Qui étaient les parents de Rembrandt ?

Son père était Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn, meunier à Leiden. Sa mère était Neeltje, ou Neeltgen, Willemsdochter van Zuytbroeck, issue d’une famille de boulangers. Ils se marièrent en 1589 et eurent dix enfants.

Rembrandt venait-il d’une famille pauvre ?

Non. La famille n’appartenait pas à l’élite, mais elle était suffisamment aisée pour envoyer Rembrandt à l’école latine puis l’inscrire à l’université de Leiden. Le métier de meunier de son père constituait une activité économique importante.

Combien Rembrandt avait-il de frères et sœurs ?

La généalogie du Musée de la Maison de Rembrandt recense dix enfants dans le couple parental, Rembrandt compris. Plusieurs moururent jeunes et tous ne sont pas documentés avec la même précision.

Rembrandt a-t-il peint son père et sa mère ?

Des hommes et femmes âgés de sa période de Leiden sont traditionnellement identifiés comme ses parents. L’eau-forte dite de sa mère est jugée très probablement liée à Neeltje, mais plusieurs peintures autrefois présentées comme des portraits familiaux restent incertaines.

Qui était l’épouse de Rembrandt ?

Rembrandt épousa Saskia van Uylenburgh le 22 juin 1634. Issue d’une famille patricienne de Leeuwarden, elle mourut en 1642 à l’âge de trente ans.

Combien d’enfants Rembrandt a-t-il eus ?

Six enfants sont documentés : quatre avec Saskia — Rombertus, deux filles successivement prénommées Cornelia et Titus — puis une fille, Cornelia, avec Hendrickje Stoffels. Trois enfants de Saskia moururent en bas âge.

Qui était Titus van Rijn ?

Titus, né en 1641, fut le seul enfant de Rembrandt et Saskia à atteindre l’âge adulte. Avec Hendrickje, il créa une société de commerce d’art qui protégeait le travail de son père contre ses créanciers. Il mourut en 1668.

Rembrandt a-t-il épousé Hendrickje Stoffels ?

Non. Hendrickje fut sa compagne et la mère de leur fille Cornelia, mais ils ne se marièrent pas. Un remariage aurait eu de lourdes conséquences sur l’héritage prévu par le testament de Saskia.

Rembrandt a-t-il eu des petits-enfants ?

Oui. Titus et Magdalena van Loo eurent une fille, Titia, baptisée en mars 1669, après la mort de Titus. La fille de Rembrandt et Hendrickje, Cornelia, eut également une descendance après son installation à Batavia.

Le tableau La Fiancée juive représente-t-il Rembrandt et Saskia ?

Non. Le titre est tardif et l’identité du couple n’est pas établie. L’œuvre montre l’intimité conjugale, mais elle ne doit pas être utilisée comme photographie de la propre famille du peintre.

Leiden · Amsterdam · Genealogy

Rembrandt's family and parents

From his father's mill to the portraits of Saskia, Titus and Hendrickje.

Rembrandt was not born into poverty and did not live as a genius without ties. Parents, brothers, sisters, wife, companions, children and in-laws shaped his education, his workshop, his finances and some of his images.

See Family Tree Discover his parents

Rembrandt and Saskia in the role of the prodigal son and his companion, circa 1635. A painted staging, not a domestic snapshot.

BirthJuly 15, 1606, Leiden

ParentsHarmen and Neeltje

Siblings10 children in total

Direct descent6 documented children

The short answer

A large, educated and economically stable family

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn is the ninth of ten children Harmen gerritszoon van rijn, miller, and Neeltje Willemsdochter van Zuytbroeck, from a family of bakers.

The home did not belong to the aristocracy, but it was prosperous enough to finance the Latin school and then enrollment at Leiden University. This detail contradicts the romantic story of the painter emerging from poverty. His parents then accepted his artistic choice and sent him to Jacob van Swanenburgh.

In Amsterdam, Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh in 1634. They had four children; only Titus reaches adulthood. With Hendrickje Stoffels, his unmarried partner, he has a daughter, Cornelia. At the end of his life he lost Saskia, Hendrickje and Titus, but two family lines survived him by Cornelia and her granddaughter Titia.

Explore the Rembrandt collection Read the full biography

Simplified family tree

Three generations around Rembrandt

This diagram retains the direct links useful for understanding one's life. The dates follow the genealogy published by the Rembrandt House Museum.

Harmen gerritszoon van rijn

1568 -1630 · father · miller in Leiden

Neeltje van Zuytbroeck

around 1568 -1640 · mother · family of bakers

Rembrandt + Saskia

Rombertus (1635 -1636)
Cornelia (1638)
Cornelia (1640)
Titus (1641 -1668)

Rembrandt + Hendrickje

Cornelia (1654 -1684)
Born in Amsterdam, died in Batavia.

Titus + Magdalena van Loo

Titia (1669 -1715)
Granddaughter born after the death of Titus.

Pay attention to vocabulary: Geertje Dirckx was Titus's nurse and then Rembrandt's companion for a time; Hendrickje Stoffels was his lasting companion. Neither was his legal wife.

Rembrandt's mother, Neeltje van Zuytbroeck, etching from 1628 — *Rembrandt's Mother*, 1628, Rijksmuseum. The identification of this woman with Neeltje is considered very likely by the museum.

I · Parents

Harmen the miller and Neeltje, daughter of a baker

Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn was born in Leiden in 1568. He operated a grain mill located near the Rhine and participated in the life of his neighborhood, for which he became responsible. The name "van Rijn" refers to this vicinity of the river and the family mill.

Being a miller in 17th century Holland is not a miserable condition. The mill transforms grain and fits into the heart of the urban economy. Family income allowed Rembrandt to study seven years at the Latin school and then to be enrolled in 1620 at the University of Leiden, an unusual path for a son of an artisan.

Neeltje - also called Neeltgen or Cornelia in the documents - was born around 1568. His maternal family included bakers and belonged to a Catholic network in Leiden. This confessional origin is interesting in a city that has become officially Reformed, but it does not authorize attributing a simple and exclusive faith to Rembrandt himself.

Harmen and Neeltje married on October 8, 1589. The father died in 1630 and the mother in 1640. They therefore saw the beginnings of their son's success, his departure for Amsterdam, his marriage to Saskia and his rise as a portrait painter.

The Glasses Merchant, Rembrandt's first known work — *The Glasses Merchant*, circa 1624. Recurring models from the Leiden period have sometimes been compared to Rembrandt's parents, without proof of identity for each figure.

Supposed portraits

Can we recognize the father and mother in his paintings?

Young Rembrandt and his entourage use several older models. From the 17th century, collectors and catalogs readily named them "father of Rembrandt" or "mother of Rembrandt". Some identifications are plausible, others are tradition.

The etching from 1628 showing an old woman with a painstakingly observed face is today presented by the Rijksmuseum as almost certainly depicting Neeltje. In contrast, a religious painting where an elderly woman plays the prophetess Anne does not automatically become a documentary portrait of her mother.

The same caution applies to men wearing bonnets associated with Harmen. Rembrandt transforms his models into scholars, prophets, biblical old men or "tronies", these studies of expression and costume. A family resemblance is therefore not enough to prove identity.

To remember: there are likely studies from those close to him, but many family titles were added long after the works were created.

II · Brothers and sisters

Rembrandt, ninth of ten children

The genealogy of the House of Rembrandt lists ten children born from the marriage of Harmen and Neeltje. Several died young and three were only known by their burial certificate. The children named are Gerrit, Adriaen, Machtelt, Cornelis, Willem, Rembrandt and Lysbeth.

1 · Gerrit
around 1590 -16312 · Adriaen
around 1597 -16523 · child
died in 16044 · girl
died in 16045 · child
died in 16096 · Machtelt
died in 16257 · Cornelis
died around 16398 · Willem
died in 16559 · Rembrandt
1606 - 166910 · Lysbeth
died in 1655

This list does not necessarily correspond to an absolutely certain birth order for each child: the registers are more precise on burials than on all births. However, it shows that Rembrandt grew up in a dense household, marked like many families of the time by high infant mortality.

Adriaen regains a visible place in the family neighborhood and becomes, like his father, neighborhood manager. Rembrandt is not destined for the mill: his status as a younger son makes other training possible. His parents do not fight his vocation, but organize it.

III · Saskia and the children

Marriage that connects love, workshop and social network

Saskia van Uylenburgh belongs to a patrician family from Leeuwarden. His father Rombertus was mayor of the city. His cousin Hendrick van Uylenburgh ran an art business and portrait workshop in Amsterdam where Rembrandt worked from 1632. This professional relationship also opened the couple's meeting.

Rembrandt and Saskia became engaged in June 1633 and married on June 22, 1634. Saskia appeared in intimate drawings, portraits and costumed scenes. These images demonstrate exceptional proximity, but they also play with theater, allegory and social representation.

Portrait of Titus van Rijn, son of Rembrandt — *Portrait of Titus*, circa 1660. Rembrandt and Saskia's only child to reach adulthood became an essential player in the family workshop.

The Return of Rembrandt's Prodigal Son — *The Return of the Prodigal Son*, circa 1668 -1669. The biblical theme of filiation is painted at the end of a life marked by the loss of several children.

Family portrait by Rembrandt circa 1665-1668 — *Family portrait*, circa 1665 -1668, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum. The models are not Rembrandt's own family: the painting shows his art of building collective intimacy.

The six documented children

Three early deaths, Titus and Cornelia

Child	Mother	Dates	What we know
Rombertus	Saskia	1635 - 1636	Baptized in December 1635, he died after a few weeks.
Cornelia	Saskia	1638	First girl with this first name; she died at a young age.
Cornelia	Saskia	1640	The first name is given a second time, frequent use after the death of a child.
Titus	Saskia	1641 - 1668	He reached adulthood, married Magdalena van Loo and worked with her father.
Cornelia	Hendrickje	1654 - 1684	She survived Rembrandt, left for Batavia and started a family there.
Titia	granddaughter	1669 - 1715	Posthumous daughter of Titus and Magdalena, baptized a few months before Rembrandt's death.

The painting includes Titia to show the third generation, but she is Rembrandt's granddaughter and not his child.

Hendrickje Stoffels, companion of Rembrandt — *Hendrickje Stoffels*, mid-1650s, Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum specifies that no certain formal portrait remains, but that this identification is traditionally accepted.

IV · After Saskia

Geertje, Hendrickje and a blended family

Saskia died on June 14, 1642, less than a year after Titus' birth. Rembrandt hires the widow Geertje Dirckx to take care of the baby. She becomes his companion, then their breakup turns into a legal conflict. The sources show a harsh and complex procedure; reducing it to a sentimental anecdote erases the economic and legal relationships of the home.

Hendrickje Stoffels then enters the house. Daughter of a soldier from Bredevoort, she became Rembrandt's lasting companion and gave birth to Cornelia in 1654. The couple did not marry. Saskia's will imposed a serious financial consequence in the event of remarriage, linked to Titus' share.

In 1654, the Reformed Church summoned Hendrickje and censured him for his life together outside of marriage. Rembrandt is not similarly subject to this discipline since he is not a member of the Church. The couple remained together until Hendrickje's death in 1663.

Hendrickje is not just a domestic presence or a role model. With Titus, she created an art trading company in 1660. Rembrandt, legally weakened by bankruptcy, worked as an employee of this structure. The family becomes a concrete tool for economic protection of the workshop.

The family in the house-workshop

A home, a shop and a place of production

The Sint-Anthonisbreestraat house is not a residence isolated from professional activity. We live there, we receive customers, we teach, we collect, we paint and we sell. Saskia and Rembrandt sleep in the room; Titus grows up among students, works and objects of study.

Real facade of the Rembrandt House in Amsterdam — The house purchased in 1639, now Rembrandt House Museum. It was at the same time a family home, workshop, school and commercial space.

Rembrandt's reconstructed workshop in his Amsterdam home — The large reconstructed workshop. The boundary between family, apprentices and artistic production was much less clear than in the modern image of the solitary artist.

V · What the images prove - or not

Don't turn every face into a family member

A title may be late

"Rembrandt's mother", "Rembrandt's brother" or "Jewish bride" are sometimes traditional names, not identifications based on a contemporary act or inscription.

A loved one can play a role

Saskia becomes Flora or a biblical heroine. A family model is therefore not necessarily represented under its civil identity.

The resemblance is not enough

Rembrandt, Jan Lievens and Gerrit Dou sometimes use the same models in Leiden. Allocations and identifications must be separated.

Isaac and Rebecca, known as The Jewish Bride, by Rembrandt — *Isaac and Rebecca*, said *The Jewish Bride*. The identity of the couple remains unknown; it's not about Rembrandt and Saskia.

Self-portrait of Rembrandt in 1659 — *Self-portrait*1659. Rembrandt documents his own face consistently, but he leaves far fewer family portraits identified with certainty.

Family timeline

From Leiden to granddaughter Titia

1589

Marriage of parents

Harmen and Neeltje get married in Leiden.

1606

Birth

Rembrandt was born on July 15, the ninth of ten children.

1634

Marriage to Saskia

The couple married in Friesland.

1641

Birth of Titus

Couple's first child to survive childhood.

1642

Death of Saskia

She died at thirty, leaving Titus still a baby.

1654

Birth of Cornelia

Daughter of Rembrandt and Hendrickje Stoffels.

1663 - 1668

Successive losses

Hendrickje died in 1663, then Titus in 1668.

1669

Birth of Titia

Rembrandt's granddaughter was baptized before his death.

Explore the works

Rembrandt, portraits and family in the shop

Collection

All works by Rembrandt

Portraits, biblical scenes, self-portraits and large formats.

Self-portrait

Rembrandt facing himself

The artist's face as a pictorial laboratory.

Filiation

The Return of the Prodigal Son

A major image of forgiveness between father and son.

Couple

The Jewish Bride

An intimate scene whose models remain unknown.

Community

The Night Watch

The great collective portrait of 1642.

Theme

The Portraits collection

Faces, couples and families from the history of painting.

Frequently asked questions

Understanding Rembrandt's family

Who were Rembrandt's parents?

His father was Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn, miller in Leiden. His mother was Neeltje, or Neeltgen, Willemsdochter van Zuytbroeck, from a family of bakers. They married in 1589 and had ten children.

Did Rembrandt come from a poor family?

No. The family was not elite, but they were well enough off to send Rembrandt to Latin school and then enroll him at Leiden University. His father's job as a miller was an important economic activity.

How many siblings did Rembrandt have?

The genealogy of the Rembrandt House Museum lists ten children in the parental couple, including Rembrandt. Many died young and not all are documented with the same precision.

Did Rembrandt paint his father and mother?

Older men and women from his Leiden period are traditionally identified as his parents. His mother's so-called etching is most likely considered linked to Neeltje, but several paintings once presented as family portraits remain uncertain.

Who was Rembrandt's wife?

Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh on June 22, 1634. Coming from a patrician family in Leeuwarden, she died in 1642 at the age of thirty.

How many children did Rembrandt have?

Six children are documented: four with Saskia - Rombertus, two daughters successively named Cornelia and Titus - then a daughter, Cornelia, with Hendrickje Stoffels. Three children from Saskia died at a young age.

Who was Titus van Rijn?

Titus, born in 1641, was the only child of Rembrandt and Saskia to reach adulthood. With Hendrickje, he established an art trading company that protected his father's work from his creditors. He died in 1668.

Did Rembrandt marry Hendrickje Stoffels?

No. Hendrickje was his partner and the mother of their daughter Cornelia, but they did not marry. Remarriage would have had serious consequences on the inheritance provided for in Saskia's will.

Did Rembrandt have grandchildren?

Yes. Titus and Magdalena van Loo had a daughter, Titia, baptized in March 1669, after Titus' death. Rembrandt and Hendrickje's daughter, Cornelia, also had descendants after settling in Batavia.

Does the painting The Jewish Bride depict Rembrandt and Saskia?

No. The title is late and the identity of the couple is not established. The work shows marital intimacy, but it should not be used as a photograph of the painter's own family.

Documentary sources

Rembrandt House Museum, Rembrandt genealogy - parents, siblings, children and dates.

Rijksmuseum, ten biographical landmarks - childhood, Saskia, Titus and later years.

National Gallery of Art, documented biography - home, Geertje, Hendrickje, bankruptcy and trading company.

National Gallery of Art, notice on Saskia - Uylenburgh family and wedding timeline.

Rembrandt House, family and social network - role of Titus, Hendrickje and relatives.

Metropolitan Museum, Hendrickje Stoffels and Rijksmuseum, Rembrandt's mother - free access image notices.

Article verified and published on July 30, 2026. Contested identifications are marked as such.

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