Rembrandt in 25 dates
From his birth in Leiden in 1606 to his death in Amsterdam in 1669: a commented chronology to connect the painter's life, his studio, his family, his debts and his masterpieces.
A life in five movements
This chronology distinguishes documented facts from approximate dates. The years of execution of a painting may vary depending on the catalogues; family and legal events are based on contemporary acts, inventories, registers or testimonies.
The story is not one of a rise followed by a simple fall. Rembrandt experiences success early, goes through insolvency proceedings, loses his house and yet continues to paint major works until the end.
Leiden: learn, watch, tell
The son of a wealthy miller, Rembrandt received academic training before choosing painting. In a few years, he went from apprenticeship to a workshop capable of attracting influential students and visitors.
Born in Leiden
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on july 15. He is one of ten children of Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn, miller, and Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuijtbrouck. The name "van Rijn" refers to the Rhine and the family mill.
FamilyUniversity enrollment
After Latin school, his parents enrolled him at Leiden University. He probably does not follow a real course there: the document above all indicates the status of a family which can offer studies to his son.
TrainingJacob van Swanenburgh's
He learned for about three years from this painter from Leiden who returned from Italy. Van Swanenburgh is associated with architecture and infernal scenes: a first learning of space construction, fire and light effects.
LearningThe Pieter Lastman shock
In Amsterdam, Rembrandt worked for around six months with Pieter Lastman, a great history painter. There he learned to condense a biblical or ancient story into gestures, costumes and the decisive moment. The exact date oscillates depending on the sources between 1624 and 1625.
History painting
First dated works
The Stoning of Saint Stephen one of the first dated paintings. The young painter inserts himself into the crowd: the self-portrait already becomes a tool for testing fear, surprise and the gaze.
View the work in the storePaint, draw, engrave
Back in Leiden, Rembrandt developed his workshop and began his etching experiments. The print allows him to repeat an image, modify its states and circulate his name beyond a single sponsor.
EngravingFirst students, first support
At twenty-two, he notably welcomed Gerrit Dou. Constantijn Huygens, secretary of stadtholder Frédéric-Henri, visits the workshop shared with Jan Lievens and admires their ability to express human passions.
AtelierAmsterdam: portraits, wedding and big house
The metropolis offers sponsors, an international market and a powerful network of merchants. Rembrandt quickly became one of the city's most sought-after portrait painters.
Hendrick van Uylenburgh's network
Rembrandt gets closer to the Amsterdam art dealer and spends more and more time in the city. The Uylenburgh company organizes portrait commissions and operates as a collective workshop.
Amsterdam
The Anatomy Lesson
His first major portrait of an Amsterdam group transformed seven surgeons around a corpse into a scene of shared knowledge. The order established its reputation.
See reproduction
Engagement and marriage to Saskia
Rembrandt became engaged to Saskia van Uylenburgh on June 6, 1633. They married on June 22, 1634 in Sint Annaparochie, Friesland. The same year, Rembrandt became a member of the guild of Saint Luke of Amsterdam.
See Saskia in Flora
The History Show
With Samson's Blindness, the diagonals, the light and the violence of the gesture make the space explode. Rembrandt wants to compete with the great European history painters.
See reproductionThe Breestraat house
At the height of its success, Rembrandt purchased for 13,000 guilders the large house, now the Rembrandt House Museum. The installment payment will weigh heavily on his debts. The order of The Night Watch arrives the same year.
House and debtsCareer does not take place outside the world
Rembrandt works in the heart of an urban, commercial and warlike Republic. Amsterdam's prosperity fueled the art market, but it was linked to maritime expansion, colonial companies, trafficking and slavery.
Masterpieces, family and losses
The 1640s were not just about an alleged rejection afterwards The Night Watch. They combine orders, graphic research and family upheavals.
Birth of Titus
After three children who died very young, Saskia gave birth in September to Titus, the only one of their children to reach adulthood. He becomes a model, heir and later business partner of his father.
FamilyThe Night Watch and Saskia's death
Rembrandt completes his most ambitious militia portrait. On June 14, Saskia died at the age of twenty-nine after a long illness. Two major events, without causal link, mark the same year.
See reproductionHendrickje Stoffels enters the house
The young woman from Bredevoort is hired as a servant. She became Rembrandt's lasting companion, managed his home, posed for several works and played an essential role in his commercial reconstruction.
Companion and model
Birth of Cornelia
Hendrickje gives birth to their daughter Cornelia. The Reformed Church reprimands her because she lives with Rembrandt without being married. The same year, Bathsheba concentrates the drama in a body, a letter and an inner decision.
See BathshebaLose the house, preserve the painter
Financial difficulties do not mean stopping creation. The sale of goods produced even one of the most valuable documents about his workshop: the coin-by-piece inventory of 1656.
The transfer of property
Unable to honor his debts, Rembrandt asks for one cessio bonorum. An inventory lists paintings, prints, weapons, costumes, natural curiosities, casts and workshop objects. This document will allow centuries later to reconstruct his house.
InsolvencyDeparture from the Jodenbreestraat
After the house and collections were sold, the family left the vast building for rented accommodation on the Rozengracht. The move reduces Rembrandt's material status, not his artistic ambition.
RozengrachtA company in the name of Hendrickje and Titus
Hendrickje Stoffels and Titus create an art trading company. Rembrandt works for her: this structure protects her income from creditors and allows her to continue receiving orders.
Protected workshop
Claude Civilis, order refused
For Amsterdam's new city hall, Rembrandt paints a monumental scene of a night oath. The painting is removed and then cut out. His rough audacity does not correspond to the expected official decor.
See the workLate greatness
Recent years have produced freer surfaces, slower gestures and more intense presences. The biography tightens while the painting gains depth.
The Trustees of the Draper Guild
Five managers and a servant seem interrupted in the middle of a meeting. Rembrandt proves that after the financial crisis he remains capable of obtaining and reinventing a large collective order.
See reproductionDeath of Hendrickje
A new epidemic hits Amsterdam. Hendrickje dies and is buried in the Westerkerk. Rembrandt loses his partner, his model and one of the people who had legally maintained his activity.
Mourning
Last etching, contact paint
Rembrandt engraves his last known portrait, that of the doctor Jan Antonides van der Linden. Around 1665 -1669, The Jewish Bride transforms a gesture placed on a chest and a shoulder into the peak of pictorial intimacy.
See The Jewish BrideMarriage then death of Titus
Titus married Magdalena van Loo on February 28. He died a few months later, at the age of twenty-seven, probably during an epidemic, and was buried in September in the Westerkerk. His daughter will be born after his death.
Last great mourning
Last self-portraits and death in Amsterdam
His granddaughter Titia was born in March. Rembrandt still paints two self-portraits. He died on October 4, 1669, without certain known cause, then was buried on October 8 in a rented tomb in the Westerkerk. The precise location of his remains is lost.
See self-portraitFour threads run through the entire timeline
Learn then transmit
From Swanenburgh and Lastman to Dou, Bol or Flinck, the career is made up of passages between teachers, assistants and students.
Look at yourself to experiment
Self-portraits are used to study expressions, build a public identity and question aging.
Engrave to go further
The prints made his name known throughout Europe and allowed him to take up a composition in successive states.
End differently
In late works, thickness, transparency and open outline replace the uniform finish without signifying abandonment.
604 works to follow each period
The Rembrandt collection brings together Leiden history paintings, Amsterdam portraits, biblical scenes, landscapes, self-portraits and great late works. A selection of 51 famous paintings offers a tighter route.
Dates and biography of Rembrandt
When and where was Rembrandt born?
He was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden, in the United Provinces, into a relatively wealthy miller's family.
When did Rembrandt move to Amsterdam?
He approached the merchant Hendrick van Uylenburgh in 1631 and settled permanently in Amsterdam around 1631 -1632.
When did he marry Saskia?
They became engaged in June 1633 and married on June 22, 1634 in Sint Annaparochie, Friesland.
When is La Ronde de nuit painted?
The commission dates back to 1639 and the painting was completed in 1642. It represents a civic guard company setting in motion.
Did Rembrandt go bankrupt in 1656?
He gets one cessio bonorum, i.e. a voluntary transfer of property under legal control. This insolvency procedure avoids imprisonment for debt but results in the sale of his house and collections.
When did Hendrickje Stoffels come into her life?
She was attested in the house in 1647, became his companion and gave birth to their daughter Cornelia in 1654.
When did Titus die?
Rembrandt's son died in 1668, a few months after his marriage to Magdalena van Loo and before the birth of their daughter Titia.
What did Rembrandt die of?
The exact cause is undocumented. He died on October 4, 1669 in Amsterdam and was buried four days later in the Westerkerk.
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