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Rembrandt
1606–1669Portraiture4,520 items204 collections17th century
Dutch Golden Age painter and etcher who made portraiture, and his own ageing face, a lifelong study of character.
Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leiden in 1606 and made his name in Amsterdam with group portraits such as The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp (1632) and The Night Watch (1642). He painted, drew and etched himself around eighty times, from a confident young man to a worn old one, and brought the same attention to biblical scenes, where light falls on a few faces and leaves the rest in shadow.
Most of what hangs here is his printmaking. He made about three hundred etchings and reworked the plates between printings, so museums hold different states and impressions of one image. Look for The Hundred Guilder Print (c. 1648) and The Three Crosses (1653). He was declared insolvent in 1656 and died in Amsterdam in 1669.
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