Rembrandt Hermanszoon Van Run

Rembrandt, Hermanszoon Van Run (1608-69), the great Dutch artist, was born at Leyden, and was destined by his father, who was owner of some mills, for the profession of the law; but he disliked the prospect, and studied painting under several masters, afterwards completing his artistic education by himself. In 1630 he went to Amsterdam, and there attended lectures on anatomy, which gave him a subject for his well-known picture entitled The Lecture on Anatomy. He married a well-to-do lady in 1634, and on her death in 1642, she left him her money on condition that, if he married again, it should go to her children. Rembrandt did marry again, and, as he was an extravagant purchaser of works of art, he became bankrupt in 1656. He is believed to have married a third time. After the year just mentioned he lived in poverty and obscurity, though working hard at his profession. He was especially great as an etcher, and produced a large number of very fine plates. Between 1628 and 1661 there were at least 400 produced by him. His mastery of light and shade is still the admiration of the art world. Nor was he much less gifted as a painter, and some of his pictures are among the finest treasures of the Dutch school. Many of his works are at Amsterdam and at The Hague, but the National Gallery in London possesses a considerable number of them, including many fine etchings, two portraits of himself by his own hand, his Woman Takenin Adultery, Christ Blessing Little Children and The Adoration of the Shepherds. In 1866 a fine volume of photographs of his best etchings, with notes, was published in London, and since then other splendid collections of reproductions have been issued in different cities.