  Lady  with  the  Fan,"  at  Grosvenor  House,  which, 
however,  Dr   Bode   and    M.    Michel   decline   to   admit 
among  Rembrandt's  works,  and  "  The  Dutch  Admiral " 
and  "  His  Wife,"  now  in  America.    It  is  doubtful  whether 
the  "Old  Woman  weighing   Money,"  at  Dresden  [No. 
1 564],  ought  to  be  included    among  the  portraits ;  but 
there  can  be  no   question   about   the  "Young  Man  in 
a  Cap  and  Breastplate,"  in  the  same  gallery  [No.  1565], 
the  "  Old  Woman,"  in  the  Hermitage  [No.  807],  called 
"Rembrandt's  Mother,"  or   the   "Man,"  in  the  collec- 
tion of  Mr  Armour.     The  other  "  Old  Man,"  belonging 
to  Mr  Schloss  of  Paris,  is  probably  only  a  study ;  and 
the  "  Portrait  of  a  Man,"  incorrectly  called  Six,  in  the 
collection  of  Morris  K.  Jessup   of  New   York,  is   but 
conjecturally   a   work   of  this   year.     There   are   three 
portraits   of  himself:  one    at   Weimar,   one   belonging 
to  Prince  Henri  of  the  Pays  Bas,  one,  signed  but  un- 
dated, at  Carlsruhe  [No.  238] ;  and  there  is  a  portrait, 
called  Saskia,  at  Berlin  [No.    812].     The  only  signed 
subject  of  the  year  is  the  "  Bathsheba  at  her  Toilet," 
in  the  Steengracht  collection  at  the  Hague ;  but  "  The 
Holy   Family,"   at   Downton,  was   painted  about  that 
time. 
71 


72  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

The  next  year  has  very  small  results  to  show,  and 
might,  taken  by  itself,  support  the  belief  in  the  sudden 
unpopularity  of  Rembrandt  were  there  not  five  other 
years  for  which  we  can  now  find  only  five  pictures, 
and  several  with  fewer.  All  the  five  of  1644  are 
signed.  Three  are  portraits :  Captain  Holford's  "  Man 
with  a  Sword,"  Earl  Cowper's  "  Young  Man,"  and  the 
fancifully  named  "  Constable  of  Bourbon,"  in  the  collec- 
tion of  Herr  Thieme  at  Leipzig.  There  is  one  subject- 
picture,  "  The  Woman  taken  in  Adultery,"  painted  for 
Jan  Six,  and  now  in  the  National  Gallery  [No.  45], 
Another  of  the  same  subject,  in  the  possession  of 
Consul  Weber  at  Hamburg,  bears,  according  to  M. 
Michel,  a  forged  signature,  and  is  regarded  by  him 
as  very  doubtful. 

There  are  four  subject-pictures  dated  1645.  First 
and  foremost  is  "  The  Holy  Family,"  in  the  Hermitage 
[No.  796].  Fine  also  is  "  The  Tribute  Money,"  belong- 
ing to  Mr  Beaumont,  though  much  more  summarily 
handled.  The  "  Daniel's  Vision,"  at  Berlin  [No.  806],  is 
more  careful  in  treatment,  but  the  companion  picture, 
"  Tobias'  Wife  with  the  Goat "  [No.  805],  is  little  more 
than  a  sketch.  At  Berlin,  also,  are  two  of  the  five 
dated  portraits  of  that  year,  one  of  "  A  Rabbi,"  in  the 
Museum  [No.  828A],  and  one  of  "  J.  C.  Sylvius,"  in  the 
collection  of  Herr  von  Carstangen.  The  Hermitage 
has  one  portrait  [No.  820],  called  at  one  time  "  Manasseh 
ben  Israel."  A  "Portrait  of  a  Young  Girl,"  in  the 
Dulwich  Gallery  [No.  206],  and  "An  Orphan  Girl  of 
Amsterdam,"  now  in  the  United  States,  are  probably 
works  painted  for  the  purpose  of  study,  rather  than 
portraits ;  and  the  same  remark  applies  to  the  "  Portrait 


{National  Gallery,  London 
THE  WOMAN   TAKEN   IN  ADULTERY 

(1644) 


A   GIRL  AT  A  WINDOW 

(1645) 


\_Dulwich  Gallery 


YEARS   OF   DECLINE  73 

of  Himself,"  at  Buckingham  Palace,  which,  though  the 
last  figure  of  the  date  is  wanting,  was,  in  all  likelihood, 
a  work  of  that  year. 

The  "  Portrait  of  a  Lady,"  in  the  collection  of  Captain 
Holford  ;  the  little  sketch  of  "  An  Old  Man  Seated," 
belonging  to  the  executors  of  the  late  Sir  F.  Cook,  and 
"An  Old  Man,"  at  Dresden  [No.  1571],  are  undated 
portraits  of  about  this  time ;  while  the  "  Man  reading 
by  a  Window,"  in  the  Carlsberg  Glyptotek  at  Copen- 
hagen, if  it  be  really  a  Rembrandt,  which  is  doubtful, 
is  an  undated  subject.  There  are,  furthermore,  two 
landscapes,  both  undated,  one  at  Oldenburg  [No.  169], 
and  one  in  the  collection  of  Mme.  Lacroix  at  Paris. 

Another  landscape,  "  A  Winter  Scene,"  at  Cassel 
[No.  219],  is  dated  1646,  as  is  a  "Portrait  of  a  Young 
Man,"  belonging  to  Mr  Humphry  Ward.  There  are 
also  four  subject-pictures  bearing  the  same  date,  two 
of  "  The  Adoration  of  the  Shepherds,"  one  in  the 
National  Gallery  [No.  47],  painted  originally  for  Six, 
and  one  at  Munich  [No.  331],  differing  entirely  in 
arrangement ;  one  of  "  Christ  bound  to  the  Column," 
in  the  collection  of  Herr  von  Carstangen  at  Berlin  ;  and 
the  "Holy  Family,"  called  "The  Woodchopper,"  at 
Cassel  [No.  218]. 

1647  is  inscribed  on  only  five  pictures.  Two  are  the 
portraits  called  "  Nicholas  Berchem,"  and  "  His  Wife," 
at  Grosvenor  House,  and  a  small  one  of  "  An  Old  Man," 
at  Leeuwarden,  in  the  collection  of  Baron  van  Harinxma. 
A  fourth  of  "  Dr  Bonus,"  in  the  Six  collection,  is  not 
dated,  but  as  it  exactly  resembles  the  etching  of  that 
year,  it  is,  with  much  reason,  attributed  to  it.  There 
is  only  one  subject,  "  Susannah  and  the  Elders,"  in  the 


74  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

Berlin  Gallery  [No.  828E].  Two  undated  studies  also 
belong  to  about  that  time,  a  small  head  and  shoulders 
of  "  Susannah,"  belonging  to  M.  Leon  Bonnat  of  Paris, 
and  the  "Woman  bathing,"  at  the  Louvre  [No.  2550]. 
A  large  picture  of  "  Joseph's  Coat,"  in  the  collection  of 
the  Earl  of  Derby,  is  one  of  the  most  ungraceful  and 
undignified  spectacles  that  even  Rembrandt's  stern 
realism  ever  produced.  Enchanting,  on  the  other  hand, 
in  its  truth  and  delicacy  is  the  "  The  Shepherds  repos- 
ing at  Night,"  in  the  National  Gallery  of  Ireland,  with 
its  contrasted  effects  of  firelight  and  moonlit  night 

No  known  portrait  bears  the  date  1648,  though  one  of 
"  A  Young  Painter  with  Papers  and  Crayon,"  signed 
Rembrandt  164 — ,  is  believed  to  belong  to  about  that 
year.  There  are,  however,  four  dated  subject-pictures  : 
two  at  the  Louvre — "  Christ  at  Emmaus  "  [No.  2539],  and 
"The  Good  Samaritan"  [No.  2537], — one,  "Hannah 
teaching  the  Infant  Samuel  to  read,"  at  Bridgewater 
House,  and  one,  a  different  version  of  "  Christ  at 
Emmaus,"  at  Copenhagen  [No.  292].  A  small  picture 
of  "  Christ  on  the  Cross,"  in  the  collection  of  Herr  Carl 
Hollitscher  at  Berlin,  was  also  probably  painted  about 
this  time. 

The  succeeding  year,  1649,  is  one  of  the  two  that  has 
no  dated  picture,  and  were  it  not  for  the  "  Portrait  of 
Marshal  Turenne,"  at  Panshanger,  which  must  have 
been  painted  that  year — if  indeed  it  be  his,  which  has 
recently  been  doubted — we  should  have  to  regard  it  as 
utterly  barren  ;  for  M.  Jules  Forges'  "  Old  Woman  "  is 
only  supposititiously  of  that  date.  We  may  be  sure, 
however,  that  some  of  the  large  number  of  unsigned 
pictures  attributed  to  about  that  time  were  undoubtedly 


[Royal  Museum,  Berlin 


PORTRAIT   OF  A  RABBI 

(1645) 


W 

u 

Cfi 

It 


YEARS   OF   DECLINE  75 

painted  in  the  course  of  it.  Of  these  there  are  several 
in  public  galleries  :  "  The  Slaughter-house,"  at  Glasgow 
[No.  707],  from  the  date  on  which  the  two  last  figures 
are  missing ;  the  portrait  of  "  His  Brother,"  in  the 
Emperor  Frederick  Museum  at  Berlin  ;  the  "  Bust  of  an 
Old  Man,"  at  Strasburg ;  the  "  Portrait  of  Himself,"  at 
Leipzig  ;  "  The  Ruin,"  at  Cassel  [No.  220]  ;  the  picture, 
called  "The  Metamorphosis  of  Narcissus,"  at  Amster- 
dam [No.  1251];  and  five  pictures  in  the  Hermitage: 
"Abraham  entertaining  the  Angels"  [No.  791],  "The 
Sons  of  Jacob  bringing  him  Joseph's  Coat"  [No. 
793],  "The  Disgrace  of  Haman"  [No.  795],  "Pallas" 
[No.  809],  and  "  Hannah  teaching  Samuel  to  read " 
[No.  822],  none  of  which  is  dated,  though  the  second, 
third,  and  fifth  are  signed.  There  are  also  in  private 
hands,  two  portraits  in  those  of  M.  Jules  Porges,  a 
portrait  in  M.  Bonnat's,  and  others.  Dated  pictures  of 
the  year  1650  are  rare.  There  is  a  "Portrait  of  Him- 
self," in  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum  at  Cambridge,  and 
one,  "His  Brother,"  at  the  Hague  [No.  560];  and 
three  subject-pictures,  "  Tobit  and  his  Wife,"  the  Duke 
of  Abercorn's  "  Deposition,"  and  "  The  Young  Woman 
in  Bed,"  in  the  National  Gallery,  Edinburgh. 

The  same  number  of  pictures  is  dated  1651.  Four 
are  portraits  :  one  of  himself,  belonging  to  Herr 
Mendelssohn  of  Berlin  ;  the  "  Old  Man,"  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire ;  "  The  Man  with  a 
Baton,"  in  the  Louvre  [No.  2551],  and  "The  Girl  with  a 
Broom,"  in  the  Hermitage  [No.  286].  The  subject- 
picture  "  Christ  and  Mary  Magdalene  in  the  Garden," 
called  "Noli  me  tangere,"  is  at  Brunswick  [No.  235]. 

The   next    two    years   are   very   deficient   in    dated 


76  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

pictures.  Two  only,  "  The  Old  Man,"  seated  in  a  chair, 
belonging  to  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  and  the  "  Portrait 
of  Bruyningh,"  at  Cassel  [No.  221],  are  dated  1652  ;  but 
the  picture  of  "  Hendrickje  Stoffels,"  in  the  Louvre 
[No.  2547],  and  a  "  Head  of  Christ,"  belonging  to 
M.  Rodolphe  Kann  of  Paris,  are  of  about  that  year. 
1653  has  only  one,  "The  Portrait  of  a  Man,"  wrongly 
entitled  Van  der  Hooft,  belonging  to  the  Earl  of 
Brownlow,  for  "The  Entombment,"  at  Dresden  [No. 
1566],  is  but  a  copy  of  the  picture  at  Munich  [No.  330], 
touched  up  by  Rembrandt.  Here  again  we  may  safely 
accord  to  the  seemingly  empty  year  some  of  the  undated 
pictures  of  the  period,  which  include  six  portraits,  one 
of  which,  "  An  Old  Man,"  is  in  the  Hermitage  [No. 
8 1 8].  "An  Old  Woman,"  in  the  same  collection  [No. 
804],  may  also  belong  to  the  year,  for  it  is  very  similar 
to  the  two  pictures,  dated  the  following  year  [Nos.  805 
and  806].  The  only  other  undated  pictures  which  call 
for  special  mention  are  two  landscapes :  the  "  Mill,"  in 
the  collection  of  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  and  the 
one  at  Glasgow  [No.  705],  which  is  known  as  "  Tobias 
and  the  Angel "  from  the  figures  in  the  foreground. 

The  dated  pictures  of  1654  are  nine  portraits  and 
two  subjects,  "Bathsheba,"  at  the  Louvre  [No.  2549], 
being  one,  and  "  The  Woman  bathing,"  at  the  National 
Gallery  [No.  54],  the  other.  Of  the  portraits,  one  of 
himself,  doubted,  however,  by  Dr  Bode,  is  at  Munich, 
[No.  333],  "  An  Old  Man  with  a  Beard,"  at  Dresden  [No. 
1567],  "An  Old  Woman,"  at  Brussels  [No.  397 A],  "  An 
Old  Jew,"  "An  Old  Man,"  and  "An  Old  Woman," 
besides  the  two  old  women  being  in  the  Hermitage 
[Nos.  810,  823,  and  825],  while  "  The  Young  Servant" 


[Louvre,  Paris 


CHRIST  AT   EMMAUS 
(1648) 


YEARS   OF   DECLINE  77 

is  at  Stockholm  [No.  584].  Most,  if  not  all  of  these, 
however,  were  studies  painted  because  his  still  restless 
energy  would  not  allow  him  to  be  idle.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  the  portraits  dated  1655,  only  two  of  which 
we  can  even  suppose  to  have  been  commissions — the 
companion  pictures  of  "  An  Old  Man,"  and  "  An  Old 
Woman,"  at  Stockholm  [Nos.  581  and  582];  the  two 
others  bearing  dates  being  studies  of  his  son  "  Titus," 
one  in  the  collection  of  M.  Rodolphe  Kann,  the  other  in 
that  of  the  Earl  of  Crawford.  The  dated  picture  at 
Glasgow  [No.  706],  like  the  undated  "  Man  in  Armour," 
at  Cassel,  is  rather  a  study  of  armour  than  a  picture. 
The  portrait  at  the  Louvre  [No.  2546],  a  copy  of  one  at 
Cassel  [No.  225],  and  the  rest  of  the  undated  heads, 
mostly  of  small  size,  painted  about  that  time,  are 
simply  sketches  or  studies,  the  only  subjects  being 
"The  Slaughter-house,"  in  the  Louvre  [No.  2548],  and 
two  pictures  of  "Joseph  accused  by  Potiphar's  Wife," 
differing  only  in  details,  one  at  Berlin  [No.  828E],  and 
one  in  the  Hermitage  [No.  794],  for  "  The  Flight  into 
Egypt,"  at  Buda-Pesth,  though  belonging  to  the  period, 
is  undated. 

1656,  the  year  of  his  actual  bankruptcy,  was  an  un- 
usually prolific  one,  including  "  The  Anatomy  Lesson  of 
Dr  Johannes  Deyman,"  now  in  the  Ryksmuseum  at 
Amsterdam,  of  which,  unfortunately,  the  fire  of  1723 
has  left  only  a  fragment,  [No.  1250];  the  "Portrait 
of  Arnold  Tholinx,"  belonging  to  Madame  Andre"- 
Jacquemart  of  Paris ;  the  "  Portrait  of  an  Architect," 
at  Cassel  [No.  224],  the  signature  and  date  of  which, 
however,  M.  Michel  declares  to  be  forged ;  and  the 
companion  pictures  of  "  A  Young  Man,"  and  "  A  Young 


78  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

Woman,"  at  Copenhagen  [Nos.  273  and  274],  the 
second  of  which  is  alone  dated.  There  are  also  two 
undated  "Portraits  of  Himself,"  painted  about  that 
time — one  belonging  to  Lord  Iveagh,  the  other  to  Lady 
de  Rothschild;  and  an  "Old  Man,"  at  Dresden  [No. 
1568].  In  addition  to  these  portraits  there  are  two 
large  subject-pictures — "  The  Parable  of  the  Labourers 
in  the  Vineyard,"  at  Frankfort  [No.  181],  and  "Jacob 
blessing  Joseph's  Sons,"  at  Cassel  [No.  227],  besides 
"The  Preaching  of  St  John  the  Baptist,"  at  Berlin  [No. 
828K].  There  are,  moreover,  two  pictures  belonging  to 
about  that  date— "The  Denial  of  St  Peter,"  in  the 
Hermitage  [No.  799],  and  "  Pilate  washing  his  Hands," 
in  the  collection  of  M.  Sedelmeyer  at  Paris. 

One,  or  perhaps  both  of  these,  may  belong  to  the 
following  year,  1657,  which  is  otherwise  lacking  in 
important  works,  though  it  includes  the  "  Portrait 
of  Catrina  Hoogh,"  known  as  "  The  Lady  with  the 
Parrot,"  belonging  to  Lord  Penrhyn  ;  "  The  Adoration 
of  the  Magi,"  at  Buckingham  Palace ;  a  "  Portrait  of 
an  Old  Woman,"  belonging  to  M.  Rodolphe  Kann  ;  and 
one,  at  Dresden  [No.  1569],  of  "A  Man  sketching  in 
a  Book."  It  may  also  include  the  "Rabbi,"  in  the 
National  Gallery  [No.  190],  a  "  Portrait  of  a  Boy,"  at 
Belvoir  Castle,  and  "  An  Angel,"  a  mere  fragment  of  a 
larger  picture,  belonging  to  Mr  Sellar. 

1658  would  seem  to  have  been  still  more  disastrous. 
Of  three  signed  pictures,  one  is  a  "  Portrait  of  Himself," 
in  the  collection  of  the  Earl  of  Ilchester ;  one,  "  An 
Old  Woman  cutting  her  Nails,"  belonging  to  M. 
Rodolphe  Kann,  is  undoubtedly  a  model ;  and  only 
the  "Young  Man,"  in  the  Louvre  [No.  2545],  may  be 


YEARS   OF   DECLINE  79 

a  portrait.  Of  the  unsigned  works  of  that  time,  two 
more  are  "  Portraits  of  Himself,"  one  belonging  to  Lord 
Ashburton,  the  other  at  Vienna  [No.  1 142],  and  one, 
also  at  Vienna  [No.  1 144],  is  probably  a  "  Portrait  of 
Titus,"  while  two  "  Old  Men,"  one  of  which  is  in  the 
Pitti  Palace  [No.  12],  are  presumably  models.  The 
portrait,  called  "  An  Admiral,"  belonging  to  Mr  Schaus 
of  New  York,  and  that  of  "  Six,"  in  the  Six  collection 
were,  however,  doubtless  commissions.  The  subjects 
include  one  of  Rembrandt's  infrequent  incursions  into 
classical  story  in  "  Baucis  and  Philemon  receiving 
Jupiter  and  Mercury,"  now  belonging  to  Mr  Yerkes  of 
New  York,  a  "  Christ,"  in  the  possession  of  Count  Orloff- 
Davidoff  at  St  Petersburg,  and  Lord  Wimborne's  seated 
figure  of  "  St  Paul." 

Few  facts  are  more  admirable  in  Rembrandt's 
checkered  career  than  the  noble  struggle  he  maintained 
against  misfortune  and  neglect.  That  he  suffered  there 
can  be  no  doubt — the  careworn  face  and  whitening 
hair  of  the  later  portraits  reveal  it  all  too  clearly, — 
but  he  stiffened  his  back  and  worked  on  undismayed. 

Of  1659  there  are  six  pictures  fully  dated,  and  two 
believed  to  have  been,  though  in  each  the  last  figure 
of  the  date  is  missing.  Both  are  "  Portraits  of  Himself," 
one  at  Bridgewater  House,  and  one  at  Cassel  [No.  222], 
while  a  dated  one,  belonging  to  ithe  Duke  of  Buccleuch, 
is  a  magnificent  representation  of  the  grave,  strong  face 
that  had  met  and  supported  so  much  care.  Three 
others  are  also  portraits  — "  An  Old  Man,"  in  the 
National  Gallery  [No.  243],  the  "  Merchant,"  belonging 
to  the  Earl  of  Feversham,  and  "A  Man  in  a  Red 
Cloak,"  signed  Rembran,  in  the  collection  of  M.  Maurice 


8o  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

Kann  at  Paris.  There  are  also  two  subject-pictures, 
both  at  Berlin,  "  Moses  breaking  the  Tables  of  the 
Law  "  [No.  8 1 1],  and  "  Jacob  wrestling  with  the  Angel  " 
[No.  828]. 

To  1660  a  large  number  of  pictures  is  attributed, 
eighteen  being  portraits,  and  one,  "  Head  of  Christ," 
belonging  to  M.  Maurice  Kann,  coming  under  the  head 
of  subject-pictures.  Of  these  only  four  portraits  are 
dated,  and  in  two  cases  there  is  some  doubt  as  to  the 
last  figure.  Two  of  the  dated  portraits  are  of  himself ; 
one  with  the  full  date  is  in  the  Louvre  [No.  2555],  and 
one  with  a  doubtful  date  belongs  to  Sir  A.  D.  Neeld. 
Both  are  of  extreme  interest  in  their  bearing  on  the 
personal  history  of  Rembrandt.  The  portrait  of  the 
year  before,  belonging  to  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  shows 
us  a  man  bearing  some  traces  indeed  of  a  struggle  with 
adversity,  but  of  a  not  altogether  unsuccessful  one. 
The  character  has  been  developed  rather  than  shaken 
in  the  strife ;  the  man  is  still  strong  in  body,  firm  in 
mind ;  the  hair,  as  far  as  it  can  be  made  out  against  the 
dark  background,  is  still  untouched  by  the  hand  of 
time ;  yet  it  is  beyond  question  Rembrandt  himself. 
In  the  two  pictures  now  under  consideration  we  find 
a  change  truly  startling.  The  hair  is  thin  and  white, 
the  face  is  wrinkled,  the  eyes  weary.  But  it  is  in 
the  character  conveyed  that  the  chief  transformation 
is  perceived  ;  he  has  sunk  suddenly  into  old  age  and 
weakness,  the  strength,  the  resolution  of  the  man  have 
gone  out  of  him — he  seems,  stout  as  he  was,  to  have 
broken  at  last  And  yet  in  the  next  year  he  painted 
the  finest  work  he  ever  did.  There  is  nothing  in  his 
story  to  account  for  it.  A  severe  illness  seems  the 


YEARS   OF   DECLINE  Si 

only  possible  explanation,  followed  by  a  remarkable, 
though  brief,  recuperation ;  but  it  is,  perhaps,  the 
greatest  of  the  many  great  puzzles  offered  to  us  in  the 
course  of  his  history.  Of  the  other  two  portraits,  one, 
though  fully  signed  and  dated,  is  of  a  doubtful  authen- 
ticity ;  while  the  date  on  "  The  Portrait  of  an  Old 
Woman,"  belonging  to  Colonel  Lindsay,  is  uncertain. 
The  pictures  painted  about  that  year  are  numerous,  and 
include  a  pair  of  portraits,  husband  and  wife,  belonging 
to  Prince  JousouporT;  "The  Capuchin,"  in  the  National 
Gallery  [No.  166];  and  two  other  figures  in  monks' 
robes,  one  belonging  to  Lord  Wemyss,  the  other  to 
Count  Stroganoff;  Captain  Holford's  portrait  of  a 
young  man  supposed  to  be  "  Titus  "  ;  "  The  Standard- 
Bearer,"  formerly  at  Warwick  Castle  but  now  trans- 
ferred to  America,  and  others. 

There  are  ten  pictures  bearing  the  date  1661,  one 
signed,  but  with  the  last  figure  of  the  date  missing, 
and  three  with  neither  date  nor  signature.  Of  these, 
however,  one,  "The  Conspiracy  of  Claudius  Civilis," 
we  know  to  have  been  painted  that  year.  A  second 
painted  about  the  time  is  "  The  Circumcision,"  belong- 
ing to  Earl  Spencer.  The  third  is  the  "Venus  and 
Cupid,"  at  the  Louvre  [No.  2543],  if  it  should  not 
rather  be  counted  among  the  portraits,  since  Dr  Bode 
believes  it  to  represent  Hendrickje  Stoffels  and  her 
daughter  Cornelia.  The  same  doubt  as  to  classifica- 
tion applies  to  the  "  St  Matthew,"  also  in  the  Louvre 
[No.  2538],  and  to  "A  Pilgrim  at  Prayer,"  belong- 
ing to  Consul  Weber  at  Hamburg.  Two  figures  of 
"Christ,"  one  at  Aschaffenbourg,  the  other  belonging 
to  Count  Raczynski  at  Posen,  complete  the  list  of 
F 


82  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

subjects.  There  is  only  one  "  Portrait  of  Himself," 
belonging  to  Lord  Kinnaird,  the  others  being  one  of  a 
man  with  a  knife  in  his  hand,  nicknamed,  "  Rem- 
brandt's Cook,"  at  Downton  ;  the  "  Portrait  of  an  old 
Woman,"  in  the  Museum  of  Epinal ;  another  "  Old 
Woman,"  in  the  possession  of  Lord  Wantage ;  "  A 
Man,"  in  the  Hermitage  [No.  821];  and  the  mis- 
named "Jansenius,"  belonging  to  Lord  Ashburton. 
All  other  works  of  that  year  are,  however,  eclipsed 
by  the  artist's  masterpiece,  which,  if  it  alone 
remained  in  existence,  would  compel  us  to  place 
Rembrandt  in  the  very  highest  rank  of  painters 
— "The  Syndics  of  the  Drapers,"  at  Amsterdam  [No. 
1247]. 

After  that  eventful  year,  the  record  is  a  thin  one. 
The  very  next,  indeed,  is  the  other  of  which  no 
known  picture  survives.  There  are  a  pair  of  portraits, 
the  "  Man "  in  the  collection  of  M.  Maurice  Kann, 
the  "Woman"  in  that  of  M.  Rodolphe  Kann,  which 
may  have  been  painted  that  year ;  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  a  portrait  called  "  Hendrickje  Stoffels," 
at  Berlin  [No.  8236]  (see  ill.,  p.  44). 

The  next  year  is  little  better.  A  picture  of  "  Homer 
reciting  his  Poems"  alone  bears  part  of  a  signature, 
and  f,  with  the  date  1663.  It  belongs  to  Dr  Bredius, 
and  is  lent  by  him  to  the  Museum  at  the  Hague  [No. 
584].  1664,  again,  is  found  on  but  one  canvas,  "The 
Death  of  Lucretia,"  belonging  to  M.  Le"on  Gauchez  of 
Paris,  but  "The  Unmerciful  Servant,"  in  the  Wallace 
collection,  and  the  "  Portrait  of  Himself,"  in  the  National 
Gallery  [No.  221]  (see  ill.,  p.  46),  belong  to  about  that 
time.  One,  a  "Portrait  of  an  Old  Man,"  in  the 


YEARS   OF   DECLINE  83 

Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York  [No.  274],  is  dated 
1665.  A  portrait,  signed  Rembrandt  f.,  in  the  col- 
lection of  Mr  Charles  Morrison ;  one  of  himself, 
in  that  of  Herr  von  Carstangen  at  Berlin ;  "  The 
Jewish  Bride,"  at  Amsterdam  [No.  1252],  from  the 
date  on  which  the  last  figure  is  missing ;  and  "  David 
playing  before  Saul "  were  also  painted  about  that 
year. 

1666,  however,  appears  on  three  portraits — "A 
Youth,"  belonging  to  Lord  Leconfield  ;  "  A  Woman," 
in  the  National  Gallery  [No.  237] ;  and  "  Jeremias  de 
Decker,"  a  poet  who  was  one  of  Rembrandt's  rare 
clients  in  his  later  years,  at  the  Hermitage  [No. 
827].  The  "Portrait  of  an  Old  Man,"  at  Dresden 
[No.  1570],  and  two  of  himself — one  at  Vienna  [No. 
1143],  signed  but  undated,  and  one  in  the  Uffizi 
[No.  452] — were  in  all  probability  painted  either 
that  year,  the  one  before,  or  the  succeeding  one, 
1667,  to  which  we  can  otherwise  accord  only  one,  a 
"Portrait  of  an  Old  Man,"  belonging  to  the  Earl  of 
Northbrook. 

And  now  the  tale  is  nearly  told ;  1668  occurs  but 
once,  on  "  The  Flagellation,"  in  the  Grand  -  Ducal 
Museum  at  Darmstadt,  absolutely  the  last  known 
work  of  his  ;  though  three  others — "  Esther,  Haman, 
and  Ahasuerus,"  belonging  to  the  King  of  Roumania ; 
a  large  "  Family  Group,"  at  Brunswick  [No.  232] ; 
and  "The  Prodigal  Son,"  in  the  Hermitage  [No. 
797],  are  believed  to  date  from  that  year,  or  possibly 
even  the  next  and  last. 

There  is  still  a  considerable  number  of  pictures  to 
which  no  very  approximate  date  can  be  assigned,  but 


84  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

as  the  attempt  to  fully  consider  all  the  work  that 
Rembrandt  did  would  far  exceed  all  reasonable  limits 
of  space,  I  must  reluctantly  leave  the  reader  who  would 
seek  further  to  such  assistance  as  the  catalogue  of 
pictures  at  the  end  of  this  volume  may  afford  him. 


REMBRANDT  THE   ETCHER 
CHAPTER   VIII 

HISTORY  OF  THE   ETCHINGS 

WE  have  seen  how  Rembrandt  the  painter,  after  having 
risen  to  the  foremost  place  among  his  fellow-crafts- 
men in  Holland,  fell  a  victim  to  the  always  unaccount- 
able change  of  fashion  that  has  cast  a  blight  upon 
many  another  man.  Now,  however,  that  we  come  to 
consider  his  etched  work,  we  have,  to  some  extent, 
a  different  tale  to  tell.  From  the  first  the  products 
of  his  needle  seem  to  have  been  appreciated  and 
sought  after,  in  certain,  though  perhaps  limited,  circles. 
Houbraken  mentions  Clement  de  Jonghe,  whose  shrewd 
yet  kindly  face  is  found  among  the  gallery  of  portraits 
etched  by  Rembrandt,  Jan  Pietersen  Zoomer,  and 
Pieter  de  la  Tombe,  as  having  made  collections  of 
his  etchings ;  and  in  the  inventory  of  the  property 
left  by  the  first  of  these  at  his  death,  on  February 
nth,  1679,  we  find  a  list  of  seventy-four  plates  etched 
by  Rembrandt ;  but  it  is  not  therefore  to  be  hastily 
concluded  that  Rembrandt  himself  ever  made  any 
important  addition  to  his  income  by  the  sale  of  them. 
Indeed,  the  chief  foundation  of  the  belief  can  be 
shown  to  be  frail  and  untrustworthy.  This  is  the  familiar 
title  of  the  etching,  "  Christ  healing  the  Sick,"  which 
85 


86  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

has  been  known  for  many  years  as  "  The  Hundred 
Guilder  Print,"  that  having  been,  according  to  the 
story,  the  sum  the  artist  obtained  for  a  single  proof. 
The  amount,  even  if  he  had  obtained  it,  was  hardly 
excessive — some  nine  pounds ;  but  the  facts  show 
clearly  that  he  never  did.  He  exchanged  a  copy, 
still  in  existence,  with  his  friend  Jan  Zoomer,  who 
has  left  in  writing  on  the  back  of  it,  "  Given  me  by 
my  intimate  friend  Rembrandt  in  exchange  for  '  The 
Pest'  of  M.  Anthony,"  to  which  he  may  possibly 
have  attached  the  value  of  a  hundred  guilders,  though 
there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  for  even  this. 
Gersaint,  when  making  the  catalogue,  published  in 
1751,  after  his  death,  by  Helle  and  Glomy,  was 
informed  that  the  famous  proof  was  exchanged  with 
a  Roman  merchant,  and  the  equivalent,  like  FalstafFs 
men  in  buckram,  had  swelled  to  seven  engravings, 
which  were  definitely  valued  at  one  hundred  guilders ; 
and  thence  the  tradition  and  the  name  arose.  What, 
one  wonders,  would  the  gossips,  who  gasped  amazed 
at  such  a  price,  have  thought  could  some  seer  have 
succeeded  in  making  them  believe  that,  little  more  than 
a  hundred  years  later,  in  1858,  that  very  same  proof 
with  old  Jan  Zoomer's  writing  still  upon  it  would 
be  competed  for  so  fiercely  at  public  auction,  that 
M.  Dutuit  paid  cheerfully  for  it  eleven  hundred  pounds  ; 
while  even  that  was  not  a  record  price,  since  another 
copy  was  sold  the  year  before  at  the  Palmer  sale 
for  eleven  hundred  and  eighty. 

Still,  though  this  piece  of  evidence  must  be  aban- 
doned, there  would  seem  to  be  no  doubt  that  the 
etchings  were  admired  even  in  his  lifetime,  and,  from 


HISTORY   OF   THE    ETCHINGS  87 

the  fact  that  Clement  de  Jonghe  and  Zoomer  were  art- 
dealers,  we  may  fairly  conclude  that  part  at  least  of 
their  collections  appertained  to  their  stock-in-trade.  It 
is  scarcely  probable,  indeed,  that  such  highly-finished 
works  as  the  larger  "  Raising  of  Lazarus,"  "  Christ 
healing  the  Sick,"  "Christ  preaching,"  "The  Three 
Crosses,"  "  The  Good  Samaritan,"  "  The  Three  Trees," 
and  others,  landscapes  in  especial,  were  carried  out 
without  any  subsequent  attempts  on  Rembrandt's  part 
to  profit  by  them  ;  and  there  is  good  reason  for  suppos- 
ing that  the  portraits  of  Jan  Uijtenbogaerd  and  Jan 
Cornelis  Sylvius  with  their  inscriptions  and  laudatory 
verses,  were  intended  for  sale  among  the  followers  and 
admirers  of  the  two  eminent  ministers ;  but  the  fact 
remains  that  we  can  only  assert  with  any  confidence 
that  two  out  of  all  the  etchings  were  expressly  made 
for  publication,  "  The  Descent  from  the  Cross,"  and 
the  "  Ecce  Homo,"  and  neither  of  these,  though  signed 
by  Rembrandt  "cum  privilegio,"  as  issuing  from  his 
studio,  and  executed  under  his  directions,  according 
to  the  custom  of  the  day,  was  worked  upon  by  him 
to  any  great  extent. 

The  numerous  other  portraits,  the  four  illustrations 
to  Manasseh  ben  Israel's  work,Pzedm  Gloriosayand  that 
to  Der  Zeevcerts-Lof,  were  doubtless  commissions,  but  the 
payments  were  probably  not  large,  since  we  found  in 
the  proposal  made  by  Dirck  van  Cattenburch,  in  1654, 
that  an  etched  plate  "not  less  finished  than  that  of 
Six/'  was  estimated  at  no  more  than  four  hundred 
florins,  which,  considering  the  amount  of  work  entailed, 
was  not  magnificent. 

When    we    have    recalled    the   partnership   formally 


88  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

entered  into  between  Hendrickje  and  Titus  on  Decem- 
ber 15,  1660,  which  has  already  been  explained  in 
telling  the  story  of  the  artist's  life,  we  have  come  to 
the  end  of  the  reasons  for  concluding  that  the  artist 
made  money  by  his  etching  needle. 

Whence,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  the  various  proofs 
now  in  existence,  the  first  and  second,  third  and  fourth 
states  for  which  collectors  pay  such  surprising  prices, 
prices  more  often  regulated  by  the  rarity  of  the  state 
than  by  its  special  artistic  merits?  Perhaps  some  of 
them  were  put  into  circulation  by  the  firm  of  Hendrickje 
and  Titus.  There  is,  certainly,  no  mention  of  the 
plates  in  the  inventory  of  the  sale,  and  it  is  therefore 
possible  that  this  pathetic  little  association  for  the 
support  of  a  broken-down  artist  may  have  found  it 
profitable  in  a  small  way  to  issue  new  impressions  of 
these  earlier  completed  plates,  though  it  is  significant 
in  this  connection,  unless  we  can  accept  the  theory 
suggested  before,  that  Rembrandt's  "eyesight  was  failing, 
that  at  the  very  time  when  etchings  were  most  needed 
he  ceased  to  produce  them. 

In  a  very  large  number  of  cases,  I  suspect,  they  were 
given  as  presents  to  any  sympathetic  soul  who  had 
enough  taste  to  appreciate  them  for  their  merits,  or 
intelligence  enough  to  foresee  that  they  might  some 
day  prove  of  value.  In  the  case  of  a  portrait,  at  any 
rate,  we  know  that  he  gave  proofs  to  his  sitter  as  the 
work  went  on,  for  on  one  of  the  first  portrait  of 
Sylvius,  done  in  1634,  there  is  a  note  in  Rembrandt's 
hand  showing  that  it  was  one  of  four  presented  by  him 
to  the  minister. 

Others,  again,  would  be  given  to  fellow-artists,  such 


HISTORY   OF   THE   ETCHINGS  89 

as  Lievensz,  who  etched  also.  Many  undoubtedly  came 
from  the  sixty  portfolios  of  leather,  which  we  find 
recorded  in  the  inventory,  where  they  had  lain  from 
the  day  when  Rembrandt,  having  learnt  the  lesson  or 
attained  the  effect  he  desired,  had  flung  them  carelessly 
aside  to  go  on  to  some  further  problem.  For,  there 
seems  little  doubt  that  he  never  himself  regarded  them 
with  any  very  serious  consideration.  They  were  for 
him  only  steps  in  his  onward  progress.  He  did  them 
because  he  wanted  to  do  them,  without  any  thoughts 
of  fame  or  profit,  and  he  signed  and  dated  them,  or 
left  them  unsigned  and  undated,  in  the  most  haphazard 
and  capricious  way,  good  and  bad  alike,  with  the  most 
complete  indifference  as  to  whether  they  were  calculated 
to  enhance  his  reputation  or  not.  It  was,  therefore, 
by  the  inevitable  irony  of  fate,  that  for  these  alone, 
for  many  years,  was  he  judged  worthy  of  remark. 
While  Gerard  de  Lairesse  in  his  Groote  Schilderboek^ 
published  in  1714,  was  condescendingly  assuring  a 
listening  public  that  Rembrandt's  paintings  were  not 
"absolutely  bad,"  Houbraken  was  recording  the 
struggles  of  collectors  to  get  possession  of  his  etchings, 
and  their  consequent  increase  in  price — struggles  and 
increasings,  which  have  gone  on  augmenting  without 
intermission  to  the  present  day,  until  even  a  small 
representative  collection  of  them  is  a  luxury  for  the 
very  rich  alone,  an  absolutely  perfect  one  of  all  the 
differing  states  unobtainable  by  a  many  times  million- 
aire. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  there  were  already  famous 
collections  of  the  etchings :  such  as  those  of  de  Burgy 
and  van  Leyden  in  Holland  itself;  of  Marolles,  Coypel, 


90  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

Silvestre,  and  Mariette  in  France ;  of  Barnard,  Sloane, 
Cracherode,  Fawkener,  and  Lord  Aylesford  in  England  ; 
and  it  was  inevitable  that  the  making  of  collections 
could  not  go  on  satisfactorily  for  long,  unless  there  was 
some  sort  of  general  agreement  as  to  what  was  and 
what  was  not  to  be  included  in  them,  so  that  before 
long  the  need  for  some  catalogue  to  establish  at  any 
rate  the  preliminary  basis  of  an  agreement  on  disputed 
points  became  an  absolute  necessity. 

Gersaint  was  the  first  to  make  the  attempt,  but  died 
before  his  task  was  finished.  His  manuscript,  however, 
was  put  up  for  sale,  and  bought  by  les  Sieurs  Helle 
and  Glomy,  as  they  call  themselves  upon  the  title- 
page  of  the  volume  in  duodecimo  which,  after  making 
the  "necessary  augmentations"  of  Gersaint's  material, 
they  published  at  Paris  in  1751.  An  English  transla- 
tion of  this  was  published  by  T.  Jefferys  in  London 
the  following  year,  and  four  years  later,  in  1756,  Pierre 
Yver,  an  art-dealer  in  Amsterdam,  published  in  that 
city  a  "  Supplement,"  with  additions  and  corrections. 
Forty  years  later  these  two  works,  collated  and  again 
translated  into  English,  were  the  foundation  of  an 
amended  catalogue  by  Daniel  Daulby,  published  in 
London  and  Liverpool  in  1796.  A  year  later  Adam 
Bartsch,  keeper  of  the  prints  in  the  Library  at  Vienna, 
published  there  a  catalogue  in  two  octavo  volumes, 
which  to  this  day  remains  the  chief  standard  of 
appeal,  though  Wilson,  Charles  Blanc,  Vosmaer, 
Middleton,  and  others,  have  rejected  some  of  the 
etchings  which  he  accepted,  and  included  others 
which  he  ignored. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Bartsch  was  too  generous  in 


CLEMENT   DE  JONGHE.    (B.  272) 
(1651) 


HISTORY   OF   THE   ETCHINGS  91 

his  admissions,  but  to  what  extent  he  carried  his  over- 
generosity  is  still  a  matter  of  dispute.  The  Chevalier 
de  Claussin,  writing  in  1824,  and  borrowing  freely, 
though  without  acknowledgment,  from  Bartsch,  struck 
out  10,  leaving  365  ;  and  Wilson,  publishing  in  London 
in  1836,  under  the  title  of  "an  amateur,"  while  own- 
ing his  obligations  to  Bartsch,  rejected  6,  but  added 
others,  making  369.  Vosmaer,  in  1877,  counted  353; 
Middleton,  in  the  following  year,  reduced  these  to  329 ; 
Charles  Blanc,  in  the  1880  edition  of  his  work,  raised 
the  number  again  to  353.  M.  de  Seidlitz,  in  1890, 
obtained  and  collated  the  opinions  of  all  the  best 
living  authorities,  and,  after  an  ample  discusssion  of 
doubtful  points,  accepted  260 ;  while  M.  Legros,  adopt- 
ing heroic  methods  of  criticism,  will  only  admit  71 
as  being  certainly  by  Rembrandt,  with  an  additional 
42  which  might  be,  or  113  at  the  most 

What,  it  may  well  be  asked  by  the  bewildered 
amateur,  is  the  reason  of  these  surprising  differences? 
Surely,  he  may  well  say,  there  must  be  some  criterion 
to  hold  by.  The  answer  is  simple,  if  unsatisfactory  : 
there  is  not,  there  never  has  been,  there  never  can  be. 
There  is  no  style  to  judge  by  ;  for  Rembrandt  had 
half-a-dozen  styles  at  least,  and  employed  them  all 
together  or  separately  as  he  listed.  The  signature  is 
no  guide,  for  many  beautiful  works  of  his  have  none, 
and  many  that  are  not  his  bear  forged  ones.  The 
subject  cannot  help  us,  for  he  treated  alike  the  most 
sacred  incidents  and  the  grossest  improprieties.  The 
merit  of  the  work  is  no  less  dubious  ground  for 
judgment ;  for  while  producing,  over  and  over  again, 
masterpieces  of  the  art  that  have  never  been  equalled, 


92  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

he  at  other  times,  through  carelessness,  indifference, 
or  perhaps  ill-health,  turned  out  and  left  for  future 
ages  stuff  which  most  far  inferior  men  would  have 
obliterated  there  and  then.  We  can  only  decide  each 
for  ourselves  that  such  or  such  a  plate  is  in  no  way 
worthy  of  Rembrandt,  but,  unless  we  have  the  courage 
of  M.  Legros,  we  cannot  go  on  to  assert  definitely 
that  therefore  it  is  not  his. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS 

IN  the  entire  absence  of  any  evidence  to  the  contrary, 
we  are  reasonably  safe  in  concluding  that  the  two 
etchings  dated  1628  were,  if  not  actually  the  first, 
among  the  very  first  he  ever  did  ;  and,  regarded  in 
this  light,  they  are  truly  astonishing.  Both  are  called 
Rembrandt's  mother,  though  the  one  in  full  face  (B. 
352)  seems  to  represent  a  woman  in  a  much  humbler 
station  of  life  than  the  stately  old  lady  in  the  other 
(B.  354),  while  both,  furthermore,  seem  to  portray 
a  woman  much  more  advanced  in  years  than  his 
mother  was  at  that  time. 

In  the  first  the  kindly  old  lady,  whoever  she  may 
be,  wears  a  large  white  hood  shading  her  forehead. 
The  right  side  of  her  face,  with  the  exception  of  the 
prominence  of  the  cheekbone,  is  in  shadow,  and  the 
strong  light  falling  on  the  left  side  of  the  head  brings 
into  relief  the  wrinkles  by  the  nose  and  at  the  corner 
of  the  mouth,  and  the  soft  fleshy  forms  of  the  cheek 
and  jaw.  The  seemingly  toothless  mouth  is  slightly 
open  above  the  strong  square  chin.  The  work  is 
simple  and  straightforward,  but  admirably  expressive 
of  the  varied  forms,  and  the  roundness  and  solidity 
of  the  little  head  are  excellent.  The  second  (B.  354) 
is  slighter  and  broader  in  handling,  the  forms  are 
93 


94  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

expressed  with  greater  freedom,  the  elaboration  of 
the  modelling  in  the  one  being  often  replaced  by  a 
single  significant  line,  but  the  shadows  are  somewhat 
forced,  which  results,  especially  in  the  hollow  of  the 
cheek  and  on  the  right  temple,  in  an  excessive  and 
unpleasant  blackness.  Yet  the  dash  and  surety  of 
the  line-work  is  very  fine,  and  to  the  student  it  is 
well  worth  careful  study  through  a  lens.  The  first 
excels  in  delicacy,  the  second  in  strength. 

The  only  etching  actually  known  to  have  been 
executed  in  1629  is  the  first  of  many  portraits  of 
himself  (B.  338),  very  broadly  and  strongly  etched, 
and  worked  upon  in  places  with  two  needles  fastened 
side  by  side,  a  useless  device,  to  which  he  never  again 
resorted.  There  are  fifteen  dated  etchings  of  the 
year  1630.  Among  these  are  no  less  than  six  portraits 
or  studies  of  himself,  including  an  excellent  "  Portrait 
in  a  fur  cap  and  light  dress  "  (B.  24),  and  an  admirably 
etched  study  of  expression  known  as  "  Rembrandt 
with  haggard  eyes "  (B.  320),  which  is,  rather,  a 
humorous  sketch  of  amazed  bewilderment.  He  also, 
for  the  first  time,  attempted  a  composition  with  several 
figures — "The  Presentation  in  the  Temple"  (B.  51), 
distinguished  as  the  one  with  the  angel,  which,  how- 
ever, was  not  altogether  a  success,  owing  to  insufficient 
biting.  A  spirited  note  of  "  An  Old  Beggar  Man  con- 
versing with  a  Woman"  (B.  164),  and  various  small 
heads,  including  two  profiles  of  the  same  "  Bald  Man  " 
(B.  292  and  294),  which  M.  Michel  has  given  sound 
reasons  for  believing  to  be  Rembrandt's  father,  make 
up  the  number. 

He  was  again  his  own  model   twice  in    1631 — one, 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS  95 

with  a  broad  hat  and  mantle  (B.  7),  being  the  most 
elaborately  finished  piece  of  work  he  had  yet  at- 
tempted. There  are  also  two  "  Portraits  of  his  Mother  " 
(B.  348  and  349) ;  one  said  to  be  "  His  Father"  (B.  263) 
though  made  after  his  death ;  a  brilliant  little  sketch 
of  a  "Blind  Fiddler"  (B.  138),  and  others.  There  are 
only  three  dated  etchings  of  1632 — a  little  figure 
called  "The  Persian"  (B.  152),  the  first  of  several 
pictures  of  "  St  Jerome"  (B.  101),  a  subject  which 
had  a  singular  fascination  for  the  artist,  and  the  group 
of  "The  Rat-killer"  (B.  121).  Three  also  bear  the 
date  1633,  "An  Old  Woman"  etched  no  lower  than 
the  chin  (B.  351),  very  doubtfully  identified  as  his 
mother  ;  a  badly  overbitten  "  Portrait  of  Himself"  with 
a  scarf  round  his  neck  (B.  17);  and  one  subject,  "The 
Descent  from  the  Cross"  (B.  81),  which  came  so  utterly 
to  grief  in  the  biting,  owing  apparently  to  bad  ground- 
ing, that  it  was  at  once  abandoned,  only  three  impres- 
sions being  known,  and  a  second  undertaken,  though  not 
by  himself,  the  work  having  been  carried  out  under  his 
supervision  by  some  unknown  pupil.  Another  equally 
important  plate  bearing  this  date,"  The  Good  Samaritan  " 
(B.  90),  is  included  among  the  disputed  etchings. 

The  year  1634,  which  brought  Saskia  into  his  home, 
also  naturally  enough  brought  her  portrait  into  the 
list  of  etchings.  One,  with  pearls  in  her  hair  (B.  347), 
is  certainly  a  likeness  of  her,  and  M.  Michel  believes  it 
to  have  been  the  companion  plate  to  one  of  Rembrandt 
(B.  2),  executed  about  the  same  time.  Another  charm- 
ing piece  of  work,  "A  Young  Woman  Reading"  (B. 
345),  though  not  a  portrait,  was  also  very  possibly 
studied  from  Saskia.  For  subjects  both  the  Old  and 


96  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

New  Testaments  supplied  inspiration,  the  first  for 
decidedly  seventeenth-century  Dutch  rendering 
"  Joseph  and  Potiphar's  Wife  "  (B.  39),  the  second  for 
the  earliest  treatment  of  a  favourite  subject  "  Christ 
and  the  Disciples  at  Emmaus  "  (B.  88).  "  Christ  driving 
the  Money-lenders  from  the  Temple  "  (B.  69),  a  crowded 
and  unsatisfactory  composition,  the  central  figure  of 
which  was  borrowed  from  Diirer ;  the  "  Martyrdom 
of  St  Stephen "  (B.  97),  with  some  singularly  bad 
drawing  in  it;  and  another,  "  St  Jerome"  (B.  102), 
were  the  subjects  treated  in  1635,  which  is  more 
notable  for  a  vivacious  "  Portrait  of  Johannes  Uijten- 
bogaerd "  (B.  279) ;  a  splendid  little  study  of  "  A 
Mountebank"  (B.  129),  a  model  of  direct  etching  from 
nature  wherein  there  is  not  a  superfluous  line,  though 
everything  that  should  be  is  expressed  ;  and  a  skilful 
piece  of  chiaroscuro,  "The  Pancake  Woman"  (B.  124). 

1636  has  only  four  etchings  to  show — "  The  Prodigal 
Son"  (B.  91),  a  boldly-handled  piece  of  work,  superbly 
executed,  full  of  movement  and  expression,  but  marred 
by  the  revolting  hideousness  of  the  faces  ;  the  excellent 
portrait  of  "  Manasseh  ben  Israel  "  (B.  269) ;  a  charming 
little  revelation  of  domestic  contentment,  "  Rembrandt 
and  his  Wife  "  (B.  19) ;  and  a  sheet  of  sketches,  includ- 
ing a  very  pleasing  head  of  Saskia  (B.  365).  1637  has 
only  one  etching  of  importance,  "  Abraham  dismissing 
Hagar "  (B.  30) ;  but  for  sheer  skill  in  craftsmanship 
the  "  Young  Man  seated  in  Meditation  "  (B.  268)  would 
be  difficult  to  match. 

Rembrandt's  unfortunate  lack  of  the  sense  of  beauty 
is  nowhere  so  glaringly  made  manifest  as  in  the  pre- 
posterous "Adam  and  Eve"  (B.  28)  of  1638;  nor  are 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS  97 

the  faces  in  an  etching  of  that  year,  rejected,  however, 
by  Sir  Seymour  Haden,  of  the  brothers  listening  to 
"Joseph  relating  His  Dreams"  (B.  37)  much  less 
absurd,  though  they  are  to  a  considerable  extent 
atoned  for  by  the  dignified  Jacob,  the  very  human 
interest  of  Rachel,  and  the  simple  earnestness  of 
Joseph  himself.  The  "St  Catherine,"  otherwise  known 
as  "  The  Little  Jewish  Bride  "  (B.  342),  and  a  "  Portrait 
of  Himself  with  a  Mezetin  Cap  and  Feather"  (B.  20), 
are  the  only  others  of  the  year.  In  the  following 
year  he  achieved,  with  conspicuous  success,  the  most 
ambitious  etching  he  had  yet  attempted,  the  magnifi- 
cent "  Death  of  the  Virgin "  (B.  99),  which,  with  the 
exception  of  the  unfortunate  angels  hovering  above, 
is  admirable  alike  in  conception  and  execution,  attain- 
ing by  straightforward  simplicity  the  full  pathos  of  the 
scene.  The  truthfulness  and  variety  of  attitude  and 
expression,  the  wholly  effective  yet  unforced  arrange- 
ment of  the  composition,  and  the  perfection  of  the 
chiaroscuro  are  beyond  praise,  and  justify  the  some- 
what bold  assertion  that  beyond  this  the  etcher's  art 
cannot  go.  It  is  no  matter  for  wonder,  therefore,  that 
this  splendid  plate  seems  to  have  absorbed  most  of 
the  time  he  could  devote  to  etching  that  year,  for  a 
little  sketch  of  "A  Jew  in  a  High  Cap"  (B.  133),  and 
the  fine  "  Portrait  of  Himself  leaning  on  a  Stone  Sill " 
(B.  21),  alone  share  the  date  with  it.  His  interest  or 
his  leisure  would  indeed  appear  to  have  been  exhausted 
for  some  time,  since  only  two  small  etchings,  "The 
Beheading  of  St  John  the  Baptist"  (B.  92),  and  "An 
Old  Man  with  a  divided  Fur  Cap"  (B.  265),  are  dated 
1640. 

G 


98  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 


A  return  of  energy,  however,  marked  1641,  from 
which  year  we  have  twelve  dated  plates ;  among  them, 
the  first  three,  to  our  certain  knowledge,  of  a  long 
series  of  landscapes,  the  elaborate  study  known  as 
"Rembrandt's  Mill"  (B.  233),  the  beautiful  "Cottage 
and  Barn"  (B.  225),  and  the  "Landscape  with  a 
Cottage  and  Mill  Sail"  (B.  226).  There  are  four  sub- 
jects from  scripture — a  "Virgin  and  Child  in  the 
Clouds"  (B.  61),  "The  Baptism  of  the  Eunuch" 
(B.  98),  one  called  "Jacob  and  Laban"  (B.  118),  and 
"  The  Angel  departing  from  Tobit  and  his  Family " 
(B.  43),  in  which  his  inability  to  perceive  the  absurd 
and  undignified  is  once  again  demonstrated  in  the 
inflated  petticoat  and  foreshortened  legs  which  are 
all  that  is  seen  of  the  angel.  A  little  night-effect, 
"The  Schoolmaster"  (B.  128),  and  the  grand  and  very 
rare  "Portrait  of  Anslo"  (B.  271),  are  the  most 
important  of  the  remainder.  With  the  exception  of 
a  "Bearded  Man  seated  at  a  Table  in  an  Arbour" 
(B.  257),  the  only  etchings  of  1642  were  three  sacred 
subjects,  all  small,  and  two  of  them,  "  The  Raising  of 
Lazarus"  (B.  72)  and  "The  Descent  from  the  Cross" 
(B.  82),  mere  sketches.  The  finished  plate  represents 
"St  Jerome"  (B.  105),  distinguished  as  being  in  Rem- 
brandt's dark  manner,  seated  reading  at  a  table  in  a 
room  lighted  only  by  one  window  high  up  in  front 
of  him,  so  that  the  contrasts  of  light  and  shade  are 
strong,  and  the  effect  very  excellent. 

1643  has  only  two  signed  etchings,  but  both  are 
masterpieces  of  out-door  work — "The  Hog"  (B.  157), 
and  the  justly-renowned  "Three  Trees"  (B.  212). 
There  is  only  one  etching  dated  1644,  a  landscape 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS  99 

with  figures,  called  "  The  Shepherd  and  his  Family " 
(B.  220). 

A  superb  combination  of  pure  etching  and  dry-point 
dates  from  1645 — the  "  View  of  Omval,  near  Amster- 
dam" (B.  209),  one  of  the  most  entirely  satisfactory 
of  the  etchings,  both  for  perfection  of  workmanship 
and  beauty  of  effect.  The  transition  from  the  loving 
care  bestowed  upon  the  splendid  study  of  the  gnarled 
and  shattered  willow-tree  in  front,  through  the  more 
broadly  yet  quite  adequately  expressed  foliage  behind 
it  on  the  left,  to  the  slight  yet  all-sufficient  treatment 
of  the  river  and  landscape  beyond  it  on  the  right,  shows 
a  precise  adaptation  of  the  necessary  means  to  the 
desired  end,  which,  had  no  other  line  of  Rembrandt's 
etching  come  down  to  us,  would  have  been  enough 
to  stamp  him  as  the  finest  known  exponent  of  the 
art.  A  second  landscape  of  that  year  is  a  study  of 
a  boat-house,  known  as  "The  Grotto"  (B.  231);  and 
a  third,  the  one  known  as  "  Six's  Bridge "  (B.  208),  a 
masterly  little  sketch  from  nature.  As  an  example 
of  the  utmost  expressiveness  with  the  fewest  necessary 
means,  of  a  thorough  grasp  of  the  essentials  and  re- 
jection of  superfluities,  and  of  a  profound  mastery  of 
technical  methods,  this  etching  cannot  easily  be  over- 
estimated. An  outline  sketch  of  the  "  Repose  in 
Egypt"  (B.  58),  and  a  more  highly  finished  "Abraham 
conversing  with  Isaac "  just  previous  to  the  projected 
sacrifice  (B.  34),  are  the  only  subject-etchings  of  that 
year,  which  is  further  remarkable  for  the  absence  of 
any  portraits  or  studies  of  heads. 

The  next  few  years  are  singularly  devoid  of  dated 
etchings.  There  are  three  from  1646 — a  small  sketch 


ioo  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

of  "An  Old  Beggar  Woman"  (B.  170);  a  subject 
known  as  "Ledikant"  (B.  186),  one  of  those  frank 
improprieties  to  the  perpetration  of  which  Rembrandt, 
with  the  freedom  of  his  time,  more  than  once  de- 
graded his  talents,  from  our  modern  point  of  view; 
and  a  direct  study  from  the  nude  model,  "A  Man 
seated  on  the  Ground"  (B.  196).  1647  has  only  two, 
both  highly -finished  endeavours  to  realise  a  wholly 
pictorial  effect — an  endeavour  which,  however  success- 
ful, is  always  to  some  extent  a  mis-application  of  the 
art,  a  deliberate  sacrifice  of  its  special  advantages,  in 
order  to  attain  an  object  more  easily  and  efficiently 
obtainable  in  other  ways.  Still,  regarded  as  attempts 
to  express  the  full  tonality,  there  is  much  to  admire 
and  study  in  these  two  portraits  of  "Six"  (B.  285), 
and  "  Ephraim  Bonus "  (B.  278),  the  Jewish  physician, 
descending  a  staircase,  with  his  right  hand  on  the 
banister,  as  if  pausing  on  his  return  from  visiting 
a  patient,  a  reversed  reproduction  of  the  picture  in 
the  Six  collection  already  referred  to. 

In  1648  he  once  more  undertook  a  "Portrait  of 
Himself"  (B.  22),  a  very  different  presentment  from 
the  earlier  ones,  with  their  feathered  caps  and  em- 
broidered cloaks,  their  flowing  locks  and  brushed  up 
moustaches.  Time  and  trouble  have  told  upon  him, 
and  it  is  pathetic  to  contrast  the  proud  elegance  of 
the  Rembrandt  of  1639  (B.  21),  his  fine  clothes,  rich 
velvet  cap  flung  carelessly  on  one  side  of  his  long 
curling  hair,  and  his  self-satisfied  air,  with  this  grave, 
soberly-clad,  middle-aged  man,  in  his  plain,  high, 
square -topped,  broad-brimmed  hat,  and  dark  working 
blouse.  His  cavalier  curls  are  cropped,  his  once  airily 


BEGGARS  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  A   HOUSE.     (B.  176) 
(1648) 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS  101 

upturned  moustache  trimmed  short,  the  dainty  tuft 
upon  his  chin  is  gone.  He  has  grown  stout,  his 
throat  hangs  in  puffy  folds  below  his  chin,  his  nose 
has  coarsened,  and  he  bears  his  two-and-forty  years 
but  badly;  but  if  his  face  has  aged,  it  has  also 
strengthened,  he  has  learned  as  well  as  suffered, 
and,  if  there  is  no  longer  in  his  eyes  the  look  of 
undoubting  self-approval,  there  is  still  the  same  keen, 
penetrating  gaze  of  observation,  and  a  wiser  self- 
confidence  born  of  trials  and  labours  past  and 
overcome.  Among  all  the  portraits  of  Rembrandt, 
real  or  supposed,  there  is  none  which  makes  one  feel 
so  strongly  that  here,  indeed,  one  is  face  to  face  with 
him,  as  he  saw  himself  when  he  sat  drawing  from  the 
mirror  in  front  of  him. 

Another  splendid  example  of  that  year  is  the 
"Beggars  at  the  Door  of  a  House"  (B.  176),  a 
masterpiece  of  composition  and  workmanship.  It 
has  all  the  rich  effect  of  a  highly-laboured  piece  of 
work,  yet  a  careful  study  of  it  shows  how  simple 
and  direct  are  the  means  actually  employed  ;  for  the 
elaborately  -  finished  effect,  it  will  be  found,  is  due, 
not  to  the  multiplication  of  lines,  but  to  the  absolute 
Tightness  and  appropriateness  of  the  comparatively  few 
that  are  used.  The  crispness  and  firmness  of  the 
drawing  are  quite  magnificent,  and  it  is  satisfactory 
to  know  that  this  marvellous  little  plate,  simple  and 
unsensational  as  it  is,  comes  third,  according  to  M. 
Amand  Durand,  in  popularity  with  the  purchasers  of 
reproductions.  Yet  another  masterpiece  of  the  same 
year  is  "The  Jews'  Synagogue"  (B.  126);  and  a 
fourth  etching  is  "  The  Marriage  of  Jason  and  Creusa  " 


102  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

(B.  112),  a  composition  of  many  figures,  made  to 
illustrate  his  friend  Jan  Six's  tragedy  of  Medea, 
published  that  year,  in  which,  as  usual  with  him, 
the  attempt  to  convey  the  classical  spirit  was  scarcely 
successful. 

There  is  no  etching  which  we  can  definitely  assign 
to  1649.  In  I^S°j  on  tne  other  hand,  we  have  six, 
including  four  landscapes,  to  which  he  again  turned 
his  attention  after  an  interval  of  five  years.  These 
are  "A  Village  by  the  High-Road"  (B.  217),  with 
its  big  tree  and  high-gabled  cottages ;  the  excellent 
"Village  with  a  Square  Tower"  (B.  218);  the  "Canal 
with  Swans"  (B.  235);  and  the  sketch  of  "A  Canal 
with  a  Large  Boat"  (B.  236)  lying  broadside  on 
athwart  the  foreground,  which  is,  however,  chiefly 
interesting  from  the  background,  which  has  given  rise 
to  a  question  as  to  whether  Rembrandt  was  about 
that  time  on  his  travels  to  some  place  unknown.  This 
hilly  distance,  with  the  steep  cliff  on  the  left,  and  the 
Italian-looking  tower  in  the  centre,  certainly  bears  no 
resemblance  to  anything  in  his  ordinary  surroundings, 
but  there  is  nothing  in  it  to  assure  us  that  it  was 
done  from  nature,  and  as  we  know  that  he  more  than 
once  adapted  a  landscape  from  some  Italian  master, 
generally  Titian,  it  would  be  rash  to  found  any  con- 
clusion on  the  resemblance. 

A  remarkable  instance  of  patient  and  loving  care 
is  seen  in  the  "  Shell "  (B.  1 59),  an  astonishingly 
truthful  and  minute  study  of  still  life,  which  is  equally 
attractive  in  the  first  state  against  a  plain  white 
background,  and  in  the  second  against  a  nearly  black 
one,  which,  however,  may  have  been  added  by  some 


PQ 

31 

in 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS          103 

other  hand.  The  sixth  etching  of  that  year,  "Christ 
appearing  to  the  Disciples"  (B.  89),  is  a  sketch  in 
outline  with  a  little  tentative  shading  here  and  there, 
and,  though  handled  with  freedom  and  boldness,  has 
little  of  interest  or  beauty  to  recommend  it. 

During  1651  he  devoted  himself  once  and  once 
only  to  each  class  of  work ;  for  there  is  one  subject, 
"The  Flight  into  Egypt"  (B.  53),  showing  Joseph 
carrying  a  lantern,  and  leading  the  ass  bearing  the 
Virgin  and  Child  through  the  night ;  one  landscape, 
"The  Goldweigher's  Field"  (B.  234)— so  called  from 
the  view  including  the  country-house  of  his  friend 
Uijtenbogaerd,  the  treasurer,  whose  portrait,  etched 
by  Rembrandt,  is  known  as  "  The  Goldweigher " ;  and 
one  portrait,  "Clement  de  Jonghe"  (B.  272),  one  of 
the  best,  if  not  the  best,  he  ever  did.  Still  fewer 
etchings  were  produced  in  1652,  and  one  of  the  two, 
the  larger  "  Christ  disputing  with  the  Doctors  "  (B.  65), 
is  only  a  sketch — in  places,  indeed,  it  degenerates  to  a 
mere  scrawl — displaying,  for  Rembrandt,  an  unwonted 
amount  of  indifferent  and  inexpressive  drawing ;  but 
the  other,  a  landscape,  generally  known  in  England 
as  the  "Vista"  (B.  222),  with  the  two  large  trees 
on  the  left  and  the  dense  wood  in  the  centre,  is, 
perhaps,  the  finest  specimen  of  work  in  pure  dry- 
point  ever  produced. 

1653  is,  again,  a  blank  as  far  as  dated  etchings 
are  concerned,  but  to  1654  belong  eight,  seven  of 
which  are  subjects  from  the  New  Testament ;  a 
"  Circumcision "  (B.  47),  known  as  the  one  with  the 
cask  and  net ;  a  sketch  of  "  The  Holy  Family  crossing 
a  Rill  during  the  Flight  into  Egypt"  (B.  55),  in  which 


104  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

the  figures  are  clumsily  and  unpleasantly  thrown  into 
relief  by  a  band  of  shadow  closely  following  their 
outlines  in  very  nai've  fashion,  but  which,  nevertheless, 
contains  a  great  deal  of  bold  and  expressive  drawing  ; 
"  Jesus  and  His  Parents  returning  from  Jerusalem " 
(B.  60),  in  which  we  have  another  instance  of  an 
altogether  foreign  landscape,  which  might  as  well  be 
adduced  in  evidence  of  his  foreign  travels  as  that  of 
four  years  before.  In  this  case,  however,  it  has 
evidently  been  so  closely  copied  from  an  unknown 
original  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  is  some- 
where, or  at  any  rate  was  then,  a  drawing  of  the 
subject,  and  there  is,  furthermore,  a  very  high  degree 
of  probability  that  the  drawing  was  by  Titian.  The 
figures  are  full  of  movement,  and  there  is,  in  especial, 
much  animation  in  the  young  Christ,  who,  led  by 
His  father,  himself  leads  His  mother,  turning  half 
backwards  as  He  walks  to  speak  to  her,  but  the  types 
of  the  heads,  especially  that  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  are 
disagreeably  ugly  and  vulgar.  The  Virgin  in  "The 
Holy  Family  with  the  Serpent"  (B.  63),  has,  on 
the  other  hand,  an  unusual  amount  of  grace,  but 
this,  it  has  to  be  admitted,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it 
is  borrowed  from  Mantegna,  and  the  plate  is  other- 
wise an  indifferent  piece  of  work.  "  Christ  and  the 
Disciples  at  Emmaus"  (B.  87)  is,  again,  no  more  than 
a  sketch,  presenting  with  much  vividness  the  actions 
of  surprise  on  the  part  of  the  two  disciples  and  of 
the  serving-man  descending  the  stairs  in  front ;  but 
here,  as  so  often  elsewhere,  Rembrandt  has  failed  to 
rise  to  any  sense  of  the  sublimity  or  dignity  of  Christ, 
and  as,  in  this  example,  he  sits  in  full  face  in  the 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS          105 

very  centre  of  the  picture,  the  fault  cannot  well  be 
overlooked  or  condoned.  A  far  more  satisfactory  pro- 
duction, indeed  the  best  of  the  year,  is  "  The  Descent 
from  the  Cross  by  Torchlight"  (B.  83),  with  its  bold 
drawing  and  coarse  yet  effective  handling,  but,  like 
all  the  work  of  1654,  it  has  serious  and  obvious  defects  ; 
while  the  last  to  be  noted,  "  The  Game  of  Golf"  or 
Kolf  (B.  125),  is  yet  another  instance  of  Rembrandt's 
contentedly  signing  a  work  which  would  disgrace  a 
man  without  a  tithe  of  his  genius,  and  is  one  of 
those  plates  which,  if  it  be  authentic — and  no  one 
else  that  I  know  of  disputes  it — renders  any  test  of 
genuineness  by  workmanship  impossible. 

1655  saw  Rembrandt  employed  once  more  as  an 
illustrator,  the  book  being  one  entitled  "  Piedra  gloriosa 
6  de  la  estatua  de  Nebucadnezar,"  by  his  friend 
Manasseh  ben  Israel,  for  which  he  etched  four  subjects 
on  one  plate,  afterwards  sub-divided — "  Jacob's  Dream," 
"The  Combat  of  David  and  Goliath,"  "Nebuchad- 
nezzar's Dream,"  and  "The  Vision  of  Ezekiel"  (B.  36). 
"Abraham's  Sacrifice"  (B.  35),  of  the  same  year,  is 
another  of  those  bold  and  rapid  sketches  in  which 
Rembrandt  seems  to  have  dashed  at  his  subject  and 
realised  it  by  sheer  force  of  energy,  caring  little  about 
detail,  shading  where  he  wanted  shadows,  and  omit- 
ting them  where  he  wanted  light,  without  any  regard 
to  where  light  and  shade  would  have  been,  yet  putting 
such  vitality,  such  genuine,  undeniable,  human  feeling 
into  it,  that  even  bad  drawing  passes  unnoticed.  The 
swirl  of  the  broad-winged  angel  swooping  down  from 
behind  on  Abraham,  grasping  his  left  arm  just  above 
he  elbow  to  hold  back  the  knife,  while  with  his  right 


106  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

he  removes  Abraham's  right  hand  from  the  eyes  of  the 
resignedly  kneeling  Isaac,  is  marvellous.  The  startled 
surprise  of  Abraham  is  amazingly  true;  and,  carried 
away  by  the  vigour  of  the  actions  and  the  sound 
breadth  of  the  work,  we  ignore  the  fact  that  Abraham 
is  left-handed,  and  that  the  angel  has  no  forearm. 
Another  equally  bold  work  in  outline  is  "  Christ  before 
Pilate "  (B.  76),  with  its  wonderful  crowd  of  figures  in 
the  foreground  relieved  against  the  platform  on  which 
Christ  and  Pilate  stand  surrounded  by  soldiers.  The 
only  highly-finished  work  of  the  year  is  the  "  Portrait 
of  Thomas  Jacobsz  Haring"  (B.  275),  known  as  "The 
Young  Haring,"  to  distinguish  it  from  the  etching  of 
his  father  "  The  Old  Haring." 

There  are  only  two  etchings  dated  1656, — "  Abraham 
entertaining  the  Angels  "  (B.  29),  in  which  yet  again  we 
have  forced  upon  us  the  incapacity  of  Rembrandt's 
mind  to  evolve  an  acceptable  supernatural  figure,  and 
the  splendid  "  Portrait  of  Jan  Lutma  "  (B.  276).  It  is 
impossible  to  look  on  this  and  doubt  that  it  is  an 
admirable  likeness  of  a  delightful  old  man.  With 
what  a  shrewd  humorous  expression  he  sits  in  that 
high  -  backed  arm  -  chair,  surmounted  by  lions'  heads, 
which  figures  in  so  many  of  Rembrandt's  portraits  at 
that  time.  How  broad  and  easy,  yet  neither  over- 
laboured nor  careless,  is  the  handling.  Rembrandt 
never  worked  better,  and  one  cannot  but  feel  con- 
vinced, in  regarding  the  result,  that,  to  both  artist  and 
sitter,  the  work  was  a  labour  of  love,  and  the  sittings 
periods  of  mutual  enjoyment.  In  this,  the  last  dated 
portrait  we  have,  he  reached  the  highest  pitch  of  ex- 
cellence he  ever  attained. 


JAN    LUTMA.    (B.  276) 
(1656) 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS          107 

In  1657,  as  far  as  we  know,  he  executed  only  one 
etching,  "  St  Francis  praying"  (B.  107),  unfinished, 
and  chiefly  notable  for  the  fine  study  of  a  tree  which 
it  contains.  Three  figures  of  nude  women,  "  A  Woman 
preparing  to  dress  after  Bathing"  (B.  199),  "A  Woman 
sitting  with  her  Feet  in  Water"  (B.  200),  and  a  so- 
called  "Negress  lying  down"  (B.  205),  are  dated  1658, 
while  1659  was  marked  by  two  very  diverse  subjects, 
"  St  Peter  and  St  John  at  the  Gate  of  the  Temple " 
(B.  94),  and  "  Jupiter  disguised  as  a  Satyr  discovering 
the  sleeping  Antiope  "  (B.  203). 

Throughout  1660  Rembrandt  would  seem  to  have 
left  his  etching  needle  to  rust  in  idleness,  but  he  re- 
sumed it  once  more  in  1661,  and  produced  a  study  of 
the  nude,  "  A  Woman  with  her  Back  turned  sitting 
cross-legged  upon  a  Bed,  holding  an  Arrow  in  her 
right  Hand"  (B.  202);  and  with  this  the  list  of 
authentic  dated  etchings  is  brought  to  a  close. 

There  are  one  hundred  and  one  etchings  generally 
accepted  as  Rembrandt's  to  which  no  date  can  posi- 
tively be  assigned,  but  lack  of  space  forbids  our  con- 
sidering them  at  length,  and  we  must  be  content  to 
review  them  somewhat  hastily,  dwelling  only  on  those 
of  special  importance.  The  earlier  years,  from  1628  or 
1629  to  about  1635,  are  chiefly  characterised  by  a 
number  of  small  portraits  of  himself,  and  of  various 
unknown  old  men  and  old  women,  and  by  a  remarkable 
series  of  sketches  of  beggars  and  peasants.  About 
1631  we  find  the  first  study  from  the  nude,  "Diana 
bathing"  (B.  201),  altogether  excellent  as  an  example 
of  well-directed  line,  devoted,  however,  to  a  coarse  and 
unshapely  figure.  Of  approximately  the  same  date  is 


io8  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

a  masterly  portrait  of  "An  Old  Lady,"  in  all  proba- 
bility Rembrandt's  mother  (B.  343),  seated  at  a  table, 
turned  in  three-quarter  face  to  the  right,  her  hands 
lightly  folded  in  her  lap,  which  is  worthy  of  remark  as 
showing  how  rapidly  Rembrandt  mastered  all  the  avail- 
able styles  of  etching,  and  how  subtly  and  skilfully  he 
combined  them. 

A  little  later,  the  assigned  dates  ranging  between 
1633  and  1636,  we  have  the  first  portrait,  outside  his 
family  circle,  to  which  we  can  definitely  attach  a  name, 
that  of  the  minister  "Jan  Cornells  Sylvius"  (B.  266), 
with  whose  family  Saskia  was  staying  before  her 
marriage.  If,  as  we  may  imagine,  it  was  undertaken 
to  ingratiate  himself  with  people  so  important  to  him, 
or  later  out  of  gratitude  for  their  good  offices,  we  can 
only  hope  that  they  were  not  over-critical,  for  it  must 
be  confessed  that  this  exercise  in  pure  dry-point  is 
about  as  bad  an  example  as  could  be  found.  A  sheet 
of  sketches  (B.  367),  dating  from  1635  or  1636,  is  note- 
worthy for  the  charming  "  Head  of  Saskia  "  included  in 
it,  and  a  "  Portrait  of  Himself  in  a  flat  cap  and  slashed 
vest"  (B.  26),  slightly  but  beautifully  etched,  as 
undoubtedly  an  admirable  presentment  of  himself 
as  he  appeared  about  1638.  Four  scripture  subjects 
are,  a  sketch  of  "The  Flight  into  Egypt"  (B.  54), 
dating  anywhere  between  1630  and  1640;  a  "Holy 
Family,"  known  as  "The  Virgin  with  the  Linen"  (B.  62), 
dating  between  1632  and  1640;  a  beautiful  little 
"Crucifixion  "  (B.  80),  dating  from  1634  or  1635  ;  and  "An 
Old  Man  caressing  a  Boy,"  who  stands  between  his  knees 
(B.  33),  dating  from  1638  or  1639,  believed  by  some 
authorities  to  represent  "Abraham  caressing  Isaac." 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS          109 

There  are,  altogether,  forty-eight  etchings  attributed 
with  every  probability  of  correctness  to  the  years  be- 
fore 1640,  many  of  which  deserve  more  attention  than 
we  can  spare  them  ;  while  two,  "  A  Sketch  of  a  Tree  " 
(B.  372),  and  "  The  Presentation  in  the  vaulted  Temple  " 
(B.  49),  are  placed  by  some  a  year  or  two  earlier,  by 
others  a  year  or  two  later,  than  that  year.  To  the  year 
itself  probably  belongs  a  landscape  "  A  large  Tree  by 
a  House"  (B.  207),  and  to  it  or  to  the  following  year 
"The  Virgin  mourning  the  Death  of  Jesus"  (B.  85), 
"The  Flute-Player"  (B.  188),  and  "A  View  of 
Amsterdam"  (B.  210);  while  to  1641  are  generally 
assigned  two  sketches  of  lion-hunts  (B.  115  and  116), 
more  remarkable  for  energy  of  action  then  accuracy 
of  drawing  ;  a  vigorous  "  Battle-Scene"  (B.  117);  "  The 
Draughtsman"  (B.  130),  and  "A  Portrait  of  a  Boy" 
(B.  310).  Other  landscapes,  of  doubtful  date,  but 
almost  certainly  of  some  year  between  1640  and  1650, 
are,  "The  Bull"  (B.  253),  "A  Village  with  a  River  and 
Sailing  Vessel"  (B.  228),  the  beautiful  "Landscape 
with  a  Man  sketching"  (B.  219),  and  the  "Landscape 
with  a  ruined  Tower"  (B.  223).  Portraits  of  known 
originals  are  those  of  "Jan  Asselyn"  (B.  277),  a 
fellow-artist,  a  dwarfed,  deformed  little  man,  nick- 
named by  his  contemporaries  the  little  Crab,  whose 
personal  failings  evidently  did  not  weigh  on  him,  for 
he  stands  gazing  at  the  spectator  with  a  superb  air  of 
ludicrous  conceit ;  and  a  magnificent  one  of  the  same 
"Jan  Sylvius"  (B.  280)  with  whom  Rembrandt  had  so 
conspicuously  failed  before,  so  full  of  life  and  movement 
that  it  is  hard  to  believe,  though  an  indubitable  fact, 
that  it  was  etched  from  a  study  in  1645  or  1646, 


i  io  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

seven  or  eight  years  after  the  death  of  the  minister. 
The  scripture  subjects  of  this  decade  include  an  oval 
"  Crucifixion  "  (B.  79),  and  "  The  Triumph  of  Mordecai " 
(B.  40). 

In  the  debatable  land  between  the  late  forties  and 
the  early  fifties  there  are  two  magnificent  works,  one, 
oddly  included  in  the  usual  classifications  among  the 
portraits,  "  Dr  Faustus  "  (B.  270),  the  other  the  famous 
Hundred  Guilder  print,  "  Jesus  Christ  healing  the  Sick  " 
(B.  74).  There  are,  all  told,  twenty-eight  etchings 
dating  between  1640  and  1650. 

Only  eighteen  of  uncertain  date  are  placed  between 
1650  and  the  end  of  Rembrandt's  career  as  an  etcher 
in  1 66 1,  but  they  are  nearly  all  worthy  of  more  space 
than  can  be  devoted  to  them.  One  is  a  landscape, 
"The  Sportsman"  (B.  211).  Five  are  portraits,  one 
of  "  A  Youth,"  long  known  as  Rembrandt,  but  un- 
doubtedly his  son  Titus  (B.  u);  the  large  one  of 
"  Coppenol "  (B.  283),  probably  among  the  last  of  the 
etchings,  but  beautifully  and  minutely  finished  in  an 
exquisitely  delicate  fashion,  though  the  hands  are 
less  well  expressed  than  usual  with  Rembrandt, 
who,  whether  in  painting  or  drawing,  delighted  in 
bringing  out  with  care  the  full  character  revealed 
by  them ;  a  portrait  in  dry-point  of  "  Dr  Arnoldus 
Tholinx "  (B.  284),  of  which  it  would  be  impossible  to 
speak  too  highly ;  a  less  admirable  one  of  "  Abraham 
Francen"  (B.  273),  whose  long  and  faithful  friendship 
with  the  painter-  has  been  referred  to  in  the  Life ; 
and  one  of  Jacob  Haring  (B.  274),  known  as  "The  Old 
Haring." 

There  are  nine  scripture  subjects  of  the  period,  two 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS  in 

from  the  Old  Testament,  "King  David  at  Prayer" 
(B.  41),  a  strong  and  unhesitating  piece  of  work,  in 
which,  however,  the  face  of.  the  king  is  somewhat  too 
simply  expressed,  but  was  probably  not  considered 
by  Rembrandt  as  finished ;  and  "  Tobit  Blind  "  (B.  42), 
scarcely  more  than  a  sketch,  but  full  of  the  sentiment 
of  helpless  blindness.  Of  the  seven  subjects  from  the 
New  Testament  two  are  of  the  first  importance, 
"Christ  preaching"  (B.  67),  known  as  the  little  La 
Tombe,  because,  it  is  supposed,  the  plate  came  into 
the  possession  of  the  dealer  of  that  name ;  and  the 
"Three  Crosses"  (B.  78),  the  former  being  an  etching 
heightened  by  dry-point,  the  second  a  work  in  dry- 
point  throughout.  "Jesus  Christ  entombed"  (B.  86) 
is  a  powerful  and  effective  etching  dating  probably 
from  the  early  fifties,  and  "  The  Presentation  in  the 
Temple"  (B.  50),  further  identified  as  being  in 
Rembrandt's  dark  manner,  from  about  the  middle  of 
the  decade.  "  The  Nativity  "  (B.  45),  of  about  the  same 
time,  is  an  exquisite  little  composition  expressed  with 
the  utmost  simplicity  compatible  with  the  desired 
result.  In  "  Christ  in  the  Garden  of  Olives  "  (B.  75),  on 
the  other  hand,  this  rapidity  of  work  has  been  carried 
too  far,  and  degenerates  into  sheer  carelessness,  though, 
apart  from  details,  the  arrangement  of  the  masses  of 
light  and  shade  is  good.  "Christ  and  the  Samaritan 
Woman"  (B.  70),  dating  from  1657  or  1658,  is  drawn 
with  precision  and  delicacy,  but  the  device  of  relieving 
the  face  of  the  woman  by  a  dark  and  impossible  shadow 
on  a  building  in  the  background,  is  scarcely  a  happy  or 
successful  one.  A  figure  of  "  A  Nude  Woman  sitting 
by  a  Dutch  stove  "  (B.  197),  a  portrait  of"  A  Goldsmith  at 


ii2  REMBRANDT  VAN   RIJN 

his  Work  "  (B.  123),  and  "  A  Sheet  of  Sketches  "  (B.  364), 
of  which  only  three  copies  are  known,  bring  the  tale  of 
etchings  to  which  an  approximate  date  may  be  assigned 
to  a  conclusion. 

There  remain  seventeen,  concerning  the  probable 
dates  of  which  conjectures  vary  so  widely,  that  it  is 
safer  to  admit  we  do  not  know,  and  cannot  guess 
with  any  prospect  of  success.  Thus  the  clever  little 
sketch  of  "  Two  Beggars  walking  towards  the  right " 
(B.  144),  has  been  dated  1629,  1634,  and  1648  ;  another 
"Beggar  leaning  upon  a  Stick"  (B.  162),  1631  and  1641, 
and  a  pathetic  little  composition  of  "Christ's  Body 
carried  to  the  Tomb"  (B.  84),  1632  and  1645;  while 
the  small  "Portrait  of  Coppenol"  (B.  282),  has  been 
attributed  by  one  to  1632,  but  by  another  to  as  far 
away  as  1651.  Other  plates  of  equally  uncertain  date 
are  five  landscapes — the  exquisite  "Landscape  with  a 
Flock  of  Sheep"  (B.  224),  and  the  no  less  admirable 
"Peasant  with  Milk  Pails"  (B.  213);  "The  Cottage 
with  white  Pales"  (B.  232),  "The  Canal"  (B.  221), 
the  "Landscape  with  an  Obelisque"  (B.  227),  and  the 
"Landscape  with  a  Cow  drinking"  (B.  237).  Three 
are  scripture  subjects  — "  The  Adoration  of  the  Shep- 
herds" (B.  46),  a  hurriedly  executed  night  effect, 
dating  between  1632  and  1640  according  to  Vosmaer, 
from  1652  according  to  Middleton ;  a  second  night 
effect,  "The  Repose  in  Egypt"  (B.  57),  also  assigned 
by  Vosmaer  to  some  date  between  1632  and  1640, 
by  M.  Michel  to  1641  or  1642,  and  by  Middleton  to 
1647;  and  a  ver7  indifferent  "  St  Peter"  (B.  96),  with 
a  signature  and  date  which  Middleton  reads  1645, 
Vosmaer  1655.  Another  dated  plate  is  "The  Bathers" 


THE   AUTHENTIC   ETCHINGS  113 

(B.  195),  which,  according  to  M.  Michel,  was  originally 
dated  1631,  the  3  having  subsequently  been  altered 
by  Rembrandt  into  a  5.  As  to  the  why  and  where- 
fore of  such  an  incomprehensible  error  on  the  artist's 
part,  he  offers  no  conjecture,  but  that  the  etching  does 
not,  at  any  rate,  belong  to  the  earlier  year  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  it  is  signed  Rembrandt  in  full,  while 
all  the  certain  plates  of  that  year  are  signed  with  a 
monogram,  the  first  to  bear  the  full  name  being  the 
"  St  Jerome"  (B.  101)  of  1632.  A  third  plate  bearing 
a  date,  concerning  the  interpretation  of  which  the 
authorities  differ,  is  the  mysterious  allegorical  one 
"  The  Phcenix "  (B.  1 10),  Vosmaer  and  Wilson  mak- 
ing it  1648,  M.  Michel  and  Middleton  1658  ;  while  a 
fourth,  "  A  Sheet  of  Sketches  with  a  head  of  Himself" 
(B.  370),  is  dated  so  indistinctly  that  it  has  been  read 
as  1630,  1631,  and  1650.  As,  however,  it  is  signed 
with  a  monogram,  it  certainly  belongs  to  one  of  the 
earlier  years.  "  The  Star  of  the  Kings"  (B.  113),  a  sub- 
ject from  contemporary  life,  representing  a  party  of  boys 
carrying  a  large  illuminated  star  through  the  streets 
of  a  town  at  Epiphany,  dating  either  from  1641  or 
1652,  is  the  last  to  be  mentioned  of  the  undisputed 
etchings. 

DISPUTED    ETCHINGS    AND    DRAWINGS 

At  the  question  of  the  disputed  etchings  we  have 
not  space  even  to  glance.  It  is  a  delicate  and  difficult 
one,  and  could  only  be  treated  to  any  advantage  at 
considerable  length.  It  is,  furthermore,  one  of  interest 
to  experts  and  collectors  alone,  and  so  directly  opposite 
H 


ii4  REMBRANDT   VAN   RIJN 

in  many  cases  are  their  opinions  that  it  is  certain  no 
finality  can  ever  be  hoped  for.  The  reader  who  desires 
to  enter  upon  this  thorny  ground  must  content  himself 
with  pinning  his  faith  finally  to  one  or  another  recog- 
nised authority,  and  abiding  by  his  decision  ;  unless, 
having  first  thoroughly  studied  the  undisputed  etchings, 
he  is  prepared  to  undertake  the  trial  and  judgment 
of  each  for  himself,  in  which  case  he  will,  without 
doubt,  sooner  or  later  find  himself  differing  on  one 
point  or  another  with  every  previous  writer  on  the 
subject. 

The  less  ambitious  reader,  who  wishes  only  to  know 
and  appreciate  what  Rembrandt  beyond  question  did 
do,  will  be  wiser  to  confine  himself  to  a  study  of  the 
undisputed  plates.  In  them  he  will  find  ample  justifi- 
cation for  the  high  position  to  which  Rembrandt  as 
an  etcher  has  been  elevated  by  his  successors  in  the 
art.  Beginning  with  the  early  etchings  of  himself  or 
the  members  of  his  family,  often  mere  drawings  on 
copper,  with  little  or  no  appeal  to  the  variety  of  line 
and  tone  obtainable  in  etching,  he  may  follow  the 
artist's  sure  and  rapid  development,  until  he  finds  him 
master  of  every  method  the  art  permits.  He  may 
trace  the  progress  of  his  work,  from  a  first  sketch  of 
an  idea,  dashed  off  on  the  copper  in  one  sitting,  to 
the  high  perfection  of  such  an  elaborate  portrait  as 
that  of  "  Burgomaster  Six."  He  will  further  perceive, 
as  was  first  pointed  out  by  Sir  F.  Seymour  Haden, 
how  during  the  first  ten  years  he  confined  himself 
almost  entirely  to  pure  etching,  how  during  the  follow- 
ing ten  he  began  more  and  more  to  supplement  his 
work  with  additions  in  dry-point,  and  how  during  the 


DISPUTED  ETCHINGS  AND  DRAWINGS     115 

last  ten  years  he  to  a  considerable  extent  expressed 
himself  by  means  of  the  point  alone.  He  will,  in 
especial,  discover,  if  he  compares  Rembrandt's  etched 
work  with  that  of  other  masters,  and  without  doing 
so  he  can  never  rightly  understand  it,  that  it  is  not  in 
technique,  masterly  as  that  often  is,  so  much  as  in 
expressiveness  that  his  pre-eminence  lies.  It  is  in 
the  mental  qualities  more  than  in  the  manual,  that  he 
so  incomparably  excels.  Drawing  often  carelessly, 
blind  or  indifferent  to  superficial  beauties,  he,  never- 
theless, gets  straight  to  the  heart  of  the  matter,  grasps 
the  essentials,  and  feels  clearly  and  records  frankly 
and  simply  all  that  speaks  to  the  fundamental  humanity 
in  himself,  and  must  therefore  strike  an  answering  chord 
in  the  breasts  of  his  fellow-men.  It  is  in  this  perceiv- 
ing and  revealing  the  true  inwardness  of  the  matter, 
through  and  apart  from  the  mere  accidents  of  environ- 
ment, that  he  is  unapproachable,  far  more  than  in  the 
strength  and  direction  of  line,  depth  of  shadow  or 
brightness  of  light,  application  of  acid  or  scraping  of 
copper.  In  such  a  plate  as  the  "  Blind  Tobit"(B.  42) 
there  is  not  .a  detail  of  the  technique  which  other  men 
could  not  have  done  as  well ;  but  for  such  another 
presentment  of  the  hurried,  helpless  groping  for  the 
door  by  a  blind,  weak  old  man  not  yet  inured  to  the 
perpetual  darkness  that  has  fallen  on  him,  we  must 
wait  for  a  second  Rembrandt — and  the  wait  is  likely 
to  be  long. 

Of  the  drawings  I  propose  to  speak  very  briefly. 
In  the  first  place,  their  name  is  legion,  and  to  treat 
them  properly  would  take  a  volume  in  itself,  such  a 
volume  as  we  may  hope  some  day  to  see  written.  M. 


u6  REMBRANDT   VAN    RIJN 

Michel  gives  a  list  of  nearly  nine  hundred,  which  does 
not  pretend  to  be  a  full  one.  The  British  Museum 
alone  contains  ninety  authentic  drawings  and  a  con- 
siderable number  of  more  or  less  doubtful  ones.  In 
the  second  place,  their  qualities  are  such  as  to  appeal 
almost  exclusively  to  the  artist.  Rembrandt's  im- 
petuous energy  did  not  lend  itself  to  the  production 
of  the  minute  and  elegant  drawings  characteristic  of 
so  many  Italian  masters.  He  made  the  drawing  for 
the  sake  of  what  it  had  to  tell  him,  not  for  the  purpose 
of  creating  a  thing  beautiful  in  itself.  An  idea  crossed 
his  mind,  or  an  object  struck  his  eye,  and  straightway 
he  jotted  it  down  with  whatever  came  the  handiest 
in  the  simplest  possible  manner  consistent  with  the 
necessity  that  the  note  so  made  should  subsequently 
recall  to  his  memory  the  idea  or  object. 

Most  attractive,  perhaps,  to  the  amateur,  are  the 
numberless  little  sketches  of  landscapes,  just  the  simple 
everyday  scenes  that  caught  his  eye  during  his  daily 
walks,  jotted  down  on  the  spot,  briefly,  but  with  ex- 
traordinary truth  and  vivacity,  and  always  with  a 
sense  of  balance  and  proportion,  and  an  intuition  of 
the  salient  points,  transmuted  by  his  own  genius  into 
gems  of  reticent  perfection. 


CATALOGUE  OF  WORKS 

ARRANGED  ACCORDING  TO  THE  GALLERIES  IN 
WHICH  THEY  HANG 


The  following  abbreviations  are  used   in  this  list: — S.  =  signed,    C.= 

canvas,  P.  =  panel. 
Where  a  number  is  given,  thus  [No.  6],  it  is  the  number  of  the  Catalogue 

of  the  Gallery.     The  dates  given  must  in  some  cases  be  accepted  as 

approximate  only. 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 
BUDA-PESTH,  ACADEMY. 

PORTRAIT   OF    AN    OLD    MAN    WITH    A    WHITE    BEARD. 
S.  1640.     P.  28f  x  2i|.     [No.  235.] 

REPOSE  OF  THE  HOLY  FAMILY.     1655. 

COLLECTION  OF  COUNT  J.  ANDRASSY. 
PORTRAIT  OF  HIMSELF.     S.  1630.     P.  19!  x  15^. 

COLLECTION  OF  MR  GEORGE  VON  RATH. 
MOUNTAIN  LANDSCAPE.      S.  1638.      P.  22  x  28f. 
SLAUGHTERED  Ox.     S.  1639.     P.  21^x17^. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  WOMAN.     S.  1660.     P.  29!  x  2o|. 

CRACOW,  CZARTORYSKI  MUSEUM. 
LANDSCAPE.      8.1638.     P.  171x251. 
117 


nB  CATALOGUE   OF  WORKS 

INNSBRUCK,  FERDINANDEUM. 

HEAD  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.    S.  1630.    P.  8|x6|. 

PRAGUE.     COUNT  NOSTITZ. 

AN  OLD  MAN.     S.  1634.     C.  58x54.     [No.  269.] 

TARNOWITZ,  GALICIA.     COUNT  TARNOWSKI. 
POLISH  HORSEMAN.     1655.     C.  46x53!. 

VIENNA,  ACADEMY. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  WOMAN.    S.  1632.     C.  39^x28^. 

COUNT  KONIGSWARTER. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.    S.  1640.     C.  23x17^. 
PRINCE  LIECHTENSTEIN. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.      8.1632.      P.  23§xi7f. 

YOUNG  GIRL  AT  HER  TOILET,  called  the  Jewish  fiancee. 
S.  1632.     C.  43!  x  37^. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     S.  1635.     C.  36^  X28|. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     S.  1636. 

PORTRAIT  OF   A  WOMAN.     Companion  to  above.     S.  1636. 

PRINCE  LUBOMIRSKI. 
STUDY  OF  REMBRANDT  WITH   HIS  MOUTH  OPEN.      1629. 

FRANZ  XAVIER  MEYER. 

A     PHILOSOPHER     READING     BY     CANDLELIGHT.      1627. 
Copper,  5|  x  5f .     A  very  doubtful  picture. 

IMPERIAL  MUSEUM. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.  1630.  P.  36!  X28.  [No.  1139.] 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY—BELGIUM          1 19 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  WOMAN.     P.  36!  X28.     [No.  1140.] 
ST  PAUL.     1636.     C.  5of  x  44. 

PORTRAIT     OF     REMBRANDT'S     MOTHER.      S.   1639.      P. 
32x244.     [No.  1141.] 

PORTRAIT  OF  HIMSELF.    1658.   C.  45^x32!.    [No.  1142.] 
YOUNG  MAN  SINGING.     1658.     C.  28f  x  28^.    [No.  1144.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  HIMSELF.    S.  1668.   P.  2oxi6f.    [No.  1143.] 

COUNT  SCHONBORN-BUCHHEIM. 

SAMSON   CAPTURED    BY    THE  PHILISTINES.      S.  1636.     C. 


A.  STRASSER. 

STUDY  OF  AN  ANGEL.     1655.     P.  lof  x  9^. 

BELGIUM 

ANTWERP,  MUSEUM. 

PORTRAIT  OF   HENRY   SWALM,    known   as   "Portrait  of  a 
Burgomaster."    8.1637.    C.  55§x43l-     ^0.705.] 

THE  YOUNG  FISHER.      S.   1659.     P.  9^x7^.     [No.  294.] 

SASKIA.     C.  44!  x  33f  •     [No.  293.] 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  JEW.     P.  9^x7!.     [No.  295.] 

BRUSSELS,  DUG  D'ARENBERG. 
TOBIAS  CURING  HIS  FATHER'S  BLINDNESS.     S.  163 — .    P.  19^ 

COUNT  MERODE-WESTERLOO. 
ST  PETER  REPENTING  IN  PRISON.    S.  1631.    P.  231x19^. 


120  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

MUSEUM. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     S.  1641.     C.  42  x  33^.     [No.  397.] 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN   OLD  WOMAN.      S.  1654.     P.  27fx28. 
[No.  39ya.] 

BRITISH    ISLES 

LONDON.     NATIONAL  GALLERY. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  WOMAN.      S.   1634.      P.  27x21. 
[No.  775.] 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.  S.  1635.  C.  50^x22^.  [No.  850.] 
ECCE  HOMO.  Grisaille.  1636.  C.  2ifxi7f.  [No.  1400.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.  S.  1640.  C.  39  x  31^.  [No.  672.] 

THE  WOMAN  TAKEN  IN  ADULTERY.    S.  1644.    P.  32^  x  25^. 

[No.  45-] 
ADORATION   OF   THE   SHEPHERDS.     S.  1646.      C.  25  x  22. 

[No.  47.] 

A  WOMAN  BATHING.     S.  1654.     P.  24  x  i8J.     [No.  54.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  RABBI.   S.  i657(?).   €.30x26.    [No.  190.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.  S.  1659.  C.  39  x  32!.  [No.  243.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MONK.     1660.     C.  34^x25^.     [No.  166.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.    1664.    C.  33  x  27^.   [No.  221.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  WOMAN.   S.  1666.  C.  26jx  23^.   [No.  237.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  JEW  MERCHANT.     C.  53x41.     [No.  51.] 
LANDSCAPE.     P.  22  x  34.     [No.  72.] 

CHRIST  TAKEN  DOWN  FROM  THE  CROSS.  P.  1 3  x  1 1 .  [No.  43.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  BURGOMASTER.  C.  50^x38.  [No.  1674.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  LADY.  C.  50^x38.  [No.  1675.] 


BRITISH    ISLES  121 

LONDON.     HERTFORD  HOUSE  COLLECTION. 

PORTRAIT  OF   BURGOMASTER   PELLICORNE   AND   HIS   SON 
CASPAR.     S.  1632.     C.  61  X48. 

SUZANNA    VAN     COLLEN,     WlFE   OF    PELLICORNE,     AND    HER 

DAUGHTER.     8.1632.     C.  61x48^. 
THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN.     1632.     P.  9f  x8. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  BOY.     S.  1633.     Copper,  8  x  6f. 
PORTRAIT  OF  HIMSELF.     S.  1633 — 1635.     P.  26x20. 

PORTRAIT    OF    A   YOUNG    NEGRO,    known   as   the    Black 
Archer.     Oval.      1640.     P.  26  x  20. 

LANDSCAPE.     1640.     P.  18  x  25. 

PORTRAIT  OF  HIMSELF.     S.  1640.     P.  25  x  19^. 

PORTRAIT  OF  HIMSELF.     1660.     8J  x  6. 

PORTRAIT  OF  TITUS.     1658.     C.  26^  x  22. 

THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT.     1664.     C.  70^x86^. 

BUCKINGHAM  PALACE. 

THE  SHIPBUILDER  AND  HIS  WIFE.     S.  1633.     C.  44x65. 
[No.  1 6.] 

THE    BURGOMASTER    PANCRAS    AND    HIS   WIFE.      Called 
Rembrandt  and  Saskia.     S.  1635.    C.  60x77.    [No.  30.] 

CHRIST  AND  MARY  MAGDALENE  AT  THE  TOMB.     S.  1638. 
P.  23!  x  19!-.     [No.  41.] 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  LADY.     S.  1641.     C.  41  x  33.     [No.  162.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.   S.  164 — .  P.  27  x  23.  [No.  174.] 

THE  ADORATION  OF  THE   MAGI.     S.  1657.     P.  48x40^. 

[No.  154.] 
A  JEWISH  RABBI.     C.  30  x  38^ .     [No.  131.] 


122  CATALOGUE   OF  WORKS 

LONDON.     HAMPTON  COURT. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  RABBI.     S.  1635.     P.  28x24.     [No.  381.] 

EDINBURGH.    NATIONAL  GALLERY. 
A  YOUNG  WOMAN  IN  BED.     S.  1650.    P.  32  x  26^. 

DUBLIN.     NATIONAL  GALLERY. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN.     Said  to  be  Louis  van  der 
Linden.     1631.     P.  27  x  21^. 

SHEPHERDS  REPOSING  AT  NIGHT.     S.  1647.     P-  I3?*I9- 
[No.  115.] 

DESCENT  FROM  THE  CROSS.     S.  1650.     C.  70x77^. 
Lent  by  the  Duke  of  Abercorn. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.      S.    P.  24x18.      [No.  48.] 

GLASGOW.     CORPORATION  GALLERIES. 
THE  SLAUGHTER-HOUSE.    S.  16 — .    P.  28  x  20.    [No.  707.] 
TOBIAS  AND  THE  ANGEL.     1654.    P.  29^  x  26.    [No.  705.] 
A  MAN  IN  ARMOUR.    S.  1655.     C.  53^x40^.     [No.  706.] 
THE  PAINTER'S  STUDY.     P.  20  x  24.     [No.  709.] 

JEREMIAH  MOURNING  OVER  THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERU- 
SALEM.    C.  15!- x  12.     [No.  714.] 

STUDY  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     P.  9  x  8.     [No.  711.] 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     P.  26x20.     [No.  710.] 

HUNTERIAN  MUSEUM. 

ENTOMBMENT.     1634.     P.  12^x16. 

CAMBRIDGE,  FITZWILLIAM  MUSEUM. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.  8.1650.   C.  54x46!.  [No.  152.] 


BRITISH    ISLES  123 

DULWICH  COLLEGE. 

A  YOUNG  MAN.     8.1632.     P.  11^x9.     [No.  189.] 
A  YOUNG  GIRL  AT  A  WINDOW.  S.  1645.  £.31  x  25-  [No.  206.] 

WINDSOR  CASTLE. 
A   YOUNG    MAN.     S.  1631.     P.  25  x  19. 

AN   OLD  WOMAN,  known   as   the  Countess  of  Desmond. 
1631.     P.  231x18. 

ALTHORP  PARK.   THE  EARL  SPENCER,  K.G. 

A  BOY,  formerly  called  a  portrait  of  William  III.     P.  1660. 
C.  24^  x  21. 

WOMAN  WITH  FLOWERS.  1660.  C.  38  x  35^. 
THE  CIRCUMCISION.  P.  1661.  C.  21^x28^. 
REMBRANDT'S  MOTHER.  C.  56  x  39. 

ASHRIDGE  PARK.     THE  EARL  BROWNLOW. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  JEW.     S.  1632.     P.  27  x  23. 

PORTRAIT   OF  A   MAN,  said   to    be   Peter    Cornelius    van 
Hooft,  the  poet.     S.  1653.     C.  55  x  52^. 

ISAAC  AND  ESAU.     P.  22^x27. 

LANDSCAPE.     A  very  doubtful  picture.     P.  8  x  9"^. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  WOMAN.      C.  29^  x  24^. 

BASILDON  PARK.     CHARLES  MORRISON. 

PORTRAIT    OF    A    YOUNG    WOMAN,     called     Rembrandt's 
daughter.     S.  1665.     C.  39 J  x  33. 

BELVOIR  CASTLE.     DUKE  OF  RUTLAND. 
A  YOUNG  MAN.     S.  1660.     C.  31  x  26^. 


124  CATALOGUE   OF  WORKS 

BOWOOD.     MARQUESS  OF  LANSDOWNE. 
THE  MILL.     1654.     C.  34x40^. 

BRIGHTON.     WILLIAM  CHAMBERLIN. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN-AT-ARMS.     S.     P.  26  x  20. 

BROOM  HALL,  DUNFERMLINE.      LORD  ELGIN. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.     S.  1633.     P.  26x19^. 

CANFORD  MANOR,  WIMBORNE.   LORD  WIMBORNE. 

ST  PAUL.     S.  1658. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     1660. 

CASTLE  HOWARD.     THE  EARL  OF  CARLISLE. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  ARTIST  DRAWING.    S.  164—.    Life- 
size.     1648. 

CHATSWORTH.     DUKE  OF  DEVONSHIRE,  KG. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  RABBI.     S.  1635.     P.  40x31^. 

DOWNTON  CASTLE.     A.  R.  BOUGHTON  KNIGHT. 
THE  CRADLE.     1643 — 1645.      P-  24  x  3°i- 
PORTRAIT    OF    A    MAN,   known  as   "Rembrandt's    Cook." 
S.  1661.     C.  34  x  29^. 

THE  HOLY  FAMILY.     P.  30  x  25. 

DRAYTON  MANOR.     SIR  ROBERT  PEEL. 
THE  FINDING  OF  MOSES.     1635.     C.  oval,  18^x23!. 

DUNCOMBE  PARK.      THE  EARL  OF  FEVERSHAM. 
A  MERCHANT.      S.  1659.     C.  45x38. 

EDINBURGH.     ARTHUR  SANDERSON. 
His  MOTHER  IN  A  HOOD.     1630.     P.  14^  x  12^. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  WOMAN.     S.  1635.     C.  5  if  x  39!. 


BRITISH    ISLES  125 

EDINBURGH.     RICHARD  SAUNDERSON  (in  1836). 
ABRAHAM  RECEIVING  THE  ANGELS. 

GLASGOW.     WILLIAM  BEATTIE. 
STUDY  OF  HIMSELF.     1629.     P.  lo^xSf. 

GOSFORD  HOUSE.    EARL  OF  WEMYSS  AND  MARCH. 
A  MONK  READING.     S.  1660.     C.  29  x  24. 

THE  GRANGE,  ALRESFORD.     LORD  ASHBURTON. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     1635.     P.  30  x  25. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     1637.     C.  48  x  37^. 

PORTRAIT  OF  LIEVEN  WILLEMSZ  VAN  COPPENOL.      About 
1650.     P.  14  x  ii. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     About  1658.     C.  30  x  25^. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN,  said  to  be  Cornelius  Jansenius.     P. 
32  x  26. 

GRITTLETON.     SIR  A.  D.  NEELD,  BART. 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     S.  1660.     C.  23!  x  20. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  BURGOMASTER.     S.     P.  15  x  12. 

HINTON  ST  GEORGE.     THE  EARL  POULETT. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  BOY.     S.  1628. 

KEDDLESTON  HALL.     REV.  LORD  SCARSDALE. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     S.  1645.     C-  34x27. 

KNOWSLEY  HALL.     THE  EARL  OF  DERBY,  K.G. 

THE  FEAST  OF  BELSHAZZAR.     1636.     Doubtful  Rembrandt. 
C.  65  x8if. 


126  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

LONDON.     W.  C.  ALEXANDER. 

REMBRANDT'S  MOTHER.     1628.     P.  8f  x  6f . 
THE  PAINTER'S  SISTER.     Doubtful.     C.  27  x  20 J. 

WENTWORTH  B.  BEAUMONT. 

THE  TRIBUTE  MONEY.      S.  1645.     C.  25x33^. 

ALFRED  BEIT. 

ST  FRANCIS  PRAYING.     S.  1637.     P.  23^x18!. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN.     1660.     C.  40x32^. 

R.  B.  BERENS. 
PORTRAIT  OF  THE  PAINTER.     An  early  work.     P.  24  x  i8J. 

BRIDGEWATER   HOUSE.      EARL   OF   ELLESMERE. 
A  YOUNG  WOMAN,  aged  18.     S.  1634.     P.  27^x  21. 
A  YOUNG  WOMAN.     Oval.     1635. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A   BURGOMASTER,  or,  a  Minister.     S.  1637. 
C.  52  x  38. 

HANNAH  HEARING  THE  YOUNG  SAMUEL  REPEAT  HIS  PRAYERS. 
S.  1648.     P.  i6x  18. 

STUDY  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     1655. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.    S.  165 — .    C.  26^ x 2of . 

MONTAGUE  HOUSE.    DUKE  OF  BUCCLEUCH,  K.G. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.     S.  1633.     C.  48^x38^. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  WOMAN.     S.  1655.     C.  31^x26. 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     S.  1659.     C.  31  x  25}. 


BRITISH    ISLES  127 

LONDON.     BARONESS  BURDETT-COUTTS. 
A  FOREST  SCENE.     P.  16  x  14. 

W.  C.  CARTWRIGHT. 

DEAD  PEACOCKS.    S.  1640.    C.  54  x  50 J. 

THE  EARL  OF  CRAWFORD,  K.G. 

PORTRAIT  OF  TITUS.     S.  1655.     C.  29^x24^. 

THE  EARL  OF  DERBY,  K.G. 
A  RABBI.     S.  1635.     P.  28x21. 
JOSEPH'S  COAT.     1647.     C.  48  x  38. 

DEVONSHIRE    HOUSE.      THE    DUKE    OF    DEVON- 
SHIRE, K.G. 

AN  OLD  MAN.     S.  1651.     C.  28^x25. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     S.  1652.     C.  43x34. 

GEORGE  C.  W.  FITZWILLIAM. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.      1632.     P.  22^  x  i8|. 

F.  FLEISCHMANN. 

REMBRANDT'S  FATHER.     S.  1631.     P.  23x19^. 

ALEXANDER  HENDERSON. 

BURGOMASTER  Six.     1655.     C.  36^x29. 

PORTRAIT  OF  HIS  WIFE,  MARGARETHA,  DAUGHTER  OF  DR 
TULP.     8.1655.     P.  36^x29. 

CAPTAIN  HEYWOOD-LONSDALE. 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     S.  1635  or  8.     P.  25  x  20. 


128  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

LONDON.      DORCHESTER    HOUSE.      CAPTAIN 
G.  L.  HOLFORD. 

MARTIN  LOOTEN.      S.  1632.     P.  36  x  29^. 
A  MAN  WITH  A  SWORD.     S.  1644.     C.  39  x  34. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  LADY,  incorrectly  called  the   wife  of  Jan 
Sylvius.     1645.     0.49x40. 

PORTRAIT  OF  TITUS.     S.  1660.     C.  29  x  24^. 

LORD  FRANCIS  PELHAM  HOPE.      (Collection  sold  in 

1898.) 

A  LADY  AND  GENTLEMAN.     S.  1633.     C.  51x42. 
THE  SHIP  OF  ST  PETER.     S.  1635.     C-  63x50. 

THE  EARL  OF  HOPETOUN. 

REMBRANDT'S  MOTHER.     Oval.     P.  27  x  21. 

R.  W.  HUDSON. 

AN  OLD  MAN.     S.  1635.     P.  26f  X2if. 

THE  EARL  OF  ILCHESTER. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.  S.  1658.  C.  51^x40. 

VICTORIA  AND  ALBERT  MUSEUM. 

ABRAHAM   DISMISSING   HAGAR   AND    ISHMAEL.       S.  1640. 
P.  15  x  2o|. 

LORD    IVEAGH. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  WOMAN.     S.  1642.     C.  42  x  36. 
PORTRAIT   OF   REMBRANDT.     1663.     C.  45  x  37^. 

MRS   JOSEPH. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.     S.  1636.     P.  26  x  20  J. 


BRITISH    ISLES  129 

LONDON.     LESSER   (1893). 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  WOMAN.     S.  1635.     C. 

COLONEL   LINDSAY  (1893). 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  VERY  OLD  WOMAN.     S.  1660.     C.  30  x  25-?-. 

MRS  ALFRED  MORRISON. 
PORTRAIT  OF  DR  BONUS.     S.  1642.     C.  41  x  30. 

DUKE   OF   NEWCASTLE. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  ORATOR.     C.  37^  x  29^. 

THE   EARL   OF   NORTHBROOK. 
LANDSCAPE.     1640.     P.  8|xn. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     S.  1667.     C.  27  x  22^. 

LORD  PENRHYN. 
PORTRAIT  OF  CATRINA  HOOGH.     S.  1657.     C.  49^x38^. 

JAMES  REISS. 

LANDSCAPE.     P.  11^x16. 

MRS   OWEN   ROE. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     C.  40  x  33. 

LADY   DE  ROTHSCHILD. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     S.  1656.     C.  35  x  28. 

EDWARD   H.   SCOTT. 

REMBRANDT'S  FATHER'S  MILL.     C.  32^  x  42. 

COLONEL  STERLING. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     C.  23  x  17. 


130  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

LONDON.     STEPHEN   TUCKER. 

THE  ANGEL  DEPARTING  FROM  TOBIT.     P.  251x19^. 

SIR   CHARLES   TURNER. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  GIRL.     1650.     P.  8f  xy^. 

LORD   WANTAGE. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  WOMAN.     S.  1661.     C.  29^x25. 

T.    HUMPHRY   WARD. 

AN  OLD  MAN.     1630  or  1658.    C.  20  x  14^. 
A  YOUNG    MAN.     S.  1646.     C.  28x23. 
THE  DISMISSAL  OF  HAGAR.     P.  26  x  22^. 

GROSVENOR  HOUSE.  DUKE  OF  WESTMINSTER,  K.G. 
THE  SALUTATION.     [No.  33.]    S.  1640.     P.  22  x  i8J. 

PORTRAIT   OF   A   GENTLEMAN   WITH  A  HAWK.     [No.  14.] 
8.1643.     C.  44x37^. 

A  LADY  WITH  A  FAN.     [No.  15.]     S.  1643.    C.  44x37^. 

PORTRAIT  OF  NICHOLAS  BERCHEM.     [No.   19.]     S.   1647. 
Cedar  panel,  28^  x  25^-. 

PORTRAIT  OF  HIS  WIFE.     [No.   20],  the  daughter  of  Jan 
Wils.     8.1647.     Cedar  panel,  28^  x  25. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     P.  15^x11^. 
LANDSCAPE  [No.  83.]   P.  39  x  61. 

HENRY   WILLETT. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     P.  20  x  17. 

SIR   MATTHEW  WILSON. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  LADY.     Oval.     P.  27x21. 


BRITISH    ISLES  131 

LONDON.     THE  EARL  OF  YARBOROUGH. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  LADY.     1637.     P.  40^  x  35. 

NEW  HALL,  BODENHAM.     ALFRED  BUCKLEY. 
SKETCH  OF  A  MAN'S  HEAD.     P.  9  x  7. 

PANSHANGER.     THE  EARL  COWPER,  K.G. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     S.  1644.     C.  44^  x  42. 
PORTRAIT  OF  MARSHAL  TURENNE.     1649.     C.  113x94. 
HEAD  OF  A  MAN.     P.  12^x9^. 

PETWORTH.     LORD  LECONFIELD. 

PORTRAIT  OF  THE  PAINTER'S  SISTER.    S.  1631.   P.  25  x  i8j. 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     S.  1632.     Oval.     P.  25  x  18^. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  LADY.     S.  1635.     C.  49  x  39^. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUTH.     S.  1666.     C.  29x24. 
GIRL  WITH  A  ROSEBUD.    S.     P.  32  x  25. 

RICHMOND.      THE    EXECUTORS    OF    THE    LATE 
SIR  FRANCIS  COOK. 

THE  PAINTER'S  SISTER.     S.  1632.     Oval.     P.  27  x  21. 

PORTRAIT    OF    ALOTTE   ADRIAANS,  WIFE    OF   ELIAS   VAN 
TRIP.     S.  1639.     P.  25^x22. 

TOBIT   AND    HIS   WlFE.       S.   1650.      P.   l6jx2l£. 

STUDY  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     P.  ^x  loj. 

THE  PRODIGAL  SON.     S.  1634.     A  very  doubtful  picture. 
C.  51  x  66. 


132  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

ROSSIE  PRIORY,  INCHTURE,  PERTHSHIRE.    LORD 
KINNAIRD. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  WOMAN.     S.  1636. 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.    S.  1661.    C.  36  x  30. 

WELBECK  ABBEY,  NOTTS.     DUKE  OF  PORTLAND. 
HEAD  OF  A  BOY.      S.  1634.     P.  17  x  14. 

WILTON  HOUSE.     THE  EARL  OF  PEMBROKE. 
AN  OLD  WOMAN  READING.     S.  1631.     C.  29x24. 

WOBURN  ABBEY.     DUKE  OF  BEDFORD. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     1632. 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     1635.     C.  34^x30^. 

PRESENT  OWNERS  UNKNOWN. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  SAINT.     S.  1635.     C.  43  x  38. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  LADY.     P.  29^  x  23. 
LANDSCAPE.     C.  14  x  i8j. 

DENMARK. 

COPENHAGEN.     NEW  CARLSBERG  GLYPTOTEK. 
MAN  READING.     1645.     C-  24^x28. 

COUNT  MOLTKE. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  WOMAN.    [No.  32.]    1654.     C. 

COPENHAGEN.     MUSEUM. 

CHRIST  AT  EMMAUS.    [No.  292.]    S.  1648.    C.  33!  x 


DENMARK— FRANCE  133 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN.      [No.  273.]      S.  1656.     C. 
29x25. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  WOMAN.     [No.  274.]     Companion 
to  the  last.     S.  1656.     C.  29x25. 


FRANCE. 

PARIS.     THE  LOUVRE. 

A    PHILOSOPHER    IN    MEDITATION.       [No.    2540,    Grand 
Gallery.]     S.  1633.     P.  nf  x  13^. 

A    PHILOSOPHER    IN    MEDITATION.       [No.    2541,    Grand 
Gallery.]     1633.     P.  n£x9}. 

PORTRAIT   OF    REMBRANDT.      [No.   2552,  Salle  XV.]     S. 
1633.     C.  23^x18. 

PORTRAIT   OF   REMBRANDT.      [No.  2553,   Grand  Gallery.] 
S.  1634.     P.  27ix2ii 

THE  ANGEL  RAPHAEL  LEAVING  TOBIT.     [No.  2536,  Grand 
Gallery.]     S.  1637.     P.  27^x20$. 

PORTRAIT    OF    REMBRANDT.     [No.   2554,   Grand  Gallery.] 
S.  1637.     P.  32  x  24i. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  2544,  Grand  Gallery.] 
S.  1638.     Oval.     P.  36  x  22f. 

THE    CARPENTER'S    HOME.       [No.    2542,    Salon   Carre.] 
S.  1640.     P.  i6|xi3f. 

A  WOMAN  BATHING.      [No.  2550,  Salle  Lacaze.]      1647. 
P.  24|xi9|. 

CHRIST  AT  EMMAUS.     [No.  2539,  Salon  Carre.]     S.  1648. 
P.  27^x26. 


i34  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN.      [No.  2537,  Grand  Gallery.]      S. 

1648.     P.  45fx54- 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     [No.  2551,  Salle  Lacaze.]     S.  1651. 


PORTRAIT  OF  HENDRICKJE  STOFFELS.       [No.  2547,  Salon 
Carre.]     P.  about  1652.     C.  28^  x  24. 

BATHSHEBA,    OR   A   WOMAN    BATHING.      [No.   2549,  Salle 
Lacaze.]     S.  1654.     C.  56|x56|. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     [No.  2546,  Grand  Gallery.]     1655. 
P.  io|x7f. 

THE    SLAUGHTER  -  HOUSE.       [No.    2548,    Grand    Gallery.] 
S.  1655-     P.  37fx27f. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN.      [No.   2545,  Salon  Carre.] 
S.  1658.     C.  294x241. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.      [No.  2555,  Salon  Carr£.]     S. 
1660.     C.  44!  X34. 

SAINT    MATTHEW.     [No.   2538,  Grand  Gallery.]     S.  1661. 
C.  38fx32f. 

VENUS  AND  CUPID.     [No.  2543,  Grand  Gallery.]    1661.    C. 
44  x  35i- 

EPINAL.     MUSEUM. 

PORTRAIT    OF    AN   OLD   WOMAN.      [No.   101.]     S.   1661. 
C.  45f  X32. 

NANTES.     MUSEUM. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT'S  FATHER.     [No.  522,  attributed 
to  van  Vliet.]     1628.     P.  7  x  5f. 

PARIS.     MME.  ANDRE-JACQUEMART. 

CHRIST  AT  EMMAUS.      S.  R.H.      1629.      Paper  on  panel 


FRANCE  135 

PORTRAIT  OF  LYSBETH  VAN  RIJN.     S.  1632.     C.  26  x  2 of. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ARNOLD  THOLINX.     S.  1656.      C.  3of  x  25^. 

PARIS.     LEON  BONNAT. 

PETITIONERS  TO  A  BIBLICAL  KING.      1633.     P.  nf  x  lof. 
JEAN  Six  AT  A  WINDOW.     Very  doubtful.     P.  10  x  8. 
FIGURE    OF   SUSANNAH.     Oval.     1647.      P.  8^x7. 
TASTERS  IN  A  CELLAR.     1650.    P.  19^x25^. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     1650.     P.  22x17!. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  RABBI.     1655.     P.  S/^xgfJ. 
HEAD  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     1660.     P.  iox8|. 

MARQUIS  BONI  DE  CASTELLANE. 
PORTRAIT  OF  NICHOLAS  RUTS.     S.  1631.     P.  46  x  34  J. 

PRINCE  DE  CHALAIS. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN. 

LEON  GAUCHEZ. 

LUCRETIA.     8.1664.     C.  46§X39^. 

LEOPOLD  GOLDSCHMIDT. 

PORTRAIT    OF    A     WOMAN.       Called    Rembrandt's  cook. 

1655.       C.   29|X24f. 

HARJES. 

OLD  MAN  WITH  A  WHITE  BEARD.     C.  25  J  x  23^. 

BARONESS  HIRSCH-GEREUTH  (THE  LATE). 

PORTRAIT  OF  HIS  SISTER,  OR  SASKIA.     Oval.    S.  1633.    P. 
23x17$, 


136  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

PARIS.     MAURICE  KANN. 

HEAD  OF  CHRIST.     1660.     C.  i8fxi4i. 

A  MAN  IN  A  RED  CLOAK.     S.  1659.     P.  15!  x  i2§. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.      P.  between   1666  and  1668.      C. 

36fX29i. 

RODOLPHE  KANN. 

HEAD  OF  CHRIST.     1652.     P.  lof  x  8. 

PORTRAIT  OF  TITUS.     S.  1655.     C.  3if  x  23! . 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  RABBI.     1655.     P.  10x7^. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  WOMAN.     S.   1657.     P.  8|x7^. 

OLD  WOMAN  CUTTING  HER  NAILS.     8.1658.    C.  501x40. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  WOMAN.     1668.     C.  37^  x  29^. 

MME.  LACROIX. 
LANDSCAPE,  WITH  SWANS.     1645.     C.  251x17^. 

ALBERT  LEHMANN. 

ZACHARIAH  RECEIVING  THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  BIRTH  OF 
JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.     S.  1632.     P.  22-f  x  194. 

PAUL  MATHEY. 

HEAD  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     P.  20  x  24. 

HENRY  PEREIRE. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     S.  1632.     P.  24  x  i8i. 

PORTRAIT  OF  CORNELIA  PRONCK.     Wife  of  the  man.     S. 
1633.     P.  24xi8i. 

JULES  PORGES. 

THE   GOOD   SAMARITAN.       S.   1639.     0.384x50. 


FRANCE  137 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  RABBI.     S.  1642.     P.  30x24!. 

AN  OLD  WOMAN  MEDITATING  OVER  A  BOOK.     1649.     C. 


PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT'S  BROTHER.    1650.   P.  22§xi7^. 
PORTRAIT  or  A  WOMAN  HOLDING  A  BOOK.  1650.  P.  22§  x  17^-. 

PARIS.     COUNTESS  EDMOND  DE  POURTALES. 

PORTRAIT   OF   A   YOUNG    MAN    RISING    FROM   A    CHAIR. 
S.  1633.     C.  50x40. 

BARON  ALPHONSE  DE  ROTHSCHILD. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  WOMAN.     S.  1632.     P.  30!  x  23. 

BARON  GUSTAVE  DE  ROTHSCHILD. 

PORTRAIT  OF  MARTIN  DAEY.     S.  1634.     C.  821x52^. 

PORTRAIT  OF  MACHTELD  VAN  DOORN,  WIFE  OF   MARTIN 
DAEY.     C.  82^x52!. 

THE  STANDARD-BEARER.     S.   1636.     C.  50  x  42. 

BARONESS  NATHANIEL  DE  ROTHSCHILD. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  BOY.     S.  1633.     P.  i7fxi3£. 

BARON  N.  DE  ROTHSCHILD. 

PORTRAIT  OF  ANTHONI  COPAL.     S.  1635.     P.  33-5-  X26|. 

DURAND  RUEL. 

DAVID   PLAYING    BEFORE   SAUL.       1663.       C.  52^x65!. 

BARON  ARTHUR  DE  SCHICKLER. 

JUDAS  WITH  THE  PRICE  OF  THE  BETRAYAL.      1629.      C. 


138  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

PARIS.     A.  SCHLOSS. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.     Oval.     1634.     P.  26^x21. 
OLD  MAN.     S.  1643.     P.  loxyf. 

HENRI  SCHNEIDER. 

HANS  ALENSON.     S.  1634.     C.  7iix52f. 

THE  WIFE  OF  ALENSON.    S.  1634.     C.  71^x52!. 

CHARLES  SEDELMEYER. 
PILATE  WASHING  HIS  HANDS.     1656.     C.  51^x72. 

CHARLES  WALTNER. 

AN  OLD  RABBI.     1654-56.     C.  324  x  26. 

E.  WARNECK. 

DIANA  BATHING.     1631.     P.  7^x6^. 
REMBRANDT  LAUGHING.     S.  1633.     P.  8^x7. 
STUDY  OF  A  RABBI.     1650  to  1655.     P.  84  x  7§. 
STUDY  OF  A  YOUNG  BOY.     1654.    P.  9^x7^. 

DR  MELVIL  WASSERMANN. 

STUDY  OF  HIS  FATHER.     1630.     P.  nf  x  9^. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     1633.     P.  lof  x8f. 

ROUEN.     M.  DUTUIT. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     S.  1631.       P.  32!  X2if. 

TOURS.     MUSEUM. 

PORTRAIT   OF    HIS    FATHER.     [No.   437.]     A  copy  of  the 
one  in  the  Museum  at  Nantes.     1628.     P.  6  x  4. 


GERMANY  139 


GERMANY. 
BERLIN  GALLERY.     ROYAL  MUSEUM. 

THE  MONEV-CHANGER.    [No.  828D.]    S.  1627.     P.  I2f  X  I6-J. 

JUDITH,  or  MINERVA.     [No.  828  c.]     1631.     P.  231x19^. 
THE  RAPE  OF  PROSERPINA.    [No.  823.]    1632.  P.  33^  x  31^. 
REMBRANDT.  [No.  810.]  S.  1634.  P.  22^  x  i8|. 
REMBRANDT.     [No.  808.]     1634.     P.  22  x  i8|. 

SAMSON  THREATENING  HIS  FATHER-IN-LAW  [No.  802], 
formerly  called  The  Duke  of  Gueldres.  S.  1635.  C- 
62|  x  5  if. 

PORTRAIT  OF  THE  MINISTER  ANSLO  CONSOLING  A  WIDOW. 
S.  1641.  C.  73fx89|. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.     [No.  812.]     S.  1643.    P.  28fx23^. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  RABBI.    [No.  828  A.]    S.  1645.    C.  44  x  32^. 

THE  WIFE  OF  TOBIAS  WITH  THE  GOAT.  [No.  805.]  S. 
1645.  P-  8  x  iof- 

JOSEPH'S  DREAM.     [No.  806.]  S.  1645.     P-  8  x  IOT- 

SUSANNAH   AND    THE  ELDERS.  [No.   828  E.]      S.    1647. 

P.  3ofx36f. 

DANIEL'S  VISION.     [No.  828  F.]  1650.      C.  38fx46|, 

JOSEPH   ACCUSED   BY    POTIPHAR'S    WIFE.       [No.   828   H.] 

S.  1655.     C.  44*34. 
STUDY  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.    [No.  828  j.]    1655.   C.  2of  x  14^. 

JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  PREACHING.  [No.  828  K.]  S.  1656. 
C.  25  x  31. 


140  CATALOGUE   OF  WORKS 

JACOB  WRESTLING  WITH   THE  ANGEL.      [No.  828.]       S.   1659. 

C. 


MOSES    BREAKING   THE   TABLES    OF   THE    LAW.        [No.  8  1  1.] 

S.  1659.     C.  66^x54. 

PORTRAIT  OF  HENDRICKJE  STOFFELS.     [No.  828  B.]      1662. 
C.  34^x26. 

ALTFRANKEN.     COUNT  LUCKNER. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.     S.  1635.     P.  39^x28. 

AN  HOLT.     PRINCE  OF  SALM-SALM. 
.DIANA,  ACTION,  AND  CALLISTO.     S.  1635.     C.  284x38. 

ASCHAFFENBOURG.     ROYAL  MUSEUM. 
THE  RISEN  CHRIST.     S.  1661.     C.  32  x  25^. 

BERLIN.     VON  CARSTANGEN. 
PORTRAIT  OF  J.  C.  SYLVIUS.     S.  1645.     C.  52x44. 
CHRIST  AT  THE  COLUMN.     1646.     P.  i3fxn^. 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     S.  1665.     C.  32^  x  25^. 

EMPEROR  FREDERICK  MUSEUM. 
REMBRANDT'S  BROTHER.     1650.     C.  26|x2o|. 

CARL  HOLLITSCHER. 

ST  PAUL  IN  MEDITATION.     1635.     C.  47^x38. 
CHRIST  ON  THE  CROSS.     1648.     P.  14  x  Q|. 

ROBERT  VON  MENDELSSOHN. 
REMBRANDT.     S.  1651.     P.  26f  x  2ii. 

SANS-SOUCI. 

THE  CAPTURE  OF  SAMSON.     S.  1628.     P.  24  x  igf. 


GERMANY  141 

BERLIN.     JAMES  SIMON. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  GIRL.     S.  1634.     P.  i;|x  i4§. 

BONN.     PROFESSOR  G.  MARTIUS. 
AN  OLD  WOMAN.    1640.     P.  27^x22^. 

BRUNSWICK.     GRAND  DUCAL  MUSEUM. 

AN  UNKNOWN  MAN.     [No.   232.]     1631.    P.  25!  xigj. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  WOMAN.   [No.  233.]   S.  1633.    P-  25l x  *9T- 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     [No.  237.]     S.  1638.    P.  32^x27. 
STORMY  LANDSCAPE.     [No.  236.]     8.1640.     P.  2ofx28|. 

NOLI    ME    TANGERE.       [No.   235.]       S.   1651.       C.   26  X  3lf. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  FAMILY.    [No.  238.]    S.  1668.  C.  sof  x  66|. 

CARLSRUHE.     GRAND  DUCAL  MUSEUM. 

PORTRAIT  OF  HIMSELF.    [No.  238.]    8,1645.   P.  29!  x  23!. 

CASSEL.     MUSEUM. 

REMBRANDT.     [No.  208.]     1627.     P.  8  x  6|. 
AN  OLD  MAN.    [No.  209.]    S.  1630.     P.  26f  X22f. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  210.]    S.  1632.     P.  20  x  i5§. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  211.]     S.  1632.     P.  23!  x  ig|. 

PORTRAIT,  said  to  be  Coppenol.     [No.  212.]     8.1632.     C. 
40x34. 

JAN  HERMAN  KRUL.     [No.  213.]    S.  1633.     C.  49^x37!- 
SASKIA.     [No.  214.]     1634.     P.  39^x30^. 
REMBRANDT.     [No.  215.]     8.1634.     P.  3ifx25f. 
A  YOUNG  WOMAN.      [No.   216.]     1635.     P.  28^x23!. 


per." 


142  CATALOGUE    OF   WORKS 

A   MAN.      [No.  217.]      8.1639.     0.79^x48!. 

HOLY  FAMILY.     [No.  218.]     Called    "The  Woodchopper. 
S.  1646.     P.  18  x  26f. 

A  WINTER  LANDSCAPE.     [No.  219.]     S.  1646.     P.  6f  x8|. 
THE  RUIN.     [No.  220.]     S.  1650.     P.  26f  x  34!. 
PORTRAIT  OF  BRUYNINGH.    [No.  221.]   8.1652.   C.  42  x  36. 

MAN  IN   ARMOUR,   known   as  "The  Watch."     [No.   223.] 
8.1655.     C.  45^x36. 

AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  226.]     1655.     P.  8  x  6. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  225.]     1657.     P.  8  x  6|. 

AN   ARCHITECT,   OR    GEOMETRICIAN.      [No.    224.]     1656. 
C.  48  x  36. 

JACOB  BLESSING  JOSEPH'S  SONS.     [No.  227.]     S.  1656.     C. 
69!  x  80. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     [No.  222.]     S.  1659.     C.  29^ 
X23§- 

COLOGNE.     BARON  A.  VON  OPPENHEIM. 
A  YOUNG  GIRL.     1655.     p-  8f  X7- 

DARMSTADT.     GRAND-DUCAL  GALLERY. 

THE  FLAGELLATION.     [No.  347.]     S.  1668.     C.  37|x29^. 

DRESDEN.     ROYAL  GALLERY. 
SASKIA.      [No.  1556.]      S.   1633.     P.  21x17!. 

A  MAN.      [No.  1557.]      Willem  Burchgraeff.      [No.    182.] 
S.  1633.     P.  27  x  21. 

THE  CAPTURE  OF  GANYMEDE.     [No.  1558.]     S.  1635.     C. 
68fx52. 


GERMANY  143 

REMBRANDT  AND  SASKIA.   [No.  1559.]  S.  1635.   C.  64  x  52^. 

THE  MARRIAGE  OF  SAMSON.     [No.   1560.]     S.  1638.      C. 
5°f x  7°f  • 

THE  MAN   WITH   THE   BITTERN.     [No.   1661.]     S.   1639. 
P.  48fx3Sf. 

SASKIA  HOLDING  A  PINK.  [No.  1562.]  8.1641.  P.  39^x32^. 

THE  SACRIFICE  OF  MANOAH.      [No.  1563.]      S.  1641.     C. 

96f  x  IJ4- 

OLD  WOMAN  WEIGHING  GOLD.    [No.   1564.]   C.  44^x39!. 
A  YOUNG  MAN.    [No.  1565.]     S.  1643.     C.  3o|x26f. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  1571.]     1645.     C.  37§  x  30^. 
THE  ENTOMBMENT.     [No.  1566.]     S.  1653.    C.  38fx27f. 

AN  OLD  MAN  WITH  A  BEARD.    [No.  1567.]    S.  1654.     P. 
40  x  3o|. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     [No.  1568.]     1656.     C.  35fx27f. 
REMBRANDT.     [No.  1569.]      S.  1657.     C.  34^x26. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  1570.]     1666.     C.  32|x  28f. 

ELBERFELD.     KARL  VON  DER  HEYDT. 

THE  DENIAL  OF  ST  PETER.     S.  1628.     Copper,  8|x6f. 
A    LADY.     8.1635.     P.  30^x25!. 

FRANKFORT.     ST^EDEL  ART  INSTITUTE. 

DAVID    PLAYING    BEFORE  SAUL.       [No.    183.]      P.  24^X20. 

PORTRAIT  OF  MARGARETHA  VAN  BILDERBEECQ.     [No.  182.] 
Oval.     8.1633.     P.  26£x22f. 


144  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

PARABLE   OF   THE    LABOURERS   IN   THE   VINEYARD.    [No. 
181.]     S.  1656.     C.  6i£ 


GOTHA.     MUSEUM. 
REMBRANDT.     [No.  181.]     8.1629.     P.  7^x5!. 

HAMBURG.     KUNST-HALLE. 

MAURICE  HUYGENS.     S.  1632.     €.52x44. 

CONSUL  WEBER. 

PRESENTATION  IN  THE  TEMPLE.     S.  1630.     P.  22  x  lyf. 
THE  WOMAN  TAKEN  IN  ADULTERY.    1644.    €.451x54. 
A  PILGRIM  AT  PRAYER.     S.  1661.     C.  36x31^. 

LEIPZIG.     JULIUS  O.  GOTTCHALD. 

STUDY  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     1630.     P.  8^x64.  • 

MUSEUM. 

REMBRANDT.     [No.  347.]     1654.     P.  iofx8f. 

ALFRED  THIEME. 
THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN.     1640.     C.  i2f  x  15. 

PORTRAIT    CALLED    THE    CONSTABLE    OF    BOURBON.      S. 
1644.     C.  36f  X29f- 

METZ.     MUSEUM. 

AN  OLD  MAN.     S.  1633.     P.  23^  x  i7f. 


GERMANY  H5 

MUNICH.     ROYAL  GALLERY. 

HOLY  FAMILY.     [No.  324.]     S.  1631.     C.  77^x52. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  TURK.     [No.  325.]    S.  1633.    P.  33^  x  25^. 

THE  DESCENT  FROM  THE  CROSS.      [No.  326.]     S.   1633. 
P-35fx26. 

THE  ELEVATION  OF  THE  CROSS.      [No.  327.]      1633.     C. 
38fx28f 

THE  ASCENSION.  [No.  328.]  S.  1636.  C.  36ix26|. 
THE  ENTOMBMENT.  [No.  330.]  1638.  C.  37^x27^. 
THE  RESURRECTION.  [No.  329.]  S.  1639.  C.  37!  x  28. 

THE  ADORATION  OF  THE  SHEPHERDS.    [No.  331.]     S.  1646. 
C.  384x28*. 

REMBRANDT.     ^0.333.]     8.1654.     P.  32ix26|. 

DR  MARTIN  SCHUBART. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     1632.     P.  25  x  i8J. 

NORDKIRCHEN.     COUNT  ESTERHAZY. 

A  YOUNG  MAN.    S.  1629. 

NUREMBERG.     MUSEUM. 

REMBRANDT  [No.  298],  in  armour.     S.  1629.    P.  15!  x  I2-J. 
SAINT  PAUL.     1629. 

OLDENBURG.     AUGUSTEUM. 

THE   PROPHETESS   ANNA,   or   the   painter's  mother.     [No. 
1 66.]     S.  1631.     C.  24  x  19^. 

AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  167.]     S.  1632.     C.  26f  x  2of . 

LANDSCAPE.     [No.  169.]     1645.     P.  n|xi6. 
K 


146 


CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 


POSEN.     COUNT  EDWARD  RACZYNSKI. 
CHRIST.      S.  1661.     C.  39  x  32! . 

SCHWERIN.     GRAND  DUCAL  MUSEUM. 

AN  OLD  MAN.      [No.   854.]     S.  1630.     P.  27^  x  2o|. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  855.]     1656.     C.  22  jx  i8i. 

STRASBURG.     MUSEUM. 
AN  OLD  MAN,  holding  a  scroll.     1650.     C.  24§xi8|. 

STUTTGART.     MUSEUM. 
Si-  PAUL  IN  PRISON.     [No.  225.]     S.  1627.     P.  28  x 

WEIMAR.     GRAND  DUKE  OF  SAXE-WEIMAR. 
PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     S.  1643.     C.  24!  x  19^. 


HOLLAND. 


THE  HAGUE.     MAURITSHUIS,  ROYAL  MUSEUM. 

REMBRANDT'S  MOTHER.     [No.  556,  Room  XIV.]      1628. 
P.  7  x  5. 

REMBRANDT'S   FATHER.      [No.  565,  Room  XIV.]      1628. 
P.  i8|xi5|. 

REMBRANDT.  [No.  148,  Room  XIV.]  1629.  P.  14^x1  if. 
A  MAN  LAUGHING.  [No.  598,  Room  XIV.]  1630.  P.  6  x  4-f. 
A  YOUNG  GIRL.  [No.  577,  Room  XIV.]  S.  1630.  P.  22  x  18. 

THE  PRESENTATION   IN   THE   TEMPLE.     [No.  145,  Room 
XIV.]    S.  1631.     P.  24x19^ 


HOLLAND  147 

THE  ANATOMY  LESSON  OF  PROFESSOR  PIETERSZOON  TULP. 
[No.  146,  Room  XIIL]      S.  1632.     C.  64^  x  86f. 

REMBRANDT  AS  AN  OFFICER.     [No.  149,  Room  XIV.]     S. 
1634.     P.  24fxi8f. 

THE  FLIGHT  INTO  EGYPT.      [No.   579,  Room  XIV.]      S. 

1636.  P.  15^x14. 

A  WOMAN  AT  HER  TOILET.      [No.  552,  Room  XIV.]      S. 

1637.  P.  29x25. 

SUSANNAH    AT    THE   BATH.     [No.   147,  Room  XIV.]     S. 
1637.     P.  i8|xi5f. 

PORTRAIT      BELIEVED    TO     BE     REMBRANDT'S     BROTHER 
ADRIAEN.    [No.  560,  Room  XIV.]  S.  1650.   C.  31^  x  26|. 

HOMER    RECITING   HIS  POEMS.     [No.    584,  Room   XIV.] 
S.  1663.     C.  43^x321- 

AMSTERDAM.     RYKSMUSEUM. 

REMBRANDT'S  FATHER.    [No.  1248.]     1629.     C.  2ifxi8f. 
A  YOUNG  LADY,  known  as  the  Lady  of  Utrecht.     S.  1639. 

P.  42fx32f. 

ELIZABETH  BAS  [No.  1  249],  widow  of  Admiral  Swartenhout. 
1640.     C. 


THE  SORTIE  OF  THE  COMPANY  OF  CAPTAIN  FRANS  BAN- 
NING COCQ  [No.  1246],  called  "The  Night  Watch."  S. 
1642.  C.  143!  x  I74- 

MYTHOLOGICAL  SUBJECT.    [No.  1251.]    1650.    C.  34x26!- 


I48  CATALOGUE   OF  WORKS 

THE  ANATOMY  LESSON  OF  DR  JOHANNES  DEYMAN.    [No. 
1250.]     8.1656.     C.  40x52^. 

THE  SYNDICS  OF  THE  DRAPERS.      [No.   1247.]     S.   1661. 
C.  74  x  logf. 

THE  JEWISH  BRIDE.     [No.  1252.]    8.1665.     C.  47^x65!. 

AMSTERDAM.     DR  C.  HOFSTEDE  DE  GROOT. 
REMBRANDT'S  SISTER.     1630.     P.  5^  x  3! . 

SIX  COLLECTION. 

JOSEPH  INTERPRETING  HIS  DREAMS.     S.   1630.    Cardboard, 
20x15! 

ANNA  VYMER.     8.1641.     P.  40  x  32. 
PORTRAIT  OF  EPHRAIM  BONUS.     1647.     P-  7l  x  6- 
BURGOMASTER  Six.     1660.     C.  44x40. 
THE  HAGUE.      DR  BREDIUS. 
A  WOMAN  PRAYING.     1654.     P.  7f  x  6. 

PRINCE  HENRI  DES  PAYS-BAS. 
REMBRANDT.    8.1643.    C.  24§xi9i. 

D.  F.  SCHEURLEER. 

HEAD  OF  A  BOY.     1629.     lof  x8J. 

STEENGRACHT  COLLECTION. 

THE  TOILET  OF  BATHSHEBA.      S.  1643.     P-  20T  x  3°|- 

LEEUWARDEN.      BARON   VAN    HARINXMA  THOE 
SLOOTEN. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     S.  1644.     P-  9f  x8l- 


HOLLAND— ITALY— ROUMANIA  149 

ROTTERDAM.     BOYMANS  MUSEUM. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT'S  FATHER.     [No.  237,  Room  B.] 
S.  1630.     Oval.     P.  29ix22f. 

THE  PEACE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.     [No.  238,  Room  D.]     S. 
1640.     P.  29!  x  40. 


ITALY. 

FLORENCE.     PITTI  PALACE. 

REMBRANDT.     [No.  60,  Room  5.]     1635.     C.  24ix2oi. 
AN  OLD  MAN.    [No.  i6;  Room  6.]    S.  1658.    C.  40^  x  33^. 

UFFIZI. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.   [No.  451,  Room  13.]    1655.   C. 

28fX23i 

PORTRAIT   OF    REMBRANDT.     [No.  452,  Room  13.]     1666. 

C.   28|X23i 

SIGNOR  FABRI. 

STUDY  OF  AN  OLD  MAN.     P.  23!  x  i8|. 

MILAN.     BRERA. 
A  WOMAN.     [No.  449.]     S.  1632.     P.  22  x  19^. 


ROUMANIA. 

SINAIA.     THE  KING  OF  ROUMANIA. 

ESTHER,  HAMAN,  AND  AHASUERUS.     1668.     C.  94x76. 


ISO  CATALOGUE   OF   WORKS 

RUSSIA. 

ST  PETERSBURG.     THE  HERMITAGE. 

PORTRAIT    OF    REMBRANDT'S    FATHER.      [No.   814.] 
1630.     P.  14!  x  lof. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.    [No.  808.]     S.  1631.    C.  45^x36!. 

THE  DESCENT  FROM  THE  CROSS.     [No.  800.]      S.   1634. 
C  63}  x  46ft 

THE  INCREDULITY  OF  ST  THOMAS.     [No.  80 1.]     S.  1634. 

P.   22  X  20|. 

THE  JEWISH  BRIDE.     [No.  812.]    S.  1634.     C.  50x40!. 

A  YOUNG  MAN  [No.  828].     S.  1634.     P.  28  x  2o|. 

THE  SACRIFICE  OF  ISAAC.  [No.  792.]  S.  1635.  C.  77^  x  53^. 

PORTRAIT  OF  AN  ORIENTAL.      [No.  813.]     S.    1636.      C. 

39?  x  3°f  • 
DANAE.     [No.  802.]     S.  1636.     C.  74x82. 

PORTRAIT   OF  A    MAN,   called  Sobieski.     [No.   811.]     S. 
1637.     P.  38|x26f. 

THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  MASTER  OF  THE  VINEYARD.     [No. 
798.]    S.  1637.     P.  i2§  xi6|. 

AN  OLD  WOMAN.    [No.  829.]    S.  1643.     p-  3°f  x  22I- 

THE    RECONCILIATION   OF    DAVID   AND   ABSALOM.      [No. 
1777.]     S.  1642.     P.  30x24!. 


RUSSIA  151 

REMBRANDT'S  MOTHER.    [No.  807.]   8.1643.    P-3IIX24|- 
THE  HOLY  FAMILY.     [No.  796.]     S.  1645.     C.  46^  x  36!  . 

PORTRAIT   OF   A    MAN,  erroneously  called  Manasseh  ben 
Israel.     [No.  820.]     8.1645.    C.  5if 


ABRAHAM  RECEIVING   THE    ANGELS.      [No.    791.]     1650. 
C.  48!  x  65. 

THE    SONS    OF   JACOB    SHOWING     HIM    JOSEPH'S    COAT. 
[No.  793.]     8.  1650.     C.  6i|x67i 

THE  DISGRACE  OF  HAMAN.      [No.    795.]     8.    1650.      C. 
|  x  46f 


PALLAS.     [No.  809.]     1650.     C.  46^x361. 

HANNAH    TEACHING    THE    INFANT    SAMUEL    TO    READ. 
[No.  822.]    8.  1650.     C.  46|x37f. 

GIRL  WITH  A  BROOM.    [No.  826.]    S.  1651.     C.  43§  X36|. 
AN  OLD  WOMAN.     [No.  804.]     1654.     C.  53|x42|. 
AN  OLD  WOMAN.     [No.  805.]     S.  1654.     C.  43!  x  33!. 
AN  OLD  WOMAN.     [No.  806.]     S.  1654.     C.  29!  x  25^. 
AN  OLD  JEW.     [No.  810.]     S.  1654.     C.  43!  x  33!. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  818.]     1654.     €.43^x34!. 
AN  OLD  MAN.    [No.  823.]    S.  1654.    C.  35^x284. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  824.]    S.  1654.     C.  29!  X25f 

JOSEPH  ACCUSED  BY  POTIPHAR'S  WIFE.      [No.   794.]      S. 
1655.    0.42x38^. 

ST  PETER'S  DENIAL.     [No.  799.]     S.  1656.     C.  61^x67!. 


152  CATALOGUE   OF  WORKS 

A  YOUNG  WOMAN.     [No.  819.]      S.  1656.     C.  404x34^. 

YOUNG  WOMAN  TRYING  ON  AN  EARRING.     [No.  817.]     S. 
1657.     P.  16  x  14^. 

A  YOUNG  MAN.     [No.  825.]     1660.     C.  28|x22f. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     [No.  821.]    S.  1661.    C.  28f  x  24!. 
PORTRAIT   OF  JEREMIAS   DE   DECKER,    THE   POET.     [No. 

827.]       S.    1666.       P.    28f  X22§. 

THE  PRODIGAL  SON.    [No.  797.]    1669.     C.  104!  x  100. 
AN  OLD  JEW.    [No.  815.]    S.     P.  2o|xi6|. 

ST  PETERSBURG.     PRINCE  JOUSOUPOFF. 

HEAD  OF  A  YOUNG  BOY.     S.  1633.     P.  7ff  X6i|. 

SUSANNAH  AND  THE  ELDERS.     S.   1637. 

A  YOUNG  MAN.     1660.    C.  321x39^. 

A  LADY  WITH  AN  OSTRICH  FEATHER.     1660.    0.33x39!. 

PRINCE  OF  LEUCHTEMBERG. 

REMBRANDT.     [No.    108].     1643.     P.  30  x  24^. 

COUNT  A.  W.  ORLOFF-DAVIDOFF. 
CHRIST.     1660.    C.  43if  X38f 


RUSSIA— SPAIN— SWEDEN  153 

ST  PETERSBURG.     COUNT  S.  STROGANOFF. 

A  PHILOSOPHER  IN  MEDITATION.    S.  1630.    P.  23!  x  i8f£. 
A  YOUNG  MONK.     S.  1660.     C.  32!  X26|. 


SPAIN. 
MADRID.     PRADO. 

QUEEN  ARTEMISIA  RECEIVING  THE  ASHES  OF  MAUSOLUS. 
[No.  1544.]  Otherwise  known  as  Cleopatra  at  her  toilet. 
S.  1634.  C.  56|x6ii 

SWEDEN. 

STOCKHOLM.     ROYAL  MUSEUM. 

A  YOUNG  GIRL.     [No.   591.]     1630.     P.  23!  x  24!- 
ST  ANASTASIUS.     [No.  579.]    8.1631.    P.24xi9i. 
SASKIA.     ^0.583.]    8.1632.    C.  28|x2if. 
STUDY  OF  AN  OLD  MAN  AS  ST  PETER.     [No.  1349.]      S. 

1632.       C.   32|X24|. 

AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  585.]     S.  1633. 
THE  YOUNG  SERVANT.     S.  1654.    C.  31^x254. 
AN  OLD  MAN.     [No.  581.]     S.  1655.     C.  35f  x  29^. 
AN  OLD  WOMAN.     [No.  582.]     S.  1655.    C.  35!  x  29^. 

THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CLAUDIUS  CIVILIS.  [No.  578.]  1661. 
C.  78|xi23f. 


154  CATALOGUE   OF  WORKS 

VANAS.     COUNT  AXEL  DE  WACHTMEISTER. 

A  YOUNG  MAN.    S.  1632.     P.  25^  x  i8f. 
A  YOUNG  MAN.     1643.     C.  42  x  36. 

UNITED   STATES   OF   AMERICA. 

CHICAGO.    ARMOUR. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  MAN.     S.  1643.    C.  33§X26|. 

P.  C.  HANFORD. 

AN  ACCOUNTANT  BY  A  TABLE.     C. 


NEW  YORK.     W.  H.  BEERS. 

REMBRANDT'S  FATHER.     1632.     C.  30x24^. 

ROBERT  W.  DE  FOREST. 

HEAD  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN.     25^  x  19^. 

H.  O.  HAVEMEYER. 

PORTRAIT  OF   CHRISTIAN  PAUL  VAN   BEERSTEYN,   Burgo- 
master of  Delft.     S.  1632. 

PORTRAIT  OF  VOLKERA  NICOLAI  KNOBBERT,  wife  of  Beer- 
steyn.     S.  1632. 

PORTRAIT  OF  PAULUS  DOOMER,  called  "The  Gilder."     S. 
1640.     P.  29^x2  if. 

A  WOMAN,  aged  87.     S.  1640  or  1646.    C.  27!  x  24. 


UNITED   STATES  155 

NEW  YORK.      ROBERT  HOE. 

YOUNG   GIPSY  HOLDING   A   MEDALLION.     1650.     C. 

MORRIS  K.  JESSUP. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN,  erroneously  called  Six. 
PORTRAIT  OF  HIS  WIFE. 

METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM. 
A  MAN.    [No.  277.]    1640.    C.  30!  x  24! . 
AN  OLD  MAN.    [No.  274.]     S.  1665.     C.  27!  x  24! . 
THE  MILLS.     [No.   276.]     C.  2ijx26j. 
THE   ADORATION    OF   THE   SHEPHERDS.      [No.    278.]     P. 

24f  X  20T7F. 

J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT.     C.  43^  x  33  J. 

R.  MORTIMER. 

PORTRAIT   OF  A   YOUNG  MAN  PUTTING  ON  HIS  ARMOUR. 
1634.     C.  4°fx33f- 

W.  SCHAUS. 

PORTRAIT    OF    AN    ADMIRAL,    erroneously    called    "Van 
Tromp."     1658.     P.  36x29!. 

CHARLES  STEWART  SMITH. 

ST  JOHN.     Oval.     S.  1632.     P.  25  x  19. 


156  CATALOGUE   OF  WORKS 

NEW  YORK.     C.  T.  YERKES. 
THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS.     1628.     P.  i6|xi4. 

JORIS   DE  O.ULERY.       S.    1632. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  RABBI.     1635.     P-  25  x  20I- 
PHILEMON  AND  BAUCIS.    S.  1658.     P.  2  if  x  27!. 

PHILADELPHIA.     P.  A.  B.  WIDENER. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.     1633.     P.  23!  x  i8J. 

• 
PITTSBURGH.     A.  M.  BYERS. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.     S.  1636.     P.  31!  x  26|. 

SAN  FRANCISCO.     WILLIAM  H.  CROCKER. 
PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  BOY.    P.  i6f  x  14. 

UNKNOWN  OWNERS. 

A  YOUNG  MAN,  called  Tulp.     S.  1634.     P.  28^  x  2o|. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  WOMAN.     S.  1634.    P.  28f x 2of . 

A  MAN,  called  Matthys  Kalkoen.     S.  1632.     C.  44!  x  36. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SASKIA.    S.  1634. 

PORTRAIT  CALLED  "THE  DUTCH  ADMIRAL."     S.  1643. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  LADY.      S.  1643. 

AN  ORPHAN  GIRL  OF  AMSTERDAM.    S.  1645.   C.  64  x  33!. 

"THE  STANDARD-BEARER."     1662.     C.  56  x  58. 

PORTRAIT  CALLED  Six.     S.     C.  48  x 


INDEX 


Abraham  caressing  Isaac  (etching), 
108 

Abraham  conversing  with  Isaac 
(etching),  99 

Abraham  dismissing  Hagar  (etch- 
ing), 96 

Abraham  entertaining  the  Angels, 
75 ;  (etching),  106 

Abraham *s  Sacrifice,  64  ;  (etching), 
105 

Actaon,  Diana,  and  Calhsto,  63 

Adam  and  Eve  (etching),  96 

Admiral,  Portrait  of  an,  79 

Adoration  of  the  Magi,  The,  78 

Adoration  of  the  Shepherds,  The, 
32,  73  ;  (etching),  112 

Adriaen,  Rembrandt's  Brother,  12, 
14,  28,  38  ;  Portrait  of,  51 

Adriaans,  Alotte,  Portrait  of,  67 

Alenson,  the  Minister,  25 ;  Por- 
traits of,  and  his  wife,  6 1 

Amsterdam,  prosperity  of,  14,  15 

Amsterdam,  View  0/"( etching),  109 

Anatomy  Lesson,  The,  13,  16,  58; 
ill,,  58 

Anatomy  Lesson  of  Dr  Deyman, 
The,  (1656),  77 

Angel,  An,  78 

Angel  quitting  Tobit,  The,  65 ; 
(etching),  98 

Anna,  55 

Anslo,  the  Minister,  25  ;  Portrait 
of,  68;  ill,  68 

Architect,  An,  77 

Artemisia  receiving  the  Ashes  of 
Mausolus,  62 

Ascension,  The,  20,  64 

Asselyn,  Jan,  25  ;  Portrait  of  (etch- 
ing), 109 

Baptism  of  the  Eunuch,  The  (etch- 
ing), 98 

157 


Bartsch,  Adam,  90 

Bas,   Elizabeth,   Portrait    of,    68  ; 

zV/.,68 

Bathers,  The  (etching),  112 
Bathsheba  (Louvre),  76 
Baths heba  at  her  Toilet,  71 
Battle-Scene  (etching),  109 
Baucis    and    Philemon     receiving 

Jtipiter  and  Mercury,  79 
Beersteyn,     Christian    Paul   van, 

Portrait  of,  56 
Beggars  at  the  Door  of  a  House 

(etching),  101  ;  ill.,  100 
Beggars,  etchings  of,  101,  112 
Belshazzar's  Feast,  64 
Berchem,    Nicholas ;    Portraits  of, 

and  his  wife,  73 

Bilderbeecq,  Margaretha  van,  Por- 
trait of,  58 

Blind  Fiddler,  The  (etching),  95 
Bonus,  Dr  Ephraim,  25  ;  Portraits 

of,  69,  73 ;  (etching),  100 
Boy,    Portrait    of   a    (Hinton    St 

George),  51  ;  (Belvoir  Castle),  78; 

head  of  a,  52;  (etching),  109 
Bruyningh,  Portrait  of,  76 
Bully  The  (etching),  109 
Burchgraeff,    Willem,  Portrait  of, 

58 

Canal,  The  (etching),  112 

Canal  with  a  Large  Boat  (etching), 

1 02 

Canal  with  Swans  (etching),  IO2 
Cappelle,  Van  de,  25 
Capiichin,  The,  8 1 
Cattenburch,  Dirck  van,  37,  87 
Caulery,  for  is  de,  Portrait  of,  57 
Christ,    Head    of  (M.     Rudolphe 

Kann),  76 ;  (M.  Maurice  Kann), 

80 
Christ,    Half -length  portraits    of 


158 


INDEX 


(St.  Petersburg),  79 ;  (Aschaffen- 

bourg),  8 1 
Christ  appearing  to   the  Disciples 

(etching),  103 
Christ  and  Mary  Magdalene  at  the 

Tomb,  66 
Christ  and  Mary  Magdalene  in  the 

Garden,  75 
Christ  and  the  Disciples  at  Emmaus 

(etchings),  96,  104 
Christ  and  the  Samaritan  Woman 

(etching),  in 
Christ  at  Emmaus  (Mme.  Andre- 

Jacquemart),  51;    (Louvre),  74; 

UL,  74;  (Copenhagen),  74 
Christ  before  Pilate  (etching),  106 
Christ  bound  to  the  Column,  73 
Christ  disputing  with  the  Doctors 

(etching),  103 
Christ  driving  the  Money-Lenders 

from  the  Temple  (etching),  96 
Christ  Entombed  (etching),  1 1 1 
Christ  healing  the  Sick  (etching), 

85,  87,  no;  ill,  86 
Christ    in    the    Garden    of  Olives 

(etching),  in 
Christ  on  the  Cross,  74 
Christ  preaching  (etching),  87,  in 
Christ  taken  from  the  Cross,  68 
Christ's  Body  carried  to  the  Tomb 

(etching),  112 

Circumcision,   The,  32,   81 ;  (etch- 
ing), 103 

Cleopatra  at  her  Toilet,  62 
Collen,  Suzanna  van,  Portrait  of, 

56 

Concord  of  the  Country,  The,  67 
Conspiracy    of    Claudius     Civilis, 

The,  41,  8 1 

Constable  of  Bourbon,  72 
Coppenol,  6,  25  ;  Portraits  of,  55, 

57;    ill,    54;    (etchings),    no, 

112 
Cornelia,   daughter   of  Rembrandt 

and  Hendrickje,  35,  39,  46,  47 
Cottage  and  Barn  (etching),  98 
Cottage  with  white  Pales  (etching), 

112 

Cradle,  The,  76 
Crayers,  Louis,  35,  40,  45 


Crucifixion,  The  (etchings),  108, 
no 

Daey,  Martin,  Portrait  of,6l 

Danae,  64  ;  ill. ,  64 

DaniePs  Vision,  72 

David  and  Absalom,  Reconciliation 
of,  68 

David  and  Goliath,  Combat  of 
(etching),  105 

David  at  Prayer  (etching),  in 

David  playing  before  Saul  (Frank- 
fort), 57 ;  (1665),  83 

Dead  Peacocks,  68 

Death  of  the  Virgin,  The  (etching), 

97 
Decker,  Teremias  de,  45  ;  Portrait 

*f,*Z 

Deposition,  The  (Duke  of  Abercorn), 

75 

Descent  from  the  Cross,  The,  20, 
60,  62;  (etchings),  87,  95,  98, 

105 

Desmond,  The  Countess  of,  54 

Deyman,  Dr,  25,  38 

Diana  bathing,  55  ;  (etching),  107 

Dircx,  Gcertje,  33 

Doomer  Paid,  Portrait  of,  67 

Doom,  Machteld  van,  Portrait  of, 

61 
Dou,     Gerard,     Rembrandt's    first 

pupil,  1 1  ;  Portrait  of,  54,  55 
Draughtsman,  The  (etching),  109 
Drawings,  Rembrandt's,  115 
Dutch  Admiral  and  his  Wife,  The, 

71 

Ecce  Homo,  65 ;  (etching),  87 
Elevation  of  the  Cross,    The,   59; 

*y/.,6o   ' 

Entombment,   The  (Glasgow),   59  ; 

(Munich),  66  ;  (Dresden),  76 
Esther,   Haman,   and  Ahasuerus, 

83 

Etchings,  The,  early  appreciation 
of,  85 ;  the  various  states,  88 ; 
catalogues  of,  90,  91  ;  authentic 
etchings,  93 ;  disputed  etchings, 
113;  qualities  of  the  etchings, 
114,  "5 


INDEX 


159 


Family  Group  (Brunswick),  83 

Faustus,  Dr  (etching),  no 

Flagellation,  The,  83 

Flight  into  Egypt,  The  (The 
Hague),  64;  (Buda-Pesth),  77; 
(etchings),  103,  108 

Flute  Player,  The  (etching),  109 

Francen,  Abraham,  25,  47 ;  Portrait 
^(etching),  no 

Frederick  -  Henry,  Prince  (Stat- 
houder),  commissions  to  Rem- 
brandt, 20,  27,  32,  59 

Game  of  Golf,  The  (etching),  105 

Gelder,  Aert  de,  44 

Gentleman  with  the  Hawk,  The,  7 1 

Gerritsz,  Harmen,  Rembrandt's 
father,  6,  n  ;  Portraits  of,  u, 
52,  53>  54,  55,  57;  *//.,  12; 
(etchings),  94,  95 

Gilder,  The,  67 

Girl,  Head  of  a,  59 

Girl  with  a  Broom,  75 

Goldsmith  at  his  Work,  A  (etching), 
ill 

Goldweigher,  The  (etching),  103 

Goldweigher^  s  Field,  The  (etching), 
103 

Good  Samaritan,  The  (Wallace  Col- 
lection), 57  ;  (Cracow),  66  ;  (M. 
Forges),  66 ;  (circa  1640),  67  ; 
(Louvre),  74  ;  (etchings),  87,  95 

Grotiiis,  57 

Grotto,  The  (etching),  99 

Hagarandlshmael,  Expulsion  of,  67 
Hainan,  The  Disgrace  of,  75 
Hannah    teaching  Samuel  to   read 
(Bridgewater    House),    74;     (St 
Petersburg),  75 

Haring  Jacob,  38;  Portrait  of  ( etch- 
ing), 1 10 
Haring,    Thomas  Jacobsz,   38,  39  ; 

Portrait  of  (etching)  106 
Harmen  Gerritsz,  see  Gerritsz 
Heertsbeeck,  Isaac  van,  36,  40,  41, 

44>  45 

Hendrickje,  her  relations  with  Rem- 
brandt, 34,  35  ;  her  children,  35  ; 


partnership  with  Titus,  42,  88  ; 

her  will,  44  ;  her  death,  44  ;  Por- 
traits of  (Louvre),   34,   76,   81  ; 

(Berlin),  82;  ill.,  44 
Hog,  The  (etching),  98 
Holy  Family,  The  (Munich),  55  ; 

(Louvre),    67  ;    (Downton),    71  ; 

(St  Petersburg),  72  ;  (Cassel),  73; 

(etching),  108 
Holy  Family  crossing  a  Rill  diiring 

the  Flight  into  Egypt,  103 
Holy  Family  with  the  Serpent,  The 

(etching),  104 

Homer  reciting  his  Poems,  82 
Hoogh,  Catrina,  Portrait  of,  78 
House  of  the  Carpenter,  The,  67 
Hundred  Guilder  Print,    The,  85, 

86,  1 10 

Huygens,  Constantin,  n,  20,  27 
Huygens,  Maurice,  Portrait  of,  53 

Jacob  and  Esau,  Reconciliation  of,  68 
Jacob  and  Laban  (etching),  98 
Jacob  blessing  Joseph?  s  Sons,  78 
Jacob  wrestling  with  the  Angel,  80 
Jacob's  Dream  (etching),  105 
Jacob's  Sons  bringing  him  Josephs 

Coat,  75 
Jansenius,  82 
Jesus  and  His  Parents  returning 

from  Jerusalem  (etching),  104 
Jew  in  a  High  Cap,  A  (etching),  97 
Jews'  Synagog^te,  The  (etching),  101 
Jewish  Bride,  The  (Prince  Liechten- 
stein),   19  ;  (St  Petersburg),  61  ; 
(Amsterdam),  83 
Jewish  Bride,  The  Little  (etching), 

97 

John  the  Baptist  preaching,  78  ;  ill., 
78 

John  the  Baptist,  Beheading  of, 
(etching),  97 

Jonghe,  Clement  de,  25,  85,  87 ; 
Portrait  of  (etching),  103  ;  ill.,  90 

Joseph  acctisedby  Potiphar's  Wife,  77 

Joseph  and  Potiphar's  Wife  (etch- 
ing), 96 

Joseph  interpreting  his  Dreams,  53 

Joseph  relating  his  Dreams  (etch- 
ings), 97 


i6o 


INDEX 


Josephs  Coat,  74 

Judas  with  the  Price  of  the  Betrayal, 

51 

Judith,  55 

Jupiter  and  Antiope  (etching),  107 

Kalkoen,  Matthys,  Portrait  of,  57 
Knobbert,  Volkera  Nicolai,  Portrait 

*f*& 

Krul,  fan  Herman,  Portrait  of,  58; 


Lady,  Portrait  of  a  (Capt.  Holford), 

73 

Lady  of  Utrecht,  The,  67 
Lady  with  the  Fan,  The  (Bucking- 

ham Palace),  68  ;  ill.,  70  ;  (Gros- 

venor  House),  71 
Lady  with  the  Parrot,  The,  78 
Landscapes  by  Rembrandt,  66,  67, 

73,  76,  98,  102,  109 
Landscape  with    Cottage  and  Mill 

Sail  (etching),  98 
Landscape    with    a    Cow  drinking 

(etching),  112 
Landscape  with  a  Flock  of  Sheep 

(etching),  112 
Landscape  with    a   Man  sketching 

(etching),  109 
Landscape  with  an  Obelisque  (etch- 

ing), 112 
Landscape    with    a    ruined  Tower 

(etching),  109 

Large  Tree  by  a  House  (etching),  109 
Lastman,  Pieter,  9,  10 
La  Tombe,  Pieter  de,  25,  85,  1  1  1 
Ledikant  (etching),  100 
Lievensz,  Jan,  9,  II,  12,  30,  89 
Lion  Hunt,  A  (etchings),  109 
Looten,  Martin,  Portrait  of,tfl 
Lucretia,  Death  of,  The,  82 
Lutma,  Jan,  25  ;  Portrait  of  (etch- 

ing), 106;  ill,  106 
Lysbeth,    Rembrandt's    Sister,    13, 

14,  28,  38  ;  Portraits  of,  51,  57, 

58 

Man,  Portrait  of  a  (National  Gal- 
lery), 63  ;  (St  Petersburg),  65,  82  ; 
(Cassel),  67  ;  (Brussels),  68;  ill., 


70;  (Mr  Armour),  71  ;  (Mr  M.  K. 

Jessup),  71  ;  (Earl  of  Brownlow), 

76  j  (M.  Kann),  82 
Man  and  his  Wife,  Portraits  of  a 

(Vienna),    56;    ill.,   56;  (Prince 

Liechtenstein),      64;     ill.,     64; 

(Prince  Jousoupoff),  81 
Man  in  Armour  (Brunswick),  66; 

(Glasgow),  77  ;  (Cassel),  77 
Man  in  a  Red  Cloak  (M.    Kann), 

79 

Man  reading  by  a  Window  (Copen- 
hagen), 73 

Man  sketching  in  a  Book  (Dresden), 
78 

Man  with  a  Sword '(Capt.  Holford), 
72 

Man  with  a  Baton  (Louvre),  75 

Man  with  the  Bittern  (Dresden), 
67;  ill.,  66 

Man  seated  on  the  Ground  (etching), 
100 

Man  in  an  Arbour  (etching),  98 

Manasseh  ben  Israel,  his  "  Piedra 
Gloriosa,"  87,  105 ;  Portrait 
of,  72  ;  (etching),  96 

Manoah  and  his  Wife,  The  Offering 
of,  68 

Marriage  of  Jason  and  Crgusa,  The 
(etching),  101 

Merchant,  Portrait  of  a  (St  Peters- 
burg), 55  ;  (Lord  Feversham),  79 

Metamorphosis  of  Narcissus,    The, 

75 

Mill,  The,  76 

Minerva,  55 

Minister,  Portrait  of  a,  65 

Monks,  figures  of,  81 

Mordecai,  The  Triiimph  of  (etch- 
ing), no 

Moses  breaking  the  Tables  of  the 
Law,  80 

Moses,  The  Saving  of,  67 

Mountebank,  A  (etching),  96 

Nativity,  The  (etching),  1 1 1 
Nebuchadnezzar's  Dream  (etching), 

105 

Negress,  A  (etching),  107 
Neeltje,  Rembrandt's  Mother,  2,  7, 


INDEX 


161 


14,    28  ;   Portraits  of,   see 
brandfs  Mother 
Night-  Watch,  The,  30,  69 
Noli  me  t  anger e,  75 
0/df  Man  caressing  a  Boy  (etching), 

1 08 
Old  Beggar  Man  conversing  with  a 

Woman  (etching),  94 
Old  Beggar  Woman  (etching),  100 
Old  Jew  (St  Petersburg),  76 
Old  Lady,  Portrait  of  an  (National 
Gallery),    61;   ill.,    62;  (Earl   of 
Yarborough),    65 ;    see  also    Old 
Woman 

Old  Man,  Portrait  of  an  (Berlin), 
48  ;  (Cassel),  53  ;  (Louvre),  66  ; 
(Buda-Pesth),  69;  (M.  Schloss, 
Paris),  71;  (Lady  Cook),  73; 
(Dresden),  73,  76,  78,  83  ;  (Leeu- 
vvarden),  73  ;  (Strasburg),  75  ; 
(Duke  of  Devonshire),  75,  76  ;  (St 
Petersburg),  76  ;  (Stockholm),  77; 
(Pitti),  79;  (Nat.  Gallery),  79; 
(Col.  Lindsay),  81  ;  (New  York), 
82  ;  (Earl  of  Northbrook),  83 
Old  Man  with  a  divided  Fur  Cap 

(etching),  97 

Old  Woman,  Portraits  of  an  (Wilton 
House),  53  ;  (St  Petersburg),  71, 
76;  (M.    Forges),  74  ;  (Brussels), 
76  ;  (Stockholm),  77  ;  (M.  Kann), 
78;  (Epinal),  82 ;  (Lord  Wantage), 
82;  (etchings),  95,  108 
Old  Woman  Sleeping  (etching),  105 
Old  Woman  weighing  Money  (Dres- 
den), 71 

Omval,  View  0/"  (etching),  99 
Oriental,  Portrait  of  an,  65 
Oriental  Heads  (etching),  127 
Orphan  Girl  of  Amsterdam,  An,  72 


Pallas,  75 

Pancake  Woman,  The  (etching),  96 

Pancras,  Burgomaster,  and  his 
Wife,  62;  ill.,  62 

Parable  of  the  Labourers  in  the  Vine- 
yard, 78 

Parable  of  the  Master  of  the  Vine- 
yard, 65 


Peasant  with  Milk  Pails  (etching), 

112 

Pellicorne,  Burgomaster  Jan,  Por- 
trait of,  56 

Persian,  7 he  (etching),  95 

Petitioners  to  a  Biblical  Prince,  59 

Phi  Ion  the  Jew,  53 

Philosopher  in  Meditation,  A  (Stro- 
ganoff  Collection),  53  ;  (Louvre), 

59 

Philosopher  reading  by  Candlelight, 

49 

Phoenix,  The  (etching),  113 
"  Piedra     Gloriosa,"     Rembrandt's 

illustrations  to,  87,  105 
Pilate  washing  his  Hands,  78 
Pilgrim  at  Prayer,  A,  81 
Pluto  carrying  off  Proserpine,  57 
Presentation   in   the    Temple,    The 
(Hamburg),    52  ;   (The    Hague), 
55,  60;  (etchings),  94,  in 
Presentation  in  the  Vaulted  Temple, 

The  (etching),  109 
Prodigal  Son,    The,  62,  83  ;  (etch- 
ing), 96 

Rabbi,  A   (Hampton    Court),    63 ; 
(M.    Forges),  68;   (Berlin),    72; 
ill.,  74;    (Nat.     Gallery),     78; 
(Duke  of  Devonshire),  128 
Raising  of  the  Cross,  The,  20 
Raising    of    Lazarus,     The,     51  ; 

(etchings),  87,  98 
Rape  of  Ganymede,  The,  63 
Rat-Killer,  The  (etching),  95 
Rembrandt,  date  of  birth  .discussed, 
2,  3  ;  birthplace,  5  ;  his  father, 
6  ;  entered  as  a  student  at  Ley- 
den  University,  7  ;  apprenticed 
to  Swanenburch,  8,  9 ;  under 
Lastman  at  Amsterdam,  10 ; 
return  to  Leyden,  10 ;  removal 
to  Amsterdam,  u  ;  the  Anatomy 
Lesson,  13,  16;  early  portraits, 
13,  1 6,  17  ;  meeting  with  Saskia, 
19  ;  marriage,  22  ;  early  extrava- 
gance, 23  ;  his  first  child,  24 ; 
family  quarrels,  23,  26 ;  his 
friends,  25  ;  birth  and  death  of 
two  daughters,  27 ;  financial 


162 


INDEX 


difficulties,  26,  28,  29;  birth  of 
Titus,  30 ;  death  of  Saskia,  30 ; 
decline  of  prosperity,  32,  36  ;  re- 
lations with  Hendrickje  Stoffels, 
34,  35  ;  bankruptcy,  38  ;  sale  of 
his  property,  39,  40 ;  fresh  com- 
missions, 41,  43  ;  failing  sight, 
43 ;  death  of  Hendrickje,  44 ; 
his  last  pupil,  44  ;  death  of  Rem- 
brandt, 46 

Rembrandt^  Portraits  of  himself : — 
(Count  Andrassy),  53;  (Lord 
Ashburton),  65,  79 ;  (Berlin), 
61  ;  (Bridgewater  House),  79 ; 
(Duke  of  Buccleuch),  79,  80 ; 
(Buckingham  Palace),  72  ; 
(Cambridge),  75  ;  (Carlsruhe), 
71  >  (Herr  von  Carstangen), 
83;  (Cassel),  49,  61,  79; 
(Gotha),  51  ;  (The  Hague),  51, 
61  ;  (Heywood-Lonsdale),  65  ; 
(Lord  Ilchester),  78  ;  (Lord 
Iveagh),  78;  (Lord  Kinnaird), 
82 ;  (Leipzig),  75 ;  (Louvre), 
61,  65,  80;  (Herr  Mendelssohn), 
75;  (Munich),  78;  (Nat.  Gallery), 
67,  82;  ill.,  28,  46;  (Sir  A.  D. 
Neeld),  80  ;  (Prince  Henri  of  the 
Pays  Bas),  71  ;  (Pitti),  63  ;  (Lady 
de  Rothschild),  78  ;  (Uffizi),  83  ; 
(Vienna),  79,  83 ;  (Wallace  Col- 
lection), 6 1  ;  (Warneck  Collec- 
tion), 58;  (Weimar),  71 
Etchings,  3,  94,  95,  97,  100,  108 

Rembrandfs  Brother,  Portrait  of 
(Berlin),  75 ;  (The  Hague),  75 

' '  Rembrandfs  Cook  "  ( Do  wnton ) , 
82 

Rembrandfs  Father,  see  Gerritsz 

Rembrandt  and  his  Wife  (etching), 
96 

Rembrandfs  Mother,  Portraits  of, 
49,  S.i,  55,  57,  67,  71;  ill.,  6; 
(etchings),  93,  95,  108 

Rembrandfs  Mill  (etching),  98 ; 
«//.,  98 

Repose  in  Egypt  (etchings),  99,  112 

Resurrection,  The,  66 

Robinson,  Sir  J.  C.,  48 

Ruin,  The,  75 


Saint,  A,  65 

St  Anastasius,  54 

St  Catherine  (etching),  97 

St  Francis  praying  (etching),  107 

St  Jerome   (etchings),   95,  96,  98, 

IJ3 

St  Matthew,  81 

St  Paul  (Vienna),  65  ;  (Lord  Wim- 
borne),  79 

St  Pa^^l  in  Prison  (Stuttgart),  49 

St  Peter,  52;  (etching),  112 

St  Peter,  The  Denial  of  (Elberfeld), 
51  ;  (St  Petersburg),  78 

St  Peter  and  St  John  at  the  Gate  of 
the  Temple  (etchings),  107 

St  Stephen,  The  Martyrdom  of 
(etching),  96 

St  Thomas,  Incredulity  of,  62 

Salutation,  The,  67 

Samson  captured  by  the  Philistines 
(Berlin),  50 

Samson  overpowered  by  the  Philis- 
tines (Count  Schbnborn),  64 

Samson  propounding  his  Riddle  to 
the  Philistines,  66 

Samson  threatening  his  Father-in- 
Law,  64 

Saskia,  Early  Portraits  of,  14,  17, 
1 8,  57;  ill.,  18;  her  birth  and 
family,  18 ;  first  meeting  with 
Rembrandt,  19  ;  marriage,  22  ; 
her  character,  22 ;  children, 
24,  27,  30 ;  death,  30  ;  her  will, 
31;  Portraits  of  (Dresden),  58; 
(St  Petersburg),  61  ;  (M. 
Schloss),  61  ;  (Cassel),  61  ; 
1635,  62  ;  Rembrandt  and  Saskia 
(Dresden),  62 ;  ill.,  24;  (Buck- 
ingham Palace),  62  ;  (Berlin),  71  ; 
(etchings),  95,  108  ;  pencil  draw- 
ing of  (at  Berlin),  4 

Schoolmaster,  The  (etching),  98 

Six,  Burgomaster,  25,  34,  38  ;  Por- 
trait of,  (Six  Collection),  79 ; 
(etching),  100,  114 

Six's  Bridge  (etching),  99 

Shell,  The  (etching),  102;  *//.,  102 

Shepherds  reposing  at  Night,  74 

Shipbuilder  and  his  Wife,  The,  58  ; 
///.,  Frontispiece 


INDEX 


163 


Sketches,  sheets  of  (etchings),  112, 

"3 

Slaughter-house,  The  (Herr  Rath), 
66  ;  (Glasgow),  75;  (Louvre),  77 

Sobieski,  65  ;  ill.,  66 

Sortie  of  the  Banning  Cocq  Com- 
pany, 30,  69 

Sportsman,  The  (etching),  no 

Standard  Bearer,  The  (Baron  G.  de 
Rothschild),  65  ;  (in  America),  81 

Star  of  the  Kings,  The  (etching),  1 1 3 

Stoffels,  Hendrickje,  see  Hend- 
rickje 

Storm,  an  Effect  of,  67 

Susannah  and  the  Elders  (Prince 
Jousoupoff),  65;  (Berlin),  73 

Susannah,  Study  of,  74 

Swalm,  Henry,  25  ;  Portrait  of,  65 

Swanenburch,  Jacob  van,  8 

Sylvius,  Jan  Cornelis,  18,  21,  25  ; 
Portrait  of,  72  ;  (etchings),  87, 
88,  108,  109 

Syndics  of  the  Drapers'  Guild,  The, 
43,82;  *//.,  80 


Tholinx,  Arnold,  38 ;  Portrait  of, 
77  ;  (etching),  no 

Three  Crosses,  The  (etching),  87, 
ill 

Three  Trees,  The  (etching),  87,  98, 
///.,  92 

Titia,  Rembrandt's  Granddaughter, 
46,  47 

Titus,  Rembrandt's  Son,  30,  33, 
35;  his  will,  38,  39;  partner- 
ship with  Hendrickje,  42 ;  mar- 
riage, 46  ;  death,  46 ;  Portraits 
of  (M.  Kann),  77;  (Earl  of 
Crawford),  77  ;  (Vienna),  79 ; 
(Capt.  Holford),  81  ;  (etching), 
no 

Tobias  and  the  Angel,  76 

Tobias  restoring  his  Father's  Sight, 
62 

Tobias'  Wife  with  the  Goat,  72 

Tobit  and  his  Wife,  75 

Tobit  Blind  (etching),  ill,  115 

Tree,  Sketch  of  a  (etching),  109 

Tribute  Money,  The,  72 


Tulp,  Dr,  13, 25,41  ;  Portraits  of,  57 
Turenne,  Marshal,  Portrait  of,  74 


Uijtenbogaerd,    Jan,     Portraits   of 

(etchings),  87,  96,  103 
Unmerciful  Servant,  The,  82 
Uylenborch,  Hendrick  van,  16,  25, 

29,  31,  40 
Uylenborch,  Magdalena  van,   wife 

of  Titus,  46,  47 
Uylenborch,  Saskia  van — see  Saskia. 


Van  Loo,  Albert,  26,  46 
Van  Loo,  Gerrit  and  Hiskia,   21, 
22,  23,  25 

Venus  and  Cupid,  81 

Virgin    mourning    the    Death    of 

Jesus,  The  (etching),  109 
Virgin  and  Child  in  the    Clouds, 

The  (etching),  98 

Vision  of ' Ezekiel,  The  (etching),  105 
Village  by  the  High  Road  (etching), 

102 

Village  with  a  River  and  Sailing 
Vessel  (etching),  109 

Village  with  a  Square  Tower  (etch- 
ing), 102 

Vista,  The  (etching),  103 

Vymer,  Anna,  Portrait  of,  68 

Winter  Scene,  A,  73  ;  ill,  74 
Woman,  Portrait  of  a  (Mr  Byers), 

64;  (Lord  Kinnaird),  64;  (Lord 

Iveagh),  69  ;  (M.  Kann),  82  ;  and 

see  Old  Woman 
Woman     bathing    (Louvre),     74; 

(Nat.  Gallery),  76 
Woman  taken   in   Adultery,    The, 

72;  ill,  72 
Woman  by  a  Dutch  Stove  (etching), 

in 
Woman  preparing    to    dress   after 

Bathing  (etching),  107 
Woman   with   her  Feet  in   Water 

(etching),  107 
Woman  with  an  Arrow  (etching), 

107 
Woodc -hopper,  The,  73 


164 


INDEX 


Young  Girl,  Portrait  of  a  (Stock- 
holm), 51  ;  (The  Hague),  53  ; 
(Bridgewater  House),  61 ;  (Dul- 
wich),  72  ;  ill.,  72 

Young  Man,  Portrait  of  a  (Earl 
Cowper),  72 ;  (Mr  Humphry 
Ward),  73;  (Copenhagen),  77; 
(Louvre),  78 

Young  Man  and  his  Wife  (Prince 
Liechtenstein),  64 

Young  Man  in  a  Cap  and  Breast- 
plate (Dresden),  71 

Young  Man  laughing,  $2 

Young  Man  with  the  Turban,  54 

Young  Man  seated  in  Meditation 
(etching),  96 


Young    Painter    with    Paper   and 

Crayon,  74 

Young  Servant  (Stockholm),  76 
Young  Woman,  Portrait  of  a  (Cas- 

sel),     63;     (Dr    Bredius),     65; 

(Dresden),  68  ;  (Copenhagen),  78 
Young  Woman  in  Bed{ Edinburgh), 

75 
Young  Woman  reading  (etching), 

95 
Youth  (Lord  Leconfield),  83 

Zachariah  receiving  the  Prophecy  of 
the  Birth  of  John  the  Baptist,  55 
"  Zeewserts-Lof,  Der,"  87 
Zoomer,  Jan  Pietersen,  85,  86,  87 


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