Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
Dutch, 1606-1669
Born in Leiden, Netherlands in 1606, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn attended elementary school from 1612 to 1616 and then attended the Latin School in Leiden. As a boy he attended Latin school and was enrolled at the University of Leiden. He was soon apprenticed to a Leiden history painter, Jacob van Swanenburgh, for three years. Rembrandt had a brief but important six month apprenticeship with the painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. He stayed a few months with Jacob Pynas and then started his own workshop in 1624. In 1629 Rembrandt was discovered by the statesman Constantijn Huygens who procured for Rembrandt important commissions from the Hague court. Prince Frederik Hendrik continued to purchase paintings from Rembrandt until 1646. At the end of 1631 Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam and began to practice successfully as a professional portraitist. Rembrandt lived beyond his means, buying art (including bidding up his own work), prints (often used in his paintings) and rarities, which probably caused a court arrangement to avoid his bankruptcy in 1656, by selling most of his paintings and large collection of antiquities. Rembrandt was forced to sell his house and his printing-press and move to more modest accommodation. In 1661 Rembrandt was contracted to complete work for the newly built city hall, but only after Govert Flinck, the artist previously commissioned, died without beginning to paint. The resulting work, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, was rejected and returned to the painter.
Person TypeIndividual
Hopi Pueblo, Second Mesa, 1900-1986
Italian (Bolognese), mid-18th century