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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