REMBRANDT Porty'ait of Rembrandt (rôjs). (louvke.) REMBRANDT His Life, his Work, and his Time BY i::mil1': mk^hI',!, MEMliKK OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE FROM THE FRENCH HY EDITED I!Y Fl.ORENCE SIMMONDS FREDERICK WEDMOKE W/i/j Sixty-seuen Full-iiage plates And Two Hundred and Fifty Text /lliistrations IN TWO VOLUMES First Volume LONDON WILLIAM HEINEM.ANN 1S94 VIEW OF A TOWN, Pen dmwing heightened with wash. (Berlin Print Room.) EDITOR'S PREFACE I HAD better point out at once such changes as it has been thought desirable to make in placing before the English- reading public Monsieur Michel's comprehensive book on that pic- torial artist whom all schools of criticism unite to honour. Those changes will be found to consist almost entirely in that which concerns the illustration, for in regard to the literary work the Editor's duty to the public and to the writer was mainly to pre- sent Monsieur Michel's substance ,641(8.3,0). and style in the best English at the command of a translator of taste, and the English of Miss Simmonds, and knowledge generally, as I think, excellent in itself, has surely done as little violence as possible to the French of the Frenchman, In aiming to be correct. Miss Simmonds has not lost sight of the necessity of being readable. VI EDITOR'S PREFACE I have ventured to correct here and there a few errors of fact — misprints, in all probability, in the French edition — and these small corrections have been greatly supplemented — dare I say completed ? — by the list of corrections which Monsieur Michel himself has supplied for our present issue, and which are now embodied in it. I have also, with now and again the kind assistance of owners of important Rembrandts and such serious students of the Master's work as Mr. Humphry Ward, Mr. Claude Phillips, Mr. Walter Armstrong (the Director of the Irish National Gallery), and Mr. J. M. Gray (the Curator of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery), made certain corrections and additions in that Appendix of Monsieur Michel's which deals with the whereabouts of great Rembrandt pictures in the United Kingdom. Again, in dealing with the etchings — things which the collector of every land must love ; things in which, as I conceive it, the art of Rembrandt found after all its amplest and most exquisite expression — due reference has been made to the Catalogue of Wilson, which Monsieur Michel had omitted to cite. Wilson's Catalogue, though comparatively elementary, and in this respect a contrast to the elaborate undertakings of later times (it was published in 1836), has never been wholly superseded. It enjoys the advantages — profits by the convenience — of its simplicity. Charles Blanc's is the Catalogue employed most habitually in France. Later in date, and more advanced and searching perhaps in its analysis of " states," it comes often usefully to Wilson's aid. I should have liked, but that it might have clogged our pages almost unduly, to have cited it, and also the latest and greatest of these Caia/ogites raisonnes — that of Monsieur Dutuit, published so luxuriously in illustration and elucida- tion of his own wonderful cabinet of Rembrandt's prints. The collector at all events cannot afford to disregard that, any more than the Charles Blanc ; but its inevitably ex- pensive form may continue to forbid its popular use. This tribute to it was due. While adding in the Catalogue proper — not throughout the course of the volume — the references to Wilson, I might personally have felt it permissible, and even wise, to discard the reference to Bartsch which Monsieur Michel has maintained. For the Knglish student of Rembrandt — especially for the student KUri'OR'S PREFACE of " States "—Bartsch is scarcely up to date. Often a con- venient, sometimes the only handy source of knowledge on the engraving- of many older masters, that excellent Eighteenth Century Viennese connoisseur has, as an authority on Rembrandt, been in a measure superseded. But we have thought it politic to be conservative, and have retained the old while introducing much of the more recent. And now for the illustrations themselves. Almost directly the publisher consulted me about the book I told him that the French edition, along with all that it contained of value and of charm, seemed to me actually burdened by the presence of a few photogravures and a few coloured reproductions of drawings which he would do well to dispense with. What they precisely were need not here be said. A comparison of the two editions it is open to any one to make. But while proposing to leave out these things, I wanted the publisher to make good certain omissions in Monsieur Michel's list of illustrations, and asked him to include, either as photogravures or illustrations in the text, some further English Rembrandts of note and of high merit. He assented ; and thus it is that in the present edition we are enabled — thanks too to their owners' graciousness — to have reproductions of Lord Ilchester's noble picture, Rembrandt in a Yclloiv Gaberdine, of the Glasgow Corporation's picture of a Man in Armotir, of the Hendrickje Stoffels of the Scottish National Gallery, and of Mr. Samuel Joseph's Saskia, while, as a minor matter, Mr. Spielmann's offer of a Rembrandt pen-and-ink drawing enables us to add one more to the series of Rembrandt's artistic dealings with the story of Tobit. Nor does the enumeration of these additions quite end the tale of changes. In the French issue the reproductions of certain of the etchings were very unsatisfactory. A fresh block has been made of the Luiina, which was so "woolly " in the French publication. I hope the new one is better. Mr. Gray lent us the etching. Again, a fresh block has been made (because with work of its extreme delicacy the scale formerly adopted was quite insufficient) of that delightful early etching of Rembrandt's mother which Mr. Hamerton has so fittingly eulogised — it appears on the first page — the small reproduc- tion of the Third State of the Clément de Jonghe has been supplemented by a reproduction of the First State, which I viii EDITOR'S PREFACE happen to possess ; we give also, for the first time, a block from the wonderful boy-portrait which was once supposed to be Titus and then supposed to be a little Prince of Orange (No. 311 in Wilson's Catalogue), and, finally, I invited the publisher to include the reproduction of a plate of sketches on the copper, which is of great rarity (Wilson, No. 364), and of which only a part of the interest is that it does undoubtedly contain one of Rembrandt's portraits of himself — a portrait so remarkable for vigour, assurance, and freedom, that I hardly wonder at the opinion which was entertained of this print, in the full ripeness of his judgment, by that admirable connoisseur, Monsieur Dutuit, who goes so far as to say, in his great Catalogue, that it is one of the very best of Rembrandt's pieces. So much for the subtractions and additions in the matter of illustration. There remains but a final word. No student who has ever acquired a vivid interest in Rembrandt's life and work can expect to agree absolutely in all the conclusions of another — be that other never so learned — be he Monsieur Michel himself. While acquiescing generally in Monsieur Michel's views — in the views of a critic so sound and careful — even an Editor may feel, here and there, a disposition to differ. But whatever latitude of quarrel one might have left one's self as a writer, as an Editor has been sternly curtailed. I have for the most part been reticent. Least of all could it have been fitting that I should, in this place, have said a word bearing in any direction on certain ancient, and well-known, and more or less personal disputes in which it has never been my desire to have a part. While doing my best to ensure the adequate presentation of Monsieur Michel's labours, and the comprehensive illustration of Rembrandt's consum- mate art, I have, speaking generally, sought to efface myself. Just once and again, on minor matters of fact or of opinion, I have ventured a remark in a foot-note — a foot-note printed in italics, that it may be abundantly clear that I alone, and not Monsieur Michel, must be accounted responsible for the little that is there said. FREDERICK WEDMORE, London, October, 1893. About 1645 (B. 2s8). AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION T" 'HE short monograph on Rembrandt which I contributed to the Artistes Célèbres series^ in 1885 was the germ of this more extensive study. The subject had long attracted me. Travels in Germany, frequent visits to Holland, and familiarity with his etched work, all tended to increase my admiration for the master. My researches in connection with the earlier monograph made me aware of many gaps in my knowledge of his life and art ; they also fired me with the desire for a closer acquaintance. The general plan of this work lay ready to my hand. It was marked out by my earlier essay, and I have naturally adhered to the chronological method there adopted. Rembrandt's life was so wholly given to his art that the two cannot be divorced in narrative ; ^ Librairie de t Art, VOL. I. b ir.TÎAXDT I\' A FLAT ( About 163S (B. 26). X AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION their unity is complete, the one illuminating the other. It was his almost invariable custom to carefully note the dates of his creations. Perhaps no artist has shown a like precision in such matters ; none was so often his own model ; none has left such innumerable studies of father, mother, wife, and all who were dear to him. Though much has been written about his life, its actual facts were little known till the last few years. His taste for solitude, and great independence of character, combined to hold him aloof from the foremost men of his day. The brief popularity he enjoyed on first settling in Amsterdam was succeeded by the poverty and neglect in which he died. Hence the information to be gleaned from his contemporaries is very scanty. For our knowledge of his early years we are mainly indebted to a bare page in the Description of Leydeii by J. Orlers, Burgomaster of the city, published in 1 64 1, when the young artist was at the height of his fame, and to Sandrart's slightly more e.xplicit account. The latter narrative has a double interest. Widely as they differed both in taste and aim, Sandrart too was a painter, and had no doubt a personal acquaintance with his brilliant confrere. Samuel van Hoogstraten's disappointing reticence as to the details of his master's career was supplemented to some extent by Houbraken. But Houbraken's facts are interwoven with a mass of those suspicious anecdotes which adorn the plain tale of so many artistic biographies. Campo- Weyermann, Dargenville, Descamps, and others added further embellishments, boldly piling fable on fable for the amusement of their readers, till legend gradually ousted truth. The spendthrift who could never learn the value of money, and scattered it like some young noble, was, according to them, a miser ; that lofty spirit, the author of so many fine creations, was, we are told, the boon companion of vulgarity and degradation. His marriage with a fair peasant of Ransdorp, his pretended death, his journey to Venice, his threats that he would forsake his native land if not treated with AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION xi greater respect — threats he actually carried out by settling at Hull or Yarmouth, say some, in Sweden, say others, and there ending his days — all these are among the inventions current till the middle of the present century. To Mr. Eduard KoUoff, a scholar whose claims have been somewhat overlooked of late, the inauguration of a more exact and learned system of criticism is due. His study on Rembrandt is insufficiently known, mainly, no doubt, by reason of its appearance in a very unlikely publication.' It is marked, however, by a pene- tration and precision to which Biirger and Vosmaer have hardly done justice commensurate with the advantage they reaped there- from. With the works of these two writers, who relied chiefly on Kolloff, a new era began in Rembrandt literature, an era inaugurated by the fruitful researches of Messrs. Scheltema, R. Elzevier, Eckhoff and Van der Willigen. Biirger propagated their discoveries far and wide, stimulating the zeal of the pioneers, and, by his fervid enthusiasm, imparting to his readers something of that passionate, almost exclusive admiration, with which he had come to regard the master.^ But the task Burger had set himself to accomplish was destined to be carried out by a Dutchman, and Vosmaer showed himself equal to the lofty work his patriotism had suggested, by the pious care he brought to bear upon it, and by his profound study of his subject in all its ramifi- cations. To his skilful grouping of facts already ascertained, he added the sum of his own discoveries.^ His perfect knowledge of Dutch literature enabled him to paint the artist among his actual surroundings, and to show how far Rembrandt had been inspired by these, how far by the originality of his genius. ^ Rembrandt's Zeben n7!d îlerÂr, published in Fr. von Raumer's HisforiscJies Taschenbuch, Leipzig, 1854, p. 401 et seq. - Les Musées de Hollande, by W. Bîirger. 3 vols. 121110. Paris, 1858-60. ^ Rembra?idt ; his Life a?id Works, by Vosmaer. The first edition appeared in 1S6S; the second, much enlarged and revised, in 1877. xii AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION Thenceforward the master's triumph was assured. Worshippers, fervent, if few, he had always commanded ; but the public has been gradually won over. Increasing facilities of intercourse have opened up the museums and private galleries which possess his works ; engravings and photographs of his pictures, and facsimiles of his drawings have familiarised us with the force and fecundity of his wonderful genius. Far from satiating the appetite of inquiry, these various forms of research have stimulated the desire for more perfect knowledge. Among writers of the last ten years who have specially devoted themselves to the quest, Messrs. W. Bode and A. Bredius are facile principes. The limitations of Vosmaer are very evident. He had seen but a portion of the master's pictures, and his aesthetic perception was by no means equal to his erudition. Dr. Bode took up his work, and corrected it at many points by the light of his own purer and more experienced taste. In his constant travels throughout Europe, he has made himself acquainted with the whole field of Rembrandt's labours, and is perhaps better qualified to catalogue his works than any living writer. He was the first to direct attention to the works of Rembrandt's adolescence ; he has restored to him, as their true author, a series of unknown works, and his attribu- tions, though contested at first, are now universally accepted. A notice the published in he Graphischcii Kiinste was expanded into the remarkable article on Rembrandt in his Studies for a History of Art in Holland} a striking analysis of the master's artistic career. A fresh impetus was simultaneously given to documentary research by the inauguration of the periodical known as Oud- Holland,'^ under the editorship of the well-known scholars, Messrs. Bredius and De Roever. A fund of priceless information on matters connected with 1 Siudien ^ur Gescliiclile dcr Iwlldtidisilien Malerd. lliunswick, 1SS3. 1 S\<.i. 2 Amsterdam : Binger Brothers. The publication is now in its tentli )'car. AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION xiii art history was discovered by the editors in Dutch archives, and most ably annotated. Thanks to their researches, the cruces of Rembrandt's biography have been explained, and the secrets of his mysterious existence brought to light. In grateful recognition of all I owe to their friendly help, I here tender my thanks to Messrs. Bredius and De Roever. If I have been enabled to supply the deficiencies of Vosmaer, and to trace more clearly than he has done the close union between Rembrandt's life and art, my success is due to them. To their zeal and to their discoveries I owe the information which must give a certain value to my book. While busied in the arrangement and collation of my materials, I have been careful to neglect no opportunity of study at first hand. Before starting on a pilgrimage through Europe to see such of the master's works as were unknown to me, and to re-examine such as were familiar, I made every effort to prepare myself for the problems to be encountered. Two successive visits to England, and expedi- tions to Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and North Germany enabled me to review all the museums I had already visited. Rembrandt's name is a talisman among his devotees, and the sort of freemasonry it establishes between them opened all doors to me. The directors of public galleries everywhere received me with the utmost cordiality. Their sympathy proved of great assistance to me in my work ; they imparted their own stores of information, opened their archives for my inspection, and frequently gained access for me to private collections, where they themselves were my guides. Their good offices have not ceased with my travels. Thanks to the friendly relations thus established, I gained correspondents in all quarters, with whom I could exchange ideas, who have been prompt to answer my questions, and even to forestall them by the liberal communi- cation of facts likely to be of interest to me. Among those to whose kindness or valuable help I am most deeply indebted are : Messrs. Eisenmann and Habich of Cassel ; Mr. Riegel of Brunswick ; Messrs. AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION W. de Seidlitz, K. Woermann and C. Hofstede de Groot of Dresden ; Dr. R. Graul, Editor of the Graphischen Ki'mste of Vienna ; Dr. Bode and Dr. Lippmann of Berlin ; Mr. A. .Somoff of St. Petersburg ; Messrs. G. Upmark and G. Goethe of Stockholm ; Mr. Emil Bloch of Copenhagen ; Dr. Schlie of Schwerin ; Mr. Lichtwark of Hamburg ; Mr. Obreen, of Amsterdam ; Messrs. P. Haverkorn van Rysewyk and Moes of Rotterdam ; Dr. J. Worp of Groningen, and Mr. Scholten, Director of the Teyler Museum at Haarlem. For the topography of places connected with Rembrandt, I had the best of all guides in Mr. Ch. Dozy of Leyden, and Mr. de Roever of Amsterdam. To their kindness I owe very substantial help. Desiring to turn such precious facilities to the best possible account, I lived for several years with Rembrandt, surrounded by reproductions of his pictures, drawings and etchings, and by documents bearing on his history, my mind all the while intently fixed on the facts of his life, and the achievements of his genius. In my ceaseless eftbrts to grasp the logic of this synchronism of works and events, I learnt the realities of his career. The procession of dates and facts took on a new sig- nificance ; I saw the heterogeneous threads of information weave themselves gradually into the fabric of a life — the life of Rembrandt, with its small events and large passions, its stormy aspirations, its glorious masterpieces, marking the successive epochs of troubled existence. None can feel more deeply than I the difficulties of such a task. But happily the master himself collaborates with me to make himself more widely known. It has been my good fortune to secure Rem- brandt's own services as illustrator of the volume wherein I propose to chronicle his history and analyse his genius. The great advance in photography and heliogravure of late years has made it possible to offer the public such a transcript of Rembrandt's works as is contained in this volume. The drawings and etchings are reproduced by the firm of Krakow. AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION xv A few of the most famous and important, the place of which in this work had been determined from its inception, are printed separately. Other examples have been chosen partly as characteristic specimens of the master, partly as lending themselves readily to successful reproduction. In referring to the etchings, we have followed Bartsch's classification, not only as that to which most authorities are revert- ing,' but as offering an uniform method of notation for the works of Rembrandt and those of his pupils or imitators, whose plates Bartsch has also described and catalogued. - The difficulties of reproduction were, of course, infinitely greater with the pictures. Photography is not well adapted to the rendering of those brown and golden tones which predominate in Rembrandt's works. It was necessary to choose proofs combining clearness in the shadows with exactness in the suggestion of values. .Some of the examples were borrowed from the collection of Messrs. Braun and Co. Mr. Hanfstaengl of Munich also allowed the free use of all his Rembrandt reproductions. I am indebted to Mr. Baer of Rotterdam for the fragment of the Pacification of Holland, the grisaille of the Boymans Museum, and to Mr. Hoffmann, Director of the Darmstadt Museum, for a photograph of the Flagellation in his gallery, which is now published for the first time. The courtesy of Lord Warwick, of Count Orloff Davidoff, and of Messrs. Ed. André, Haro, and R. Kann, has further enabled me to reproduce other pictures never before published. Finally M. Sedelmeyer, to whom I here make most grateful acknowledgment, furnished me with photographs of several among the numerous works of Rembrandt which have been in his possession from time to time. The plates engraved from these photographs were executed by M. Dujardin. Copies of some old engravings of public buildings ^ See a paragrapli in viy Preface. — F. W. " The numerous etchings here reproduced are distinguislicd by a 1Î. (signifying B-irtsch), followed by the number of each in his catalogue. xvi AUTHOR'S INTROnUCTION in Leyden and Amsterdam, several picturesque views of the two towns, and facsimiles of signatures successively used by Rem- brandt, complete the list of illustrations in this volume, which the publishers have striven to make worthy of that great master to whom it is dedicated. THE !;lkp:i'ing child. tSir Frederick Leighton's Collection.) CONTENTS OF VOLUME I CHAPTER I LEYDEN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY — THE BIRTH OF REMBRANDT— HIS FAMILY— HIS STUDIES AND AMUSEMENTS— THE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN — EDUCATION AND MANNERS OF THE PERIOD — WORKS OF ART IN THE TOWN-HALL— PRECOCITY OF REMBRANDT'S GENIUS— HIS MASTERS, J. VAN SWANENBURCH AT LEYDEN, AND P. EASTMAN AT AMSTERDAM — HIS RETURN CHAPTER II FIRST PICTURES PAINTED AT LEYDEN — ' ST. PAUL IN PRISON' AND 'THE MONEY- CHANGER' — (1627), 'SAMSON AND DELILAH' (1628), AND 'THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE'— REMBRANDT'S PORTRAITS OF HIMSELF— HIS FIRST ETCHINGS — HIS METHODS 25—36 CHAPTER III REMBRANDT'S PAINTED AND ENGRAVED PORTRAITS OF HIS FATHER AND MOTHER — STUDIES MADE IN COMMON WITH HIS FELLOW-STUDENTS—' LOT AND HIS DAUGHTERS,' ' THE BAPTISM OF THE EUNUCH,' ' ST. JEROME AT PRAYER ' — REMBRANDT'S FIRST PURCHASES OF WORKS OF ART 37 — ;5 CHAPTER IV REMBRANDT'S PRECOCIOUS FAME — HUYGENS' ACCOUNT THEREOF — THE PICTURE OF 'JUDAS' — ETCHINGS OF THIS PERIOD: THE 'BEGGARS,' ,' SAINT ANAS- TASIUS,' ' THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE,' AND THE ' HOLY FAMILY.' 163I — REMBRANDT RESOLVES TO SETTLE AT AMSTERDAiSI— THE INFLUENCE OF HIS LIFE AT LEYDEN ON HIS DEVELOPMENT 57 — 76 CHAPTER V AMSTERDAM TOWARDS THE YEAR 163I — HER GROWING TRADE AND PROS- PERITY — THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CITY — THE SPIRIT OF TOLERANCE — CHARITIES— THE LITERARY MOVEMENT — THE ART AND TASTE OF THE DAY — DUTCH HOME-LIFE 77 — 100 VOL. I. c CONTENTS CHAPTER VI PAGE REMBRANDT SETTLES AT AMSTERDAM — HiS FIRST PICTURES —HIS FEMALE MODELS— THE 'GOOD SAMARITAN' — THE 'RAPE OF PROSERPINE' — STUDIES OF OLD MEN — THE PORTRAITURE OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL— THOMAS DE KEVSER— PORTRAITS PAINTED IIV REMBRANDT IN 1632 lOI — 120 CHAPTER VII THE IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATION PICTURES IN HOLLAND — THE 'ANATOJIV THEATRES' — PICTURES OF ' ANATOMV-LESSONS ' IN ITALY AND HOLLAND — REM- BRANDT'S PREDECESSORS IN THIS GENRE : AERT PIETIÎRSEN, MICHIEL MIEREVELT, NICOLAES ELIAS, AND THOMAS DE KEVSER— DR. TULP— REMBRANDT'S ' LESSON IN ANATOMY' (1632) 121— 136 CHAPTER VIII REMBRANDT'S GROWING SUCCESS AS A PORTRAIT-PAINTER— PORTRAITS PAINTED IN 1632 AND 1633 — 'the SHIP-HUILDER AND HIS WIFE' — 'MARTIN DAEY AND HIS WIFE'— COMPOSITIONS OF THIS PERIOD :— 'ST. PETER'S BOAT IN THE STORM ' ; THE 'PHILOSOPHERS' — REMBRANDT'S RELATIONS WITH HUYGENS— THE SERIES OF PICTURES ON THE PASSION PAINTED FOR PRINCE FREDERICK HENRY. . . . I37— 164 CHAPTER IX SASKIA VAN UVLENBORCH AND HER FAMILY — REMBRANDT'S PORTRAITS OF HER — THE 'JEWISH BRIDE' — REMBRANDT MARRIES SASKIA (JUNE 22, 1634) —STUDIES AND PICTURES PAINTED FROM HER: THE 'ARTE.MISIA' IN THE PRADO, THE 'BURGOMASTER PANCRAS AND HIS WIFE,' THE 'REMBRANDT AND SASKIA' IN THE DRESDEN GALLERY — HIS INDUSTRY 165 — 184 CHAPTER X REMBRANDT'S ETCHINGS OF THIS PERIOD (1632-1639) — HIS DIVERSITY OF METHOD — STUDIES OF HIMSELF AND FAMILIAR SUBJECTS. — PORTRAIT OF J. UVTENBOGAERD — RELIGIOUS COMPOSITIONS — RImMBRANDT'S COLLABORATORS — THE 'RESURREC- TION OF LAZARUS,' THE 'DESCENT FROM THE CROSS,' AND THE ' ECCE HOMO' — THETHREE 'ORIENTAL HEADS'— THE 'ABRAHAM'S SACRIFICE' IN THE HERMITAGE. 1S5— 2oS CHAPTER XI. DOMESTIC LIFE — SKETCHES AND ETCHINGS MADE BY REMBRANDT FROM SASKIA AND HIMSELF — PORTRAITS AND PICTURES FROM 1635 TO 1640 — ' GANYMEDE,' AND REMBRANDT'S MYTHOLOGICAL COMPOSITTONS — THE ' DANÀE ' IN THE HERMITAGE — ' SUSANNA AT THE BATH ' AND THE ' MARRIAGE OF SAMSON ' — STUDIES OF STILL LIFE — T'HE BOOK OF TOBIT — ETCHINGS OF THIS PERIOD — THE 'DEATH OF THE CONTENTS XIX CHAPTER XII PAGE REMBRANDT'S GROWINX. FAME — HIS INFLUENCE ON HIS CONTEMPORARIES — HIS FIRST PUPILS AT A;\ISTERDAM ; FERDINAND BOL, COVERT FLINCK, GERBRANDT VAN DEN EECKHOUT, JAN VICTORS, PHILIPS DE KONINCK, ETC. — HIS REPUTED AVARICE — HIS TASTES AS A COLLECTOR — PURCHASE OF A HOUSE IN THE BREESTRAAT— REMBRANDT'S FRIENDS AND DOMESTIC HABITS — ETCHINGS OF SASKIA— THE DEATH OF REMBRANDT'S MOTHER 24I — 2Û4 CHAPTER XIII THE carpenter's HOUSEHOLD' (164O) — 'THE MEETING OF ST. ELIZABETH AND THE VIRGIN' — ' MANOAH'S PRAYER' (1641) — PORTRAITS OF THIS PERIOD: THE 'LADY WITH THE FAN' AND 'RENIER ANSLO ' — ETCHINGS FROM 1640 TO 1642— PICTURES OF THE MILITARY GUILDS IN HOLLAND — 'THE SORTIE OF FRANS BANNING COCQ'S COMPANY,' COMMONLY CALLED 'THE NIGHT WATCH' CHAPTER XIV SASKIA'S LAST ILLNESS — HER WILL — HER DEATH — THE EFFECT PRODUCED BY 'the NIGHT WATCH' — PICTURES OF THIS PERIOD: 'HOLY FAMILIES' — ' BATH- SHEBA.' — 'THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY' — 'PORTRAIT OF ELIZABETH BAS' —ETCHINGS FROM 1643 TO 1645— LANDSCAPE STUDIES— THE 'THREE TREES.' . . 293 — 320 LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME I ^ PACE Portrait of Rkmbrandt. 1632. (Louvre.) Phot. Braun Fmitispica Study of an Old Man. About 1630. Red chalk. (Louvre.) 13 Portrait of Rembrandt. About 1629—1630. (Hague Museum.) Phot. Hanfstaengl. 32 Study for the "Old Man Studying." (B. 149.) Red chalk and wash. About 1629 — 1630. (Louvre.) . 40 Study for THE " Saint Jerome." 1631. Red and black chalk 50 The Presentation in the Temple. 1631. (Hague Museum.) Phot. Hanfstaengl . 66 The Anatomy Lesson. 1632. (Hague Museum.) Phot. Hanfstaengl 132 The Shipbuilder and his Wife. 1633. (Buckingham Palace.) Phot. Braun. ... 142 Nathan admonishing David. Pen and wash. (Seymour Haden Collection.) .... 146 Man Preparing for Bed. Pen and sepia. (Stockholm Print Room.) 14S Study for the "Philosopher" in the Louvre. 1633. Red chalk. (Berlin Print Room.) 152 A Philosopher absorbed in Medit.ation. 1633. (Louvre.) Phot. Braun 154 The Geographer. Pen and wash. (Albertina.) 160 The Jewish Bride. About 1632. (Liechtenstein Gallery.) 16S Portrait of Saskia. About 1636— 1637. (Mr. Samuel Joseph's Collection.) 174 Portrait of Saskia. 1633. Lead pencil. (Berlin Print Room.) 17S Rembrandt and Saskia. About 1635. (Dresden Gallery.) Phot. Braun 1S2 Portrait OF A Man. Red and black chalk. (Late Holford Collection.) 190 Portrait of Rembrandt. 1634. (Berlin Museum.) 214 Supposed Portrait of Sobieski. 1637. (Hermitage.) Phot. Braun 216 Study for THE "Jewish Bride." 1634. Pen and wash. (Albertina.) Phot. Braun. . 220 Copy of the "Ganymede," by an Imitator of Rembrandt. (Dresden Museum.) . 222 Samson's Marriage Feast. 1638. (Dresden Gallery.) Phot. Braun 226 Tobias Catching the Fish. Pen and sepia. (Albertina.) 230 Tobias Restoring his F.ithkr's Sight.— Study for the Picture in the Arenberg Gallery. 1636. Pen and \\-ash. (Louvre.) 232 Tobias and the Angel. About 1636. (Mr. M. H. Spielmann's Collection) 234 Rembrandt's Studio. Pen and wash. (Louvre.) 252 The Carpenter's Household. 1640. (Louvre.) Phot. Braun 266 Fragment of " Manoah's Prayer." 1641. (Dresden Gallery.) Phot, liraun .... 270 Lady with a Fan. 1641. (Buckingliam Palace.) Phot. Braun 272 Study for the Etched 1'oktk.ut of Renier i^.NSLO. 1640. Red and black clialk. (British Museum.) 274 Study of an Elephant. Black chalk. (British Museum.) 276 LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS xxi PAGE A Man Watching a Woman with a Sleeping Child in her Arms. Pen and wash. (Heseltinc Collection.) 27S Lot and his Family. Pen and wash. (Bibliothèque Nationale.) 282 The ALarch out of the Civic Guard, commonly called "The Night W.atch." 1642. (Amsterdam Ryksmuseum.) 2S6 Christ Healing the Blind Man. Pen and wash. (Rotterdam Museum.) Phot. Baer =98 Portrait or Elizabeth Bas. About 1643. (Amsterdam Ryksmuseum.) Phot. Hanfstaengl 3o6 LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME I View of a Town. Pen Drawing heightened with wash. (Berlin Print Room.) .... v Portrait — supposed to be either Titus or the Prince of Orange. 1641. (B. 310.) . v A Village, with a Canal and a Vessel under Sail. About 1645. ■ ■ ix Rembrandt in a Flat Cap. 1638. (B. 26.) ix Sleeping Child. (Sir Frederick Leighton.) .wi Pen Drawing. (Duke of Devonshire's Collection.) i Rembrandt's Mother. 162S. (B. 354.) . . ■ i Municipal Orphanage and Church of St. Pancras at Leyden. (Drawing by Boudier, after a photograph.) 4 Leyden University, from Rapenburg. (Drawing by Boudier, after a photograph.) . 5 Botanical Gardens of Leyden University. (After an Engraving by W. Swancn- burch.) S Gate of the Doclcit of St. George at Le\'den. 1614. (Drawing by Boudier, after a photograph.) c) Town Hall OF Leyden. (Drawing by Boudier, after a photograph.) 13 Old Woman Asleep. About 1635. (B. 350.) ,6 The Raising of Lazarus. About 1633. (B. 73.) 17 Rembrandt's Father. 1630. (B. 304.) 20 Rembrandt's Mother. About 1631. (IS. 343.) 2, Rembrandt's Father. 1630. (B. 294.) 24 A Peasant Carrying Milkpails. About 1650. (B. 213.) 25 Rembrandt, full-face, Laughing, 1630. (B si's.) 25 Portrait of Rembrandt. (Casscl Museum.) 28 The Money-changer. (Fragment of the picture in the Berlin Museam.) 29 Rembrandt with his Moltt'H Open. 1630. (B. 13.) 33 Rembrandt wi i'h Magc;ard Eyes. 1630. (B. 320.) 36 Landscape with a Flock of Sheep. 1650. (B. 224.) 37 xxli LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS TACE Rembrandt's Mother. 1628. (B. 352.) 37 Rembrandt's Father. (By Gerard Dou, Cassel Museum.) 41 Rembrandt's Father. (Mr. Chamberlain of Brighton.) 44 Rembrandt's Mother. (Dr. Bredius.) 4; Lot and his Daughters. (Engraved by Van Vliet in 1631 after a picture by Rembrandt) 48 Rembrandt's Father. (Habich Collection, Cassel.) 49 Rembrandt's Father. 1630. (B. 229.) ■ 52 Baptism of the Eunuch. (Engraved by Van Vliet in 1631, after a picture by Rembrandt.) ^3 Old Man with a long Beard. 163 i. (B. 260.) 56 Fen Drawing, heightened with wash. (Duke of Devonshire's Collection.) 57 A Beggar, standing. About 1631. (B. 169.) 57 Rembrandt's Mother in an Eastern Head-dress. 1631. (B. 348.) 60 Rembrandt's Father. 1631. (B. 263.) 61 The Little Circumcision. About 1630. (B. 48.) 65 Holy Family. 1631. (Munich Pinacothek.) 69 Study in Black Chalk. (King of Saxony's Collection.) 73 Rembrandt with Frizzled Hair. About 1631. (B. 8.) 76 View of Amsterdam. About 1640. (B. 210.) 77 Small Grotesque Head. About 1632. (B. 327.) 77 The Montalban Tower. Pen Drawing. (Heseltine Collection.) 80 View OF the ZUYDERKERK. (Facsimile of a contemporary print.) 81 View of the WeSTERKERK. (Drawing by Boudier, after a photograph.) 84 Ephraim Bonus. 1647. (B. 27S.) 85 Menasseh ben Israel. 1636. (B. 269.) SS The Raising of Jairus's Daughter. (Pen Drawing. Seymour-Haden Collection.) . Sg Study of an Old Man. (King of Saxony's Collection.) 92 The Presentation in the Teimple. (Pen and wash. Heseltine Collection.) .... 93 Joseph Consoling the Prisoners. (British Museum.) 96 An Old M.an Praying. (Subject unknown. Pen Drawing. Bonnat Collection.) ... 97 Old Man with a Pointed Beard. 1631. (B. 315.) 100 Pen Drawing. (Heseltine Collection.) loi Small Figure of a Polander. 1631. (B. 142.) loi Diana Bathing. About 163 i. (B. 201.) 104 The Good Samaritan. 1633. (B. 90.) 105 Study of an Old Man. 1632. (Cassel Museum.) 109 Portrait of Coppenol. About 1632. (Cassel Museum.) 116 Portrait of Joris de Caulery. 1632 117 Rembrandt's Mother. About 1632. (B. 344.) 120 Pen Drawing, washed with sepia. (Duke of Devonshire's Collection.) 121 Old Man with a Bald Head. About 1632. (B. 296.) 121 The Theatre of Anato.my at Leyd]':n. Facsimile of Swanenburcli's cngiaving. 1610 125 View of the Gate or St. An']-hony, Amsterdam. (Drawing by lioudicr, after a photograph.) 129 Old Man with a Short Beard. About 1631. (B. 300.) 136 Pen Drawing, heightened with wash. (Duke of Devonshire's Collection.) 137 LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATONS xxiii PAGE Figure of a Polander. About 1633. (B. 140.) 137 Portrait of a Man. 1632. (Bninswick Museum.) 140 Portrait of a Woman. 1633. (Brunswick Museum.) 141 Portrait of J. PI. Krul. 1633. (Cassel Museum.) 145 Portrait of an Old Ladv. 1634. (National Gallery.) ■ . 153 Fragment from The Descent fro:\i the Cross. 1633. (Munich Pinacothek.; . . 156 Descent from the Cross. 1633. (B. 81.) 157 Portrait of Rembrandt. 1633. (B. 17.) i5i Rembrandt's Mother. 1633. (B, 351.) 164 Pen Drawing, heightened with sepia. (Heseltine Collection.) 165 Rembrandt with Moust.achios. About 1634. (B. 2.) 165 Portrait of S.askia. 1632. (M. Haro.) 16S Portrait of Saskia. 1632. (Stockholm Museum.) 169 Portrait of Saskia. 1632. (Liechtenstein Collection.) 172 Portrait of Saskia. About 1634. (Cassel Museum.) 173 Portrait of Saskia. 1634. (B. 347.) 176 The Jewish Bride. 1634. (Hermitage.) 177 The Burgomaster Pancras and his Wife. About 1635. (Buckingham Palace.) . 181 The Crucifixion. About 1634. (B. 80.) 1S4 Pen Drawing, heightened with wash. (Duke of Devonshire's Collection.) 185 Two Travelling Peasants. About 1634. (B. 144.) 1S5 Bust of Rembrandt, in an Oval. 1634. (B. 23.) 1S9 Portrait of Uytenbogaerd. 1635. (B. 279.) 193 The Angel appearing to the Shepherds. 1634. (B. 44.) 197 EccE Homo. 1636. (B. 77.) 201 Bust Portrait of a Young Man, by Lievens. (B. 26.) 204 Man in a Mezetin Cap. About 1635. (B. 2S9.) 205 A Ragged Peasant. About 1635. (B. 172.) 208 Pen Drawing, washed with ink. (Berlin Print Room.) 209 Drawing, washed with Indian ink. (British Museum.) 209 Pen Sketch. (Stockholm Print Room.) 213 Study of Saskia, and other Heads. 1636, (B. 365.) 217 Sketch for the Jewish Bride. 1634. (Stockholm Print Room.) 221 Portrait of Rembrandt. About 1634. (Hague Museum.) 224 Portrait of a Young Girl. About 1635. (Cassel Museum.) 225 Samson Threatening his Father-in-Law. About 1635. (Berlin Museum.) .... 228 Fragment of the "Susanna" in the Hague Museum. 1637 229 A Young Man Musing. 1637. (B. 268.) 236 The Death of the Virgin. 1639. (B- 99.) 237 The Grandmother. Pen Drawing. Stockholm Print Room 240 Pen Drawing, heightened with sepia. (Duke of Devonshire's Collection.) 241 Bust of a Man with Curling Hair, and his Under Lip thrust out. About 1635. (B. 305.) 241 Joseph telling his Dreams. 1638. (B. 37.) 245 Rembrandt's House in the Breestraat. (In its present state.) 256 View OF THE Binnen AM.ÇTEL. (Facsimile of a Contemporary Engraving.) 257 Portrait of Titia van Uylenborch. Pen and wash. 1639. (Stockholm Print Room.) 260 LIST OF TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Two Women in Beds, and other Sketches. About 1640. (B. 369.) 261 A Beggar, standing. About 1639. (B. 163.) 264 Landscape, with a Mill-sati. aiîove a Cottacie. 1641. (B, 226) 265 A Woman wi i h a Basket. About 1642. (B. 356.) 265 Study FOR " Manoah's Prayer." 1641. I'cu and wasli. (Stockhohn Pi-int Room.) . 268 Study for " Manoah's Prayer." Pen Drawing. (lieriin Print Room) 269 Portrait of a Man. 1641. (Brussels Museum.) 272 Renier Anslo. 1641. (B. 271.) 273 Copy of Rembrandt's "Night Watch," uy G. Lundens. (National Gallery.) . . . 2S9 Woman in a Large Hood. About 1642. (B. 35g.) 292 A Large Landscape, with a Cottage and a Dutch Hay-barn. 1641. (J!. 225.) 293 Portrait of Rembrandt wi th a Fur Cap and Light Dress. 1630. (P.. 24.) . . 293 The Widower. Pen Draw ing. (Heseltine Collection.) 297 The Angei. appearing ro St. Joseph. Pen Drawing. (I'.erlin Print Room.) .... 301 The Hog. 1643. (B. 157.) 304 Study from Nature (Pigs). Pen Drawing. (M. Leon Bonnat.) 305 Abraham with his Son Isaac. 1645. (B. 34.) 30& Six's Bridge. 1645. (B. 208.) 309 The Grotto. 1645. (B. 231.) i'- The Three Trees. 1643. (B. 212.) 3i3 A Winter Scene. 1646. (Cassd Museum.) 316 A View of Omval. 1645. (B. 209.) 3i7 Rembrandt's Mill. 1641. (B. 233.) 3=° ( (Duke of Devonshire's Collection.) CHAPTER I. LEYDEN AT THE IIEGINNINO OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY — THE lUKTH OE REMBRANDT — HIS FAMILY — HIS STUDIES AND AMUSEMENTS — THE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN — EDUCATION AND MANNERS OF THE PERIOD — WORKS OF ART' IX THE TOWN-HALL — PRECOCI'lY OF REMBRANDt's GENIUS — HIS MASTERS, J. VAN SWANEN- EURCH AT LEYDEN, AND P. LASTMAN AT AMSTERDAM— HIS RETURN TO LEYDIiN. "EYDEN had gradually recovered strength after the ordeal of that double siege (i 573—1 574) "i which she had successfully defied the Spaniard. By the beginning of the seventeenth century few visible tokens remained of the ruin and desolation wrought by the war of independence. The ancient city, clustering about her venerable Burg, and girdled by smiling villages, expanded freely along the two arms of the Rhine, which, uniting little farther in the sandy dnncs. With the development of her commerce, she had regained some- thing of her earlier splendour. For generations the residence of the Counts of Holland, Leyden was, and is to this day, the seat of the Ryidand, a species of syndicate, formed for the control and regulation of the waters, in the heart of the land most exposed VOL. T. u REMBRANDT s MOTHER l638 (D. 354). here. theniseK 2 REMBRANDT to their ravages. Her cathedral church, dedicated to St. Peter, a vast five-aisled basilica of the early fourteenth century, had escaped the destruction shared by many buildings, the ornaments of Leyden before the war. The Town-hall, which had been burnt down several times, had just been rebuilt from the plans of the skilful artist Lieven de Key, a Flemish emigrant who had been cordially received at Haarlem, where his talents gained him the post ot city architect. Distinguished for her charities, even in a country where charity is exercised in so liberal and intelligent a spirit, Leyden boasted, in addition to the municipal orphanage, rebuilt in 1607 near the Church of St. Paneras, a large number of homes for the orphaned, the aged, and the infirm. These asylums were superintended and maintained by members of the patrician families who had founded them. The most perfect order and cleanliness reigned throughout ; the walls enclosed gardens gay with flowers ; and the poor inmates enjoyed at least a semblance of family life and social ease. ]\Iany of the municipal bodies, and military and civic guilds, had taken up their quarters in the religious buildings — chapels or cloisters — depopulated by the Reformation. Thus the Chapel of the Hospital of St. James had become the Cloth Hall, where were held the meetings of the Drapers' Guild, the most important ot the local industries. The homes of citizens rose on every side — in the streets, and on the quays of the Breedstraat, the Oude-Singel, the Rapenburg and the . Langeburg — some retaining the features of the old national style — others inspired by the art of the Renaissance, which was beginning to find favour. The rapid growth of the citv had resulted in the extension of its boundaries towards the east. The original enceinte, notwithstanding its enlargement in the thirteenth, and again in the fourteenth century, had become obsolete, and a series of new defensive works had been constructed. A popula- tion at once warlike and lettered animated the wide streets, now silent and deserted. Artisans, petty traders, drapers, scholars, and men of science, had stood shoulder to shoulder in days past, each outvying the other in heroism to resist the common foe. Henceforth, the memory of fatigues and dangers shared together formed a bond of union between LEYDEN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 3 class and class ; a new spirit was working within them ; and the natural energy of the people, stimulated by the great events in which they had taken part, developed freely. It was a time ot expansion and noble activity such as is seldom recorded in human history. Tradition has it, that when William of Orange desired to recognise the great services of Leyden to the national cause by temporary exemption from taxation, the inhabitants craved, instead of the proffered boon, the gift of an University. This University was created by a charter of February 9, 1575, and liberally endowed. Its original domicile was the ancient cloister of St. Barbara. It was afterwards removed to the Jacobin Chapel, where it remains. The most distinguished scholars of the age, Justus Lipsius, Scaliger, Vossius, Saumaise, Daniel Heinsius, Marnix de Sainte-Aldegonde and many others, were successively among its professors. There Arminius and Gomarus taught theology, and the former, by word and writings, waged war, unceasing and successful, against superstitions and prejudices that remained dominant throughout the rest of Europe. With the aid of some of his colleagues he wiped out for ever from the annals of his country the penal laws against .sorcerers, and the judicial persecution of the Jews, which continued to disgrace the most civilised nations of Europe. Important works of every kind issued from the printing-presses of Leyden, proclaiming far and wide the fertility of an intellectual centre which, in glorious rivalry with Plantin of Antwerp produced the classic editions of the Elzevirs, so highly prized by later bibliophiles. The care bestowed on the training of youth attracted students from all parts of the country, and Leyden became a nursery of talent, and a home of patriotism — the throbbing heart, so to speak, of corporate Holland. On this favoured spot Rembrandt was born, July 15, 1606. The date 1606, an extremely probable one, is not absolutely above suspicion. Though universally accepted by earlier students, it was rejected by Vosmaer, after Dr. Scheltema's discovery of the following entry, under the date July 10, 1634, in the marriage registers of Amsterdam : " Rembrandt Harmensz of Leyden, aged B 2 4 REMBRANDT 26." According to this, liis birth-ycar was 1608. On the other hand, an impression in the second state, of an etching in the British Museum, the subject a portrait of Rembrandt by himself bears the inscription, beHeved to be by his own hand : cet. 24, anno 1631, which would give 1607 for the date of birth. The figure 24 has, however, been challenged, and Charles Blanc read it 25. But even if we admit the authen- ticity of the inscription, the question still presents obvious difficulties. It is hardly to be wondered at that Dr. Bredius upholds the old date, 1606, in spite of Vosmaer's arguments. After careful examination, we also accept it, as resting on fuller and more crucial evidence than any other ; and primarily, as supported by the testimony of all writers, contemporary with Rem- brandt or floiu-ishing shortly after his death, who give any account of him. The first among these is the Burgomaster Orlers, who, in his De- scription of Ley den, pub- lished in 1641, gives the date July 15, i5o6, together with the exact names of Rembrandt's father and mother. He is followed by Simon van Leeuwen, in another Description of Leyden (1672), and by Houbraken, in his Lives of Painters} Two documents recently discovered by Dr. Bredius tend rather to further confuse ' Houbraken writes June instead of July— doubtless an error of transcription : [uni for JiiIL THE BIRTH OF REMBRANDT 5 than to elucidate the matter. One is the enregistration of Rembrandt, aged fourteen, as a student at the Faculty of Letters at Leyden in 1620. The date 1606 is hereby confirmed. But the other document, the proccs-vcrbal of a committee of experts, among whom was Rembrandt, convened September 16, 1653, to decide upon the authenticity of a picture by Paul Brill, speaks of him as "about forty-six years old." If we accept this statement literally, we must conclude that he was born in 1607. Certainty is out of the question in view of such a conflict of evidence. And LEYDEN UNIVERSITY, FliOM RAPENTIURG. {Drawing by Boudier, after a photograph.) having laid the various arguments before our readers, we propose to adopt, with all necessary reservations, the original date 1606, as that accepted by the most competent critics, IVIessrs. Bode, Eisenmann, and Karl Woermann. Rembrandt was fifth among the six children of the miller Harmen Gerritsz, born in 1568 or 1569, and married on October 8, 1589, to Neeltge Willemsdochter, the daughter of a Leyden baker, who had migrated from Zuitbroeck. Both were members of the lower middle class, and in comfortable circumstances, for, besides the 6 REMBRANDT family-dwelling at Leyden, near the junction of the two branches of the Rhine, Harmen owned the greater part of a windmill almost opposite, on the Pelican quay, close to the White Gate.' Several other houses, together with some gardens beyond the town, were his property, and figure in his will with plate, jewels, and linen of some value. Harmen had gained the respect of his fellow-citizens, and in 1605 he was appointed head of a section in the Pelican quarter. He seems to have acquitted himself honourably in this office, for in 1620 he was re-elected. He was a man of education, to judge by the firmness of his handwriting as displayed in his signature to the will above-mentioned, which he deposited with the notary W. van Oudevliet, on March i, 1600. He, and his eldest son after him, signed themselves, van Ryn, (of the lihine), and following their example, Rembrandt added this designation to his monogram on many of his youthful works. In final proof of the family prosperity, we may mention their ownership of a burial-place in the Church of St. Peter, near the pulpit." No record of Rembrandt's early youth has come down to us. But we may be sure that his religious instruction was the object of his mother's special care, and that .she strove to instil into her son the faith and moral principles that formed her own rule of life. Among the many portraits of her painted or etched by Rembrandt, the greater number represent her cither with the Bible in her hand, or close beside her.' The passages she read, the stories she recounted to him from her favourite book, made a deep and vivid impression on the child, and in later life he sought Subjects for his works mainly in the sacred writings. Calligraphy in those days was, with the elements of grammar, looked upon as a very important branch of education. It was esteemed an art, and its professors ranked little below painters in the Holland of that period. The success won by the works of Boissens, Van de Velde and Coppenol, and the rapid sale of numerous editions, sufficiently attest this. Some 1 This mill, in which malt was ground for beer, doubtless gave rise to the long accepted legend of Rembrandt's birth in a mill near Leyden. 2 Oud-HoUand, V. p. 11. ^ Hardly f/ic eiched portraits — may I venture to say t — oiie or two of which represent her now with a worldly astuteness, now with a tolerant and not less worldly humour. — F. IV. Ei:)UCATION OF REMBRANDT 7 examples of their workmanship have been preserved. A wonderful lightness of hand and great accuracy are displayed in coiiiplicatcd flourishes and embellishments, and capitals adorned with all kinds of elaborate ornament, among which the more skilful loved to introduce figures and animals. The copies set for children were generally of an edifying description ; verses, and moral quatrains, in the style of those popularised by the Sieur de Pibrac in France (1574) and speedily translated into all languages. These were transcribed and learnt by heart, together with selections from con- temporary literature, in which, following the taste of the day, a realism often vulgar enough was blended with a curious affectation of ultra-refinement. That Rembrandt learnt to write his own language fairly correctly, we learn from the few letters by him still extant. Their orthography is not more faulty than that of many of his most distinguished contemporaries. His handwriting is very legible, and has even a certain elegance ; and the clearness of some of his signatures does credit to his childish lessons. With a view, however, to his further advancement, Rembrandt's parents had enrolled him among the students of Latin literature at the University.' The boy proved but an indifferent scholar. He seems to have had little taste for reading, to judge by the small number of books to be found in the inventory of his effects in later life. He was probably not a very frecjuent visitor to the famous library of the Faculty, the orderly interior of which is familiar to us from Swanenburch's engraving, where the books, duly classified and distributed, are shown to have been prudently fixed by iron rods to the desks at which the student stood to consult them. But the botanical garden by the side of the library, an addition of the year 1587, had doubtless greater attractions for him." One of his inquiring mind must have found much to interest him among the strange plants growing either in the open air or in hot-houses, and 1 As Mr. Haverl^orn van Ryswylc lias pointed out, it by no means follows that Rembrandt's parents intended him to go through the whole curriculum. Such enrol- ments were often made with a view to certain privileges or exemptions from taxation accorded to members of the University. 2 Descartes, who praised the efficiency of the institution, acted as intermediary for the exchange of seeds between the Leyden establishment and the Jardin du Roi. 8 REMBRANDT the curious beasts imported from Dutch settlements in the Inches — fish, turtles, and crocodiles, then rarely to be seen in Europe. Another plate, engraved by Swanenburch in 1610, gives a bird's-eye view of this establishment, the germ of those zoological gardens now a characteristic feature of Dutch towns. Amidst all this provision for mental training, physical exercises were not neglected. In the series of plates illustrating the University ol Leyden there is one with the legend: Liidi ptiblici. It represents a sort of riding-school, where young men are occupied in fencing, riding, gymnastics, and the management of various weapons ; an ex- cellent preparation alike for civic life or for the defence of national free- dom, should dangers once more threaten it. On the 3rd of October in every year, public festival was held in Leyden, to com- memorate her heroic re- sistance, and the raising of the siege in 1574. On that day, to the sound of bells pealing their loudest, and the triumphant melo- dies of the carillon set up van Nuys of Hasselt in 1578, the civic guard unfurled their banners, took arms, and marched in gala dress through the city. A solemn review was held ; the corporation then proceeded to elect their chief magis- trates ; after which, officers and men met at a banquet in their Doclen, in the western quarter of the town, near the University. Foremost among the spectators on their route, no doubt, was the future painter of the Night Watch, with his ruddy face, his long dishevelled hair, his piercing eyes, and alert expression. Nor was the University without its part in the pageant. It was customary for the Chamber of Rhetoric to organise for the occasion one of those UOTAKICAL GAUDENS OF LEYDEN L'NlVHRSiTY. (.\fter an engraving by \^^ Swanenburch.) in the tower of the Town-hall by H. FÊTES AND CUSTOMS OF THE TIMES 9 processions, semi-religious, semi-pagan, so greatly in vogue in the seventeenth century. A white-robed maiden, seated on a car, personated Holy Scripture, and was attended by the four Evangelists, the types of theological learning. Law and Medicine were also represented by allegorical figures, escorted by the most famous jurisconsults and physicians of antiquity. The procession ended with a ship, on which Apollo and the nine Muses sup- ported Neptune, in allu- sion to the deliverance of Leyden, and the in- undation by which she was saved. Simultaneously with these official fêtes were held free markets, public games, and fairs, with their necessary following of mountebanks and bumpkins. Such sights and amusements must have afforded endless subjects for study to an observer like Rembrandt. Mixing with the crowd, he noted the manners and impressions of the populace, and seized upon those momentary effects, of attitude and gesture, which he afterwards rendered with such amazing truth and eloquence. But it was in the Town-hall that the student found enjoyment most congenial to his tastes. It was thrown open to the public at these seasons, and there, side by side with banners wrested from the enemy, and spoil taken from the tent of Francesco de Valdez himself, Rembrandt studied the two famous pictures of those Leyden painters who had spent the greater part of their lives in his native town, Cornelis VOL. I. Q THE (Draw IRUE AT LEYDEN (1614). i by Uouidier, after a photograph.) lO REMBRANDT Engelbrechtsz and his pupil, Lucas Huyghensz, better known as Lucas van Leyden. Engelbrechtsz' great triptych, — the Crucifixiou in the central panel, Abraham s Sacrifice and the Braseii Serpent on the wings — painted for the Convent of Marienpoel, was preserved at the ruin of the convent towards the end of the sixteenth century, and taken under the guardianship of the municipality, " by reason," says Van Mander, " of its value, and in memory of the eminent master and citizen, its author." The work was, indeed, a remarkable one, and its artistic merit justifies the high esteem in which it was held. In the execution, though its analogies with that peculiar to the successors of the Van Eycks are, of course, striking, we find dawning traces of features characteristically Dutch. Such is the realism displayed in the portraits of the donors, members of the Martini family, painted on the reverse of the shutters, and the treatment of the landscape backgrounds, in which the bliie tones of the distance are very harmoniously opposed to the brown and yellow tints of the rocks. In the foreground, the artist has even given, in elaborate detail, the exact forms of periwinkles, thistles and succory, and of the brambles entangling the ram which is to take the place of Isaac. But in the Last Judgment of Lucas van Leyden, with its accompanying panels, Paradise and Hell, Rembrandt must have recognised a deeper love of Nature, a higher originality in design, and a finer sense of richness in harmony and colour. Gazing at this important work, he may have recalled the legends that were current as to the painter's life, his precocity and successes, the manner in which his fame had spread throughout Europe, that career of arduous toll, cut short perhaps by the lordly dissipations of later years, which Uurer chronicled in his account of his own visit to the Netherlands, and friendship with the Dutch master. The picture itself had its his- tory. Painted in 1533 for the Church of St. Peter, it was rescued from destruction in the terrible outbreak of the Iconoclasts, and transferred to the Town-hall in 1577. So great was its fame, Van Mander tells us, that " powerful monarchs had taken steps to acquire it ; but their offers were politely declined by the magistrature, who refused to part with the glorious creation of a fellow-citizen." The reverence paid to these two masters, and the celebrity of THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF LEYDEN their works, may well have stimulated Rembrandt's consciousness of his vocation. His tastes were confirmed by the great appreciation with which the talents of his predecessors had been rewarded. He dreamt that he too might some day do honour to his native town, and that his pictures might claim their share of admiration, side by side with the works of his illustrious forerunners. But though his glory has far surpassed theirs, we look in vain for Rembrandt's handiwork in the Leydcn Museum, where Lucas's Last Jiidg- itieitt and the triptych of his master, Engclbrechtsz, arc still conspicuous. Great as was his delight in these masterpieces, pleasures even more congenial were found in the country round about Leydcn, and Rembrandt was never at a loss in hours of relaxation. Though of a tender and affectionate disposition, he was always somewhat unsociable, preferring to observe from a distance, and to live apart, after a fashion of his own. That love of the country which increased with years manifested itself early with him. The situa- tion of his father's house on the ramparts at the western extremity of the town, was such as he himself might have chosen for the indulgence of his solitary mood. Opposite, and in full view of his dwelling, rose the picturesque White Gate, flanked by its Gothic towers, commanding the course of the river ; on the other bank, half hidden among trees, were the houses of the superintendent of works, and of the municipal carpenter — buildings of the old Dutch type. His daily walks offered constant variety of scene. In the immediate neighbourhood, towards Rynsburch, were green meadows dotted with grazing catrfe, farms sheltered by great trees, canals, and the river itself, with its endless procession of white or coloured sails. Towards Oegtsgeest, where his father owned a pleasure- garden, stretched pasture-lands, and fair domains whose secluded groves were landmarks on the wide plain. If time allowed, he would extend his pilgrimage to the coast, towards Katwyk or Zuytbroeck, the birth-place of his mother's family, where he probably had kinsfolk to visit. This was no doubt the direction in which his steps were most often bent, for here he found Nature given over to herself amidst the billowy tumult of wind-swept c 2 12 REMBRANDT dunes, and sparse herbage tossed and twisted by the gale. Sur- rounded by this strange landscape, where grandeur and delicacy blend and harmonise, he must often have lost himself in contemplation of infinite horizons beyond the restless gray waters, of the scud of flying clouds driven before the breeze, and the play of their shadows flitting through space. Then on the morrow the daily task seemed more than ever irksome to the poor recluse, and the master's lesson fell on heedless ears. There was no gainsaying indications so strongly manifested. Rembrandt's parents, recognising his disinclination for letters, and his pronounced aptitude for painting, decided to remove him from the Latin school. Renouncing the career they had themselves marked out for him, they consented to his own choice of a vocation, when he was about fifteen years old. His rapid progress in his new course was soon to gratify the ambitions of his family more abundantly than they had ever hoped. Leyden offered but few facilities to the art student at that period. Painting, after a brief spell of splendour and activity, had given place to science and letters. A first attempt to found a Guild of St, Luke there in 1610 had proved abortive, though Leyden's neighbours, the Hague, Delft, and Haarlem, reckoned many masters of distinction among the members of their respective companies. Rembrandt's parents, however, considered him too young to leave them, and they decided that his apprenticeship should be passed in his native place. An intimacy of long standing, and perhaps some tie of kinship, determined their choice of a master. They fixed upon an artist now almost forgotten, but greatly esteemed by his contem- poraries. Jacob van Swanenburch belonged, indeed, to a patrician family of high standing, various members of which had held important posts in the municipal administration from the beginning of the sixteenth century. One of his brothers, Claes, was also a painter ; another, Willem, was the engraver of the series of plates already referred to, and their father, Isaac van Swanenburch, who from 1582 to the year of his death, 1614, had held office either as échevin or burgomaster of the city, was an artist of considerable talent, as is evident from the series of six pictures painted by him for the Study ol an Old Man (about /6jn). Red Chalk. (iorv«t-.) THE SWANENBURCHS 13 Drapers' Hall.^ The four best represent various operations in the manufacture of woollen goods. Their frank painting and vigorous colour recall the robust realism of Pieter Aertsen. But it must be confessed that the works of Rembrandt's master were very inferior. Jacob van Swanenburch was born about 1580, and is supposed to have received his first lessons in painting from his father. By 16 lo he must have been well known, for in that year he painted an over- mantel for the Town- hall of Leyden with the subject Pharaoh and his Host drotvned in the Red Sea, an allusion, no doubt, to the catastrophe that overwhelmed the Spaniards towards the end of the siege of Leyden. The picture was probably unimport- ant ; it disappeared in 1666, and no traces of it are discoverable. The same fate befell most of the artist's works ; the only one now extant is a Papal Procession in the Square of S. Petei-s at Rome, dated 1628, and signed lacomo Swanenburch. Borne on the stream of emigration which carried so many of his brother artists to Italy at that period, he had sojourned there from 16 14 to 16x7, and had even taken a wife at Naples. After his return to his native town, where he remained till his death (October 17, 1638) he lived in high repute among his fellow-citizens, less perhaps by reason of ^ These pictures are now in the Leyden Museum, 14 REMBRANDT his talents than of the prestige of his family. His artistic capacity- was indeed extremely limited, to judge by the said Papal Procession, now in the Copenhagen Gallery. It is a panel with the Pope in the foreground, borne upon the Sedia gestatoria, and dispensing blessings to the crowd that presses round him ; in the background we see the basilica, the Vatican, and the square as it appeared before the construction of Bernini's colonnade. Setting aside its historic interest, the picture has little to recommend it. The arrangement lacks taste and a due perception of effect ; the drawing is very incorrect, especially that of the horses, and the colour monotonous and inharmonious. Though, as Orlcrs tells us, Rembrandt could learn little beyond the first principles of his art from such a teacher, he was treated by Swanenburch with a kindness not always met with by such youthful probationers. The conditions of apprenticeship were often very rigorous ; the contracts signed by pupils entailed absolute servitude, and exposed them in some hands to treatment which the less long- suffering among them evaded by flight. But Swanenburch belonged by birth to the aristocracy of his native city. Nor did he lack a model in his own family, by which to regulate his conduct, for a painter of the preceding generation, Allart Claesz, a kinsman of the Swanenburchs, had been as a father to his numerous pupils, and had gained the affection of all by his wise benevolence. There seems, on the whole, litde cause to regret that Rembrandt was not placed under a more distinguished master. Broadly .speaking, the greatest painters are rarely the best teachers ; their very originality and the commanding nature of their genius may so powerfully affect the disciple as to paralyse his individual growth. To Rembrandt, with his open mind and independent character, less brilliant teaching was more .suitable. His vocation was so pronounced that directly he was permitted to give up all his time to his art he made astonishing progress. Orlers is very positive in his testimony on this point. During his three years under Swanenburch ' this progress ' Three years was the usual term of an apprenticeship. At least, it was the term fixed by the statutes of guilds established in the neighbourhood, notably that of St. Luke at Ha.irlcm. PIETER LASTMAN '5 was such that all fellow-citizens interested in his future " were amazed, and foresaw the glorious career that awaited hini." His noviciate over, Rembrandt had nothing further to learn from Swanenburch, and he was now of an age to quit his father's house. His parents agreed that he should leave them, and perfect himself in a more important art-centre. They made choice ot Amsterdam, and of a master in Pieter Lastman, a very well-known painter at that period. Perhaps Swanenburch himself, who had known Lastman in Italy, recommended this course. But we think it was probably due to the intervention of a young compatriot of Rembrandt's, Jan Lievens, who was already one of Lastman's pupils. The families of the two young men belonged to about the same rank in life. Lievens' father, formerly an embroiderer of wall-hangings, had turned farmer, which may perhaps have brought about his acquaintance with the miller Gerritsz. The identity of their tastes no doubt drew the two boys together. But Lievens' talent, even more precocious than Rembrandt's, was early recognised and fostered by his parents. Born on October 24, 1607, he was placed under Joris Verschooten ' at the age of eight, and soon distinguished himself by a facility of which marvellous stories were told by his admiring fellow-citizens. Some would relate how he had copied a picture of Dcmocritns and Hcraclitus by Cornells van Haarlem so perfectly that it was impossible to distinguish it from the original ; others how, after hearing a bare description of the circumstances, he had painted a picture representing the repression by the civic guard of the religious outbreak at Leyden on November 4, 1618. At the age of ten, the infant prodigy was sent to pursue his studies in Lastman's studio, where he remained two years, from 1618 to 1620. It does not appear that he was ever Rembrandt's fellow-pupil, as has been commonly asserted; for Rembrandt first went to Lastman in 1624. ^ Simon van Leeuwen asserts that Verschooten was also Rembrandt's master. But as neither Orlers nor any among the better informed of Rembrandt's biographers mention the fact, it seems probable that Leeuwen, who generally takes his information touching contemporary artists from Orlers, was in error. Neither do we believe that Rembrandt was the pupil of J. Pynas, as has been sometimes asserted. His biographers are equally silent on this point. Houbraken merely says that he imitated "the brown manner of Pynas." i6 REMBRANDT But it is very probable that on liis return to Lej'den he extolled the teaching of a master whose reputation was then at its height. In Lastman's studio, methods of instruction much akin to those adopted by Swanenburch were in vogue, though the jiersonal talent modifying them was of a far higher order, l.astman was, in fact, a member of the same band of Italiauiscrs, who had gravitated round Elsheimer at Rome. In his valuable study on the latter, Dr. Bode has renewed our interest in this somewhat neglected painter.' Though his works have no special merit, Elsheimer's is an important figure in art history. The influence he exercised, notably on painters of the foreign colony in Rome, is undeniable. The fertility and flexibility of his art con- tributed largely to the transformation of painting. By taking the pictur- esque side of subjects hitherto ap- proached only in the grand manner, and treating them with the elaborate finish proper to their small dimensions, he gave new life to apparently ex- hausted themes. An indefatigable worker, modest, intelligent, and studi- ous, he was beloved by all who knew him, and was in special favour with the Dutch painters, who, by virtue alike of traditions and natural leanings, were best prepared to under- stand and to imitate him. Lastman was one of Elsheimer's most ardent disciples at Rome. Sprung from a family in which the liberal professions were highly esteemed, he reckoned many artists among his kindred.- He went to Italy when about twenty, and remained three or four years. In 1607 he returned to Amsterdam, bringing with him a store of classic tradition and study, which served for artistic pabulum till his death. ^ Studieu zur Gesc/iidik der /lo/liindisc/ien Miilerei, hy \\. Tioàe. 1883. i vol. Svo. Pp- 231-356- 2 The life and works of Lastman have been e-\haustively treated in a notiee by Messrs. Bredius and De Roever, published in Oud-Hulland (iv. pp. 1-23). .'ibout 1635 (B, 350). iS REMBRANDT subjects, often mingling the familiar types or features of Holland with reminiscences of Italian art and scenery. Pictures by him are scattered throughout Europe, but may be found in greatest number in German galleries, public and private. The vogue they once enjoved was followed by complete neglect ; and recent researches connected with Rembrandt, rather than their intrinsic merit, has brought them into notice again. An Ulysses and Nausicaa in the Brimswick Museum, signed with his monogram, is dated 1609, and was therefore painted two years after Lastman's return from Italy. It was a favourite episode with the artist, for ten years later he painted it again, in a picture now in the Augsburg Museum, I J modifying the composition in some notable points. T"^ Ulysses has escaped from the wreck, and kneels * J naked and suppliant, endeavouring by the humility ^ ^ ^ Q\ of his demeanour to reassure Nausicaa's companions, ^/ a band of nymphs in turbans and fantastic costumes, who are flying in terror from the feast prepared by them on the shore. The daughter of Alcinous advances alone towards the hero, and expresses her compassion in somewhat exaggerated pantomime. The colour is hard and violent ; the brick- reds of the carnations stand out in harsh relief against a dull flat sky. In a David Singing in- tlie Temple of the same collection, signed Pietro Lastman and dated L-^ 161 8, there is the same crudity, clii Wi £U\ ^^'^^ harmony. The l~ work, notwithstanding the ter- \cc\i Anno J 6j 5 mination of the painter's Christian name, is rather Flemish than Italian. In type and costume, the singing children of the foreground, and the musicians who perform lustily on various instruments — violin, violoncello, trombone, trumpet and tambourine — vaguely recall the figures of Rubens. In a collection of great interest to students of Rembrandt's predecessors and contemporaries, that of M. Semenoff of St. Petersburg, there is an Annunciation of the same date. The kneel- THE WORKS OF PIETER LASTMAN 19 ing Virgin has thrown aside the work on which she was engaged. Near the basket containing it a cat is playing with a little bell on the floor, while an angel in a red chasuble points heavenwards to the Holy Spirit hovering among clouds. The angel's gesture is expressive ; but the execution is coarse and heavy. The same date, 1 61 8, again appears on an Annunciation to the Magi, in Count Moltke's gallery at Copenhagen. The master, by way of displaying his dexterity, has introduced a number of vases of every shape and style to the left, and to the right, a variety of animals : an ass, a horse, goats, camels and parrots. Here again the tonality is crude, but there is a certain vigour in its harshness. An unsigned and undated picture in the Cassel Gallery, the Sacrifice to Juno (No. 500 in the Catalogue), has such strong affinities with the above that we are inclined to pronounce it the work of Lastman at this same period, 1 61 8, the time of his greatest activity. The marble statue of the goddess is enthroned on an altar surrounded by colonnades and porticoes ; a group of worshippers presses round her ; in the distance is the temple of Tivoli, which Rembrandt, like his master, often introduced in his backgrounds. The general effect is thoroughly unpleasant ; the eye is offended by a mass of discordant tones ; vermilion reds are opposed either to pale neutral tints, dull grays, or violent blues and yellows, regardless of harmony and of unity. Abraham with the Angels, a work of 1621, also in M. Semenoff's collection, and the Abrahaiii s Sacrifice, a grisaille in the Amsterdam Ryksmuseum, are chiefly interesting as dealing with subjects often treated by Rembrandt and his pupils in after years. In a Raising of Lazarus of 1622, recently acquired by the Hague Museum, Lastman's garish tonality is peculiarly offensive, for the action takes place at the mouth of a cave, where the use of chiaroscuro was imperative. These works were all produced in Lastman's best period, about the time when Lievens, and after him Rembrandt, became his pupils. In none of them, however, can wc discern any of that preoccupation with the problems of chiaroscuro ascribed to him by certain writers, who claim that he pointed out the w^ay to Rembrandt. There are D 2 30 REMBRANDT traces of it, no doubt, in a small picture in the Haarlem Museum, Christinas Night, bearing a date which Vosmaer read " 1629." We found the figures quite illegible after careful examination, and several Dutch friends whose aid we invoked were no more successful in deciphering them. The general arrangement, the attitude and gesture of Joseph, and above all, the treatment of light, show strong analogies with the work of Rembrandt. But the sense of chiaroscuro here displayed was not uncommon at the period, and may be observed in the pictures of many contemporary painters. It is an important factor in the work of two artists who had felt the influence of Caravaggio^ Valentin in France, and Honthorst in Holland. But with them, as with Lastman, such effects of light are always rendered by abrupt and violent contrasts, and have none of the infinity of gradation and transparency in the shadows which give them beauty. When Rembrandt entered Lastman's atelier, the master was at the zenith of his fame. His contemporaries lauded him to the skies, proclaiming him the Phœnix and the Apelles of the age. He was further held to be one of the best judges living of Italian art, and as this now began to find favour in Holland, he was often called upon to assess the value of pictures for sales or inventories. His house was a popular one, and his young pupil was doubtless brought into contact with famous artists and other persons of distinction. Such intercourse must have been of great value to him, enlarging his mind, and developing his powers of observation. How or where lîEMlîRANnT's FATHEH. 1630 (B. 304), LASTMAN'S INFLUENCE ON REMBRANDT 21 Rembrandt was lodged at Amsterdam we know not. Before parting with their son, his parents had no doubt provided a comfortable home for him. It was a common practice in those days, and one which still obtains in Holland, for students to board and lodge in the REMURANDT's MOTHEIi. About 1631 (B. 343). houses of citizens, where they were treated as members of the family. This was usual even among the University students at Leyden, who did not belong to the town. In a census paper of 1581, quoted 22 REMBRANDT by Vosmaer, we find that Rembrandt's grandparents had received as a boarder one " Egma, native of Friesland." It is therefore possible that Rembrandt may have been placed in the home of friends at Amsterdam ; but more probably he was an inmate of his master's house, such being the usual arrangement under the circum- stances. The affectionate terms on which he always remained with Lastman seem to favour this hypothesis. The conditions under which he would have been admitted to his master's home may be gleaned from other sources. Such conditions were generally arranged between the contracting parties, and were not often embodied in a legal document. A few such are, however, extant, one among them being the agreement, of about this date, between Isaac Isaksz, a painter of Amsterdam, and Adriaen Caraman, a youth of seventeen, who wished to become his pupil. The latter engages to grind colours and prepare canvases for himself and his master, and in all ways to conduct himself zealously and submissively as a "servant- pupil." In return, Isaac is to give him food and instruction, and the lad's father, on his part, agrees to furnish him with "a barrel of herrings or cod as required, and a bed and bedding." Such a state of semi-servitude involved more or less of hardship, according to the character of the master ; it was possible to alleviate it by the payment of certain sums of money, which ensured more of liberty and comfort to the apprentice. Though Leyden was at no great distance from Amsterdam, Rembrandt probably received few visits from his parents. His father could not easily have left his mill, nor his mother her household duties. But no doubt occasional gifts were despatched by the loving mother, with recommendations to good behaviour and economy from the father. The latter counsel was assuredly not unnecessary ; generous and impulsive, the young man had little idea of the value of money, as he sufficiently proved in later life. Rembrandt spent but a short time in Lastman's studio. Last- man, though greatly superior to Swanenburch, had all the vices of the I/aliaiiiscrs. He had also, in common with them, a taste which reflected the preferences of the public, and herein lay the LASÏMAN'S INFLUENCE ON REMBRANDT 23 secret of his success. His drawing was correct, but character- less ; his colour harsh and discordant, his handling heavy and laboured. These defects give an air of monotony to his works, in spite of the extreme variety of his subjects. In his treatment of these subjects he never goes beyond the superficial aspect ; he fails to make them intrinsically expressive ; and seeks to supply local colour by a crowd of accessories and picturesque details. Not only does he fail to touch the spectator ; he seems to have had no such end in view. His mediocre art was, in fact, a compromise between the Italian and the Dutch ideal. Without attaining to the style of the one or the sincerity of the other, and with no marked originality in his methods, he continued those attempts to fuse the unfusible in which his predecessors had exhausted themselves. To Rembrandt's single-minded temperament such a system was thoroughly repugnant. His natural instincts and love of truth rebelled against it. Italy was the one theme of his master, that Italy which the pupil knew not, and was never to know. But he saw everywhere around him things teeming with interest for him, things which appealed to his artistic soul in language more intimate and direct than that of his teacher. His own love of Nature was less sophisticated ; he saw in her beauties at once deeper and less complex. He longed to study her as she was, apart from the so- called intermediaries which obscured his vision and falsified the truth of his impressions. It may be also that exile from the home he loved so dearly became more and more painful to Rembrandt. He longed for his own people ; the spirit of independence was stirring within him, and he felt that he had little to gain from further teaching. Before he had been quite six months under Lastman he returned to Leyden, in 1624, determining, as Orlers tells us, " to study and practise painting alone, in his own fashion." Notwithstanding which, Lastman's in- fluence on his development was very persistent, and it was long before Rembrandt freed himself entirely from it. Down to the period of his fullest maturity, we find traces of Lastman's teaching in his methods of composition, in his fancy for Orientalisms, in the familiarity with 24 REMBRANDT which he treats certain themes. More than once he borrowed the main features of a composition, and even its general arrange- ment, from his master. In further evidence of his respect for Lastman, we find two volumes of the master's drawings among his collections. Lastman, on the other hand, seems to have had no premonition of his pupil's greatness. No single work of Rembrandt's figures in the inventory of his effects pviblished by Messrs. Bredius and De Roever. kembrandt's father. 1630 {B. 294). CHAPTER II FIRST PICTURES PAINTED AT LEYDEN — ' ST. PAUL IN PRISON ' AND ' THE MONEY- CHANGER ' (1627), 'SAMSON AKD DELILAH ' (1628), AND 'THE PRESENTATION IN THE temple' REMBRANDT'S PORTRAITS OF HIMSELF — HIS FIRST ETCHINGS — HIS METHODS. THE return of one so beloved by his family as Rembrandt was naturally hailed with joyful effusion in the home circle. But happy as he was to find himself thus welcomed, he had no intention of living idly under his father's roof, and he at once set resolutely to work. He had thrown off a yoke that had become irksome to him. Henceforth he had to seek guidance from himself alone, choosing his own path at his own risk. How did he employ himself on his arrival at Leyden, and what were the fruits of that initial period ? Nothing is known on these points, and up to the present time no work by Rembrandt of earlier date than 1627 has been discovered. It must also be admitted that his first pictures — for the works of this date are paintings — give little presage of future greatness, and scarcely in- dicate the character of his genius. But amidst the evidences of youthful inexperience in these somewhat hasty works, we note details of great significance. VOL. I. E 26 REMBRANDT The Sf. Paul in Prison, formerly in the Schonborn collection, and acquired by the Stuttgart Museum in 1867, bears the date 1627, together with the signature and monogram here reproduced. It is, on the whole, a mediocre work ; dry in handling, gray in colour, and perfunctory in the treatment of chiaroscuro. There is a lack of subordination amounting to clumsiness in the rendering of details. And yet, on closer examin- REMniîANDT S STG.VATURE AND MONOGKAM. ation of the pale J I /I / I / / y , / sunbeam that lights P r\\r \ J cA / ^ *' y \t/ ' the cell, the serious countenance of the captive, absorbed in meditation, and pausing, pen in hand, to find the right expression for his thought, his earnest gaze, and contemplative attitude, we recognise something beyond the conception of a commonplace tiro. We discern evidences of careful observation which Rembrandt in the full possession of his powers would, no doubt, have turned to higher account ; but even with the imperfect means at his command, he produces a striking effect. The patient and accurate execution of accessories such as the straw, the great iron sword, and the books by the apostle's side, betokens a conscientious artist, who had been to Nature for such help as she could give him. The Money-Change?', which became the property of the Berlin Gallery in 188 1, bears the same date, 1627, with a monogram formed of the initials of the name : Rem- brandt Harmensz.^ An old man, seated at a table littered with parchments, ledgers and money-bags, holds in his left hand a candle, the flame of which he shades with his right, and carefully examines a doubtful coin. Here again the brushwork is somewhat heavy, and the piles of scrawled and dusty papers give an incoherent look to the composition. On the other hand, the light and the values are happily distributed ' It was customary in Holland to add the baptismal name of the father to that of each child. Thus, Harmenszoon, son of Harmen, which became Harmensz by abbreviation. EMiaiîANDÏS MONOGKAM. THE MONEY-CHANGER" (1627) 27 and truthfully rendered. The general tone is rather yellow and monotonous ; but the colour-scheme is subdued with a view to the general effect by a deliberate deadening and neutralising of tints such as the green and violet of the table-cloth and mantle. The impasto is somewhat loaded in the lights, and has been reduced in places and apparently scraped down to avoid too startling a contrast with the shadows, where the brushwork is so slight as to reveal the transparent browns of the ground. Unlike Elshcimer and Honthorst, who in treating such subjects made the actual source of light in all its intensity a chief feature of the picture, Rembrandt conceals the flame, and contents himself with rendering the light it sheds on surrounding objects. He felt that such attempts as those of his predecessors overstepped the limitations of their art ; and, re- stricting himself to such variety of light and shadow as may be won without the unpleasantness of violent contrasts, he concentrated all his powers on the delicate modelling of the old man's head. These were both compositions of single persons, which it was possible to copy directly from nature. Two pictures of the following year, in which several figures are introduced, presented greater difficulties. He cannot be said to have overcome them. In the Samson delivered to the Philistines, formerly in the collection of the Princes of Orange, now in the King's Palace at Berlin, the composition leaves much to be desired. Like the two preceding pictures, it is painted on an oak panel, but of somewhat larger size (24^^ x igf inches), and the monogram with which it is signed is slightly modified. To the interlaced initials R and /^27 ^ H a horizontal stroke is appended, which we shall - ' ^ _ ,111 ^ r ^ • • ^ i hembrandt's monogram. find on nearly all the works ot this period, and which, with Dr. Bode's concurrence, we take to be an L, signifying Leidensis or Ltigdunensis. The artist continued to use it throughout his sojourn at Leyden, and abandoned it shortly after leaving his native city. Samson lies asleep on the floor at his mistress's feet, clad in a loose tunic of pale yellow, girt at the waist by a striped scarf of blue, white, pink and gold, from which hangs a Javanese creese. Delilah wears a robe of dull violet bordered with blue and gold, in pleasant E 2 28 REMBRANDT harmony with the colours of Samson's costume ; but her tame, insipid carnations, ill -defined features, and colourless fair hair, make up an insignificant type which recurs in several works of this period. She has already shorn a handful of her lover's locks, and turns to show them to a Philistine behind her. The latter, armed to the teeth, advances cautiously, and a comrade even less confident than he, hides prudently behind the bed-curtains, show- ing only his helmeted head and naked sword. Though the arrange- ment of the three figures in a line betrays the inexperience of youth, the handling has be- come broader and more subtle, and we note an increased sense of har- mony. The figures are placed in frank relief against the yellowish background of the floor and wall, and the bril- liant effect of the sun- light that falls on the woman's breast and robe, and on Samson's tunic, is heightened by the dark shadows to the right of the picture. A characteristic detail of frequent occurrence in later works may be noted : among the locks in Delilah's hand are two or three strands drawn with the butt-end of the brush upon the moist paint. The same touch of coarseness in the handling, the same violent contrasts of light and shadow, are apparent in a Presentation in the Temple, once in the Sagan Collection, and recently bought by M. Weber of Hamburg from Count Reichenbach von Loweniberg. It is signed with Rembrandt's name in full, and is not dated, but may. I'UIiTHAlT OF HEMLHAM {Cassel Museum.) "THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE" 29 we think, be given to this period. The Infant Jesus on Simeon's lap is strangely rigid and wooden ; the composition, however, is better balanced, and the group of persons kneeling before a window is crowned in a very happy fashion by the erect figure of the Pro- phetess Anna. The golden and russet tones harmonise well with the blue robe of the Virgin, and the sentiment of the scene is adequately expressed. As in the preceding works, the pantomime is vigorous to the verge of exaggera- tion. The young man's robust good sense made him an- xious beyond measure to be comprehensible ; and to preserve life and reality in the suggestion of action. Though his gestures are apt to become over-emphatic, and his types vulgar, his pur- pose is always clearly set forth ; and there is no mistaking his meaning. In process of time, he learnt to render his thought by more subtle and varied methods, without any loss to his directness of expression. A tiny picture (8I J- x 6i,1 inches) painted on copper (almost the only one to be found in all Rembrandt's œuvré) is signed with the painter's monogram, and dated 1628.1 The subject is somewhat enigmatic, 1 It was formerly in the possession of Mr. Otto Pcin, of Berlin, and figured in a public sale at Cologne in 188S. It now belongs to Mr. von dcr Heydt, of Elberfcld. THE MONEY-CHANGEIi. t of the picture in the Berlin Museum.) 3° REMBRANDT but Dr. Bode, no doubt rightly, conjectures it to represent the Denial of St. Peter. The Apostle, if it be he, dressed in complete armour, is at bay among his Interrogators, who eye him curiously as they stand grouped about a large fire, in the Court of the High Priest's house. The composition impresses by virtue of its peculiarity, its variety of expression, and its truthfulness of effect. In this restricted field the execution seems more dexterous and less heavy, and the chiaroscuro more carefully studied. That fidelity to the living model, and knowledge of chiaroscuro, of which traces are to be found even in these early works, Rembrandt acquired after a fashion of his own, by direct studies from Nature — studies which were powerfully to affect his development. Models were very scarce in Holland at this period, especially at Leyden, which, unlike Haarlem, possessed no Academy of painting. But means are never wanting to the artist really eager for instruction, and neither will nor Intelligence was at fault In Rembrandt's case. Instead of looking abroad for means of Improvement, the young master made them for himself. He determined to be his own model, and to enlist the services of his father, mother, and relatives. By dedicating the first-fruits of his talents to them, he secured a group of sitters whose patience was Inexhaustible. Pleased to be of use to him, they fell in with every fresh caprice, and lent themselves to all varieties of experiment. Rembrandt turned their complaisance to good account. Inspired by a passionate devotion to his art, he studied with such ardour that, to quote the words of Houbraken, " he never left his work in his father's house as long as daylight lasted." To this period must be assigned several little studies of heads on panel, which have only lately been restored to Rembrandt. The attribution was long contested, even after Dr. Bode had drawn the attention of critics to them. It was irreconcilable with established theories, and the works themselves had little in common with others following closely upon them. The first of the series, though without date or signature, Is undoubtedly by Rembrandt, and may be bracketed with the St. Paul in Prison as one of his earliest pictures. It belongs to the Cassel Museum (No. 208 in the Catalogue) and Is a portrait of the painter at about twenty or twenty-one years old. PORTRAITS OF REMBRANDT BY HIMSELF 31 The face, turned three-quarters to the right, is broad and massive ; and stands out in strong rehef against a light background of gray- blue. The sunlight falls full on the neck, ear, and right cheek ; the forehead, eyes, and the whole of the left side are in deep shadow. A narrow strip of white shirt appears above the brown dress. The ruddy complexion, full nose, and sturdy neck, the parted lips, above which a soft down is visible, the unruly hair, all bespeak health and vigour. The type in its robust simplicity is that of a young peasant. The broad and summary execution emphasises this impression ; the touch is free and fat, and, as in the Samson at Berlin, the hair is drawn with dashing strokes of the brush handle. The eyes, though barely visible through the shadow, seem to gaze with singular penetration at the spectator. The contrast of light and shadow is very pronounced, but the transition is skilfully effected by the use of an intermediate tone, and all hardness is thus avoided. In a small portrait in the Gotha Museum (No. 181 in the Catalogue), the treatment of chiaroscuro is still more discreet, while the composition is less summary, and the expression more penetrating. Neither date nor monogram is very legible ; traces, however, of Rembrandt's usual signature are to be deciphered, with the date 1629, which seems to us a very probable one. The gradations are here less apparent, and are carried through with great delicacy ; values are better observed ; the touch is freeer and lighter, notably in the eyes, the mouth, and the white collar overlying the brown dress. The impasto, though thinner than before, is still sufficient to enable the artist to follow his usual practice, and to render the curling hair with a scraper, or with the butt-end of the brush, sweeping through the moist paint. This process, more expeditious than correct, is repeated in another portrait of larger dimensions, also in the Gotha Museum (No. 182 in the Catalogue). It is signed with Rembrandt's usual monogram, but is so clumsy in parts that its authenticity seems to us more than doubtful. The portrait in the Hague Museum, though probably of the same period as these, is by far the best and most interesting of the series. Here Rembrandt has evidently put forth all his strength, anxious not 32 REMBRANDT only to produce a faithful likeness, but to display the experience gained by recent study, in a carefully considered work. As in the preceding examples, the head, turned three-quarters to the spectator, and illumined by a strong light from the left, is set against a neutral gray background of medium value. The carnations are very brilliant, and are modelled with extreme skill in a full impasto, following the surfaces as we shall find it doing continually more and more in Rembrandt's practice. The shadows, though intense, preserve their transparency. A dark gray dress, and a somewhat crumpled white collar turned over a steel gorget, blend into pleasant harmony with the head. The type is that of Cassel and Gotha, but slenderer and more refined. There is more distinction in the bearinç, greater elegance in the dress. The features are irregular ; but the fresh Hps seem about to open, the small eyes gaze from under their prominent brows with a frank fearlessness, while between them wc already see that vertical fold which habits of ceaseless observation deepened more and more as years went by. This youthful head, crowned by the flowing hair that falls in masses across the forehead, charms us by its air of health, simplicity and unstudied grace. It is instinct with power and intelligence, and with an indescribable aspect of authority, which explains the ascendency the young man was soon to obtain over the minds of his contemporaries. Simultaneously with these pictures, Rembrandt evidently produced a large number of drawings. But, unfortunately, most of these are either lost or scattered in different collections under false attributions. Very few are known to us. One is a sketch in black chalk, belonging to the Hamburg Museum. The subject is the head of a youth, resembling Rembrandt himself, with a very brilliant effect of light. Another, in the British Museum, is a sketch in Indian ink, made with a few strokes of the brush. It represents the artist in a braided tunic, and is reproduced in an etching of 1629. Rembrandt no longer confined himself to drawing and painting ; his first etchings appeared in 1628, very little later than his first pictures. As in these, he took himself for a model in his etchings, and never tired of experimentalising on his own person for purposes of study. It was a habit he retained throughout his career. With Polirai/ of Rciiihiaiidl (about 162g — 1630). HIS FIRST ETCHINGS 33 himself for his sitter, he felt even less restraint than when his relatives were his models, and this ensured an endless variety in his studies, and absolute freedom of fancy. Exact resemblance was not his aim in these essays. They were studies rather than portraits. We shall therefore find great diversities in these renderings of his own features, diversities determined by the particular object he had in view at the moment. The artist's type is, however, so character- istic that it is impossible to mistake it. In the course of 1630 and 1631 he produced no less than twenty etched portraits of himself. These were preceded by a plate bearing the date 1629, with the monogram reversed. It is an exact reproduc- tion, both as to attitude and cos- tume, of the drawing in the British Museum already mentioned. The composition is, however, reversed. The execution of this Bust por- trait of Rembrandt (B. 33S) is somewhat coarse and hasty ; cer- tain portions of the dress and the background appear to have been engraved with two points held to- gether. Rembrandt himself seems to have attached little importance to the plate, which he covered with retouches and scratches. Among the etched portraits of himself belonging to the next two years, and signed with the usual monogram, six are dated 1630 (B. Nos. 10, 13, 24, 27, 316 and 320), and five 1631 (B. Nos. 7, 14, 15, 16 and 25). Nine others were in all probability executed at this period, bringing up the total to twenty for the two years. The plates are very unequal in value and importance ; some, notably the earlier ones, are mere sketches, hastily drawn on the copper ; the execution uncertain, or over-laborious. Others show a firmer touch and indicate marked progress. A twofold problem seems to have occupied the author. In some the study of chiaroscuro is the primary VOL. I r 34 REMBRANDT object ; he seeks to render those apparent modifications which light more or less vivid, more or less oblique, produces in form, and in the intensity of shadows. The result is a whole series of such essays : the execution in most of these is very summary ; but by an ingenious shifting of artificial light, and a careful study of the variations due to such successive displacements, he gains a complete insight into the laws of chiaroscuro. In many of the remaining plates design is the main consideration, and light plays but a secondary part. The management of the point is firmer and more assured ; the master's grasp on Nature has become closer, and he strives to render her most characteristic traits.^ He seeks variety in attitudes, expressions and costumes. He drapes himself, and poses, hand on hip, before his mirror ; now uncovered and dishevelled, now with a hat, a cap, a fur toque on his head. Every diversity of emotion is studied from his own features : gaiety, terror, pain, sadness, concentration, satisfaction and anger. Such experiments had, of course, their false and artificial aspects. Grimace rather than expression is suggested by many of these pensive airs, haggard eyes, affrighted looks, mouths wide with laughter, or contracted by pain. But in all such violent and factitious contrasts, Rembrandt sought the essential features of passions with great obvious effects, passions that stamp themselves plainly on the human face, and which the painter should therefore be able to render unmistakably. To this end, he forced expression to the verge of burlesque ; and, gradually correcting his deliberate exaggerations, he learnt to command the whole gamut of sentiment that lies between extremes, and to impress its various manifestations, from the deepest to the most transient, on the human face. From this time forward, scarcely a year passed without some souvenir, painted or engraved, of his own personality. These portraits succeeded each other so rapidly and regularly, as to form a record of the gradual changes wrought by time in his appearance and in the character of his genius. ^ Ye^ nothing in Renibrandf s work is more exhaustive or more subtle tfimi that ■ ' /iiist of an Old Wo?iian lightly etched," of 162S. It is the first etched portrait of his mother.— F. W. HIS FIRST ETCHINGS 35 How did Rembrandt gain his knowledge of engraving ? Who taught him the rudiments of the art ? We know not, and none of his biographers throw any light on the question. The name and works of Lucas, the famous engraver, a native, like himself, of Leyden, were still revered in that city, and from his youth up, Rembrandt's admiration for him was so unbounded that he was willing to make any sacrifice to become the owner of a complete set of his works. What better guide could he have sought ? As his knowledge of the master increased, he must have been deeply impressed, not only by the simplicity of his methods, but by his preoccupation with those very problems which fascinated his own mind, notably the rendering of light, and effects of chiaroscuro. As M. Duplessis justly observes, in his History of Engraving :^ "No engraver prior to Lucas van Leyden had greatly concerned himself with perspective, nor had any before him shown a like anxiety so to illuminate an intricate composition as to place each figure in its right plane, each object in its right place." Rembrandt's genius had many analogies with that of his famous compatriot. Both were painters, as well as engravers. They had the same love of the picturesque, the same faculty of observation, the same tendency to blend familiarity with devotion in the treatment of religious themes, the same desire to make every resource of their art auxiliary to the expression of ideas. Nor had the traditions of Lucas van Leyden died out in his native town. Publishers such as the Elzevirs gave constant employment to co-operators who produced illustrations for their books ; portraits of distinguished persons, statesmen, soldiers, or men of letters, were in great request throughout the country, and were freely produced by skilled engravers like Jakob de Gheyn, Pieter Bailly, father of the painter David Bailly, Bartolomeus Dolendo, and Willem van Swanenburch, the brother of Rembrandt's master. It is possible that, while at Amsterdam, Rembrandt may have met a brother of Lastman's, who was an engraver of some ability, and have received instruction from him. . We may add ^ I vol. i2mo. Hachette, 1869, p. 104. F 2 36 REMBRANDT that Rembrandt was no solitary experimentalist in his native town at the period of these early essays. Several young men shared his studies, copying from the same models, attempting the same effects of chiaroscuro, and even imitating his methods of execution. Of this we have ample and decisive proofs, which throw valuable light on the career of the young artist. KEMliKANDT WITH ilAGGAKD EYES. ■ 630 (B. 320) i650 (B. 224). CHAPTER III Rembrandt's painted and engraved portraits of his father and mother — STUDIES made in COMMON WITH HIS FELLOW-STUDENTS — ' LOT AND HIS DAUGHTERS,' 'THE BAPTISM OF THE EUNUCH,' 'ST. JEROME AT PRAYER' — REMKRANDT'S FIRST PURCHASES OF WORKS OF ART. THE most intimate among Rembrandt's youthful friends was Jan Lievens. They were almost of the same age, and were further drawn together by community of tastes. Lievens, like Rembrandt, had returned from Eastman's studio to his parents' home at Leyden. Like Rembrandt, he was now in rkm:;randt'.'; mother. ^ ^ , . , , , . ^ , . ,p , search 01 his vocation, a search he m fact pursued throughout his life, without any strik- ing development of originality, for the sojourn he afterwards made in England brought him under the influence of Vandyck. For the moment, however, working side by side with Rembrandt, and from the same models, he busied himself with those studies of light, the effects of which are to be traced in many of his pictures and etchings at this period. A fellow-citizen of Rembrandt and of Lievens, their junior by 38 REMBRANDT some six or seven years, was soon to join them in their studies. This was no other than Gerard Don, whose presence in such company is surprising enough. No less hkely fellow-student can well be imagined for Rembrandt than this master, judging merely by the special bent of his talent, his elaborate execution and minute finish. But his early works fully bear out the very explicit statements of Houbraken, which were taken in the main from Orlers himself Gerard Dou was the son of a glazier named Douwe Jansz, and was born at Leyden, April 7, 1613. His artistic vocation was recognised at a very early age, and he was placed under the engraver B. Dolendo, with whom he remained for a year and a half He then passed to the atelier of a glass-painter, one Pieter Kouwenhorn, where he spent at least two years. His father then took him into his own workshop, meaning to make him a partner in the business; but, seeing the imprudences he committed in the exercise of the trade, the elder Dou became alarmed and, dreading some accident, gave him leave to return to his painting. The fact that he made choice of Rembrandt for his master is significant, and shows the consideration already enjoyed by the latter in his native town, in spite of his extreme youth. Gerard Dou entered his studio February 14, 1628, and remained with him till 1631, about three years.' Another artist came to complete the circle at about the same period, the engraver Joris van Vliet. Van Vliet's productions were very unequal, and their average of merit was not high. When left to himself, his work was coarse and brutal, utterly wanting in taste, and sometimes positively ludicrous. But, living in community with Rem- brandt, he reproduced many of the master's studies and pictures, and we owe to him our knowledge of several works which have disappeared, and exist only in his engravings, Rembrandt was the life and soul of this busy, eager group, which, as we shall see, found the most patient of models among the inmates of his father's house. Their studies have opened the ' This date, which is given by Houbraken, confirms the notion that Rembrandt's sojourn in Leyden was longer than was formerly sujjposcd. PORTRAITS OF REMBRANDT'S MOTHER 39 family circle to us, and enable us to become familiar with several of its members. The two first etchings which Rembrandt dated belong to the year 1628, and are signed with what was then his usual monogram. They are both portraits of his mother (B. Nos. 352 and 354), a woman of placid and venerable mien. Her hair is drawn back from a wide forehead lined with many wrinkles ; from beneath brows thick and prominent as her son's, the shrewd and kindly eyes meet those of the spectator with an expression denoting much natural benevolence, and a deep knowledge of life. We meet her again in two drawings in the Dresden Cabinet, and in three etchings, all of which may be, we think, referred to 1631, the date on two among them. In the first (B. 343) the old lady sits before a table, her little wrinkled hands crossed upon her breast. She wears a black veil on her head, and a black mantle round her shoulders. The widow's garb, the contemplative attitude, proclaim the subject of her meditation. She is thinking, no doubt, of one who is no more, of that faithful companion through good days and evil, the husband she lost the year before, and buried in the family grave in St. Peter's Church, April 27, 1630. Here the por- traiture is very exact. The son, already his mother's pride, has brought all his care and tenderness to bear upon his work, and shows an evident solicitude as to the likeness. She sat again in the same year, probably a few months later. This time the result was a freer study. She is stouter, and more wrinkled. Her costume is an Oriental robe : a scarf is twisted turban-wise round her head, the ends falling on her shoulders (B. 348). Two other studies, for which she also sat, follow at short intervals. In one, dating from about 1633, she is represented in her widow's dress again (B. 344). The other is dated 1633 (B. 351), and was probably executed during a visit of the mother to the son at Amsterdam, or of the son to the mother at Leyden. Painted portraits of his mother are no less numerous. The first we shall notice is that acquired by the Ryksmuseum in 1S89, a naive study, slightly awkward in execution, dating probably from about 1627 — 1628. The sitter wears a fur cap, over which is passed a 4° REMBRANDT white pleated scarf, striped with narrow pinl: hnes ; her jacket of soft blue harmonises well with its border of tawny fur. She holds the book in her hand up to her eyes. It is a Bible, open at St. Luke's Gospel. The timidity of a pupil lately set free from Lastman's studio is evident. But in such details as the minute gradations of the white pages, the delicate transparency of the half-tones, the wrinkles of the forehead and hand, carefully rendered, line by line, we recognise the conscientious reverence underlying a labour of love. The ne.xt in order are the two portraits at Windsor Castle, and at Wilton House. They are a little later, and were probably painted about 1629 — 1630. The colouring in both is gray and pale, but the handling is more skilful, and the greenish blues and pale violets make up a delicate harmony. The portrait in the Olden- burg Museum (No. 166 in the Catalogue) is more important. It was bought at the Pommersfelden sale in 1867, and bears the well-known monogram, and the date 1631. This picture was formerly known as Anna the Prophetess. Rembrandt has painted his mother in an Eastern dress, seated, and reading attentively from a large book on her lap. On her head is a broad-brimmed violet hat of fantastic shape, bordered with gold, and fastened across with a scarf. Her ample robe of purplish red velvet is worn over a dress of pale yellow. A white coif hides her hair, after the fashion then prevalent among Jewish women. A mild light glances on the border of the robe, the top of the hat, the book, and the hand resting upon it, in which every wrinkle is carefully reproduced. The relation of this cold light to the coloured shadows is rendered with absolute truth, and the deep purple of the mantle forms a beautiful harmony with the gray tints of the fur, and of the neutral background against which the figure is set. A reversed plate of this portrait was engraved by Van Vliet (B. iS), and Lievcns gives a free rendering of the features in two etchings (B. Nos. 30 and 40), in neither of which, however, has he been very careful to preserve the likeness. Gerard Dou, on the other hand, has drawn her with all his accustomed precision ; in six of his pictures at least we recognise the old lady at a glance. S/iidy for tin "Old Man Shuixius;" li. i -fi.). t'ahoiil i62i) -i()j;o} K.mI Chalk 1111,1 Wn-h. Printed by Draeger & Lesieur, Paris PORTRAITS OF REMBRANDT'S FATHER 41 One of these is in the Louvre, the Reading Woman (No. 2356 in the new Catalogue); two in the Dresden Museum (Nos. 1719 and 1720); another at BerHn (No. S47) ; a fifth in the Schwerin Museum (No. 326), the Woman tvith the Spimiing-wheel ; and the last, of which we shall have more to say presently, in the Cassel Museum (No. 234). Bearing in mind Rembrandt's practice of taking his models from members of the household, we naturally look for numerous por- traits of his father among his works. But down to the present time their iden- tification has been based merely on hypotheses more or less plausible. Not long ago, Mr. Middleton-Wake, who has made a special study of Rembrandt's etched work, gave it as his opinion that Rembrandt's father was probably the original of the Old Man with a long beard, and fiij-- trinimed cap (B. 262), one of the best of the early plates. In my attempts to classify the studies executed by Rembrandt and his friends at this period, I was struck by the frequent appear- ance of a very characteristic type, which recurs no less than nine times among the master's engraved works, not to speak of three heads scratched upon a single plate (B. 374). The nine are the following in Bartsch's catalogue : Nos. 262, 286, 287, 292, 293, 294, 304, 321, and 324. With the exception of the two Oriental Heads comprised in this list (Nos. 286, 287), the same type somewhat VOL. I. G REMBRANDT S FATHER, (By Gerard Dou, Cassel Museirm.) 42 REMBRANDT more freely treated, all these prints, save one (B. 263) are signed with the monogram so often referred to, and dated 1630. The apparent exception may possibly belong to this same year, for the date, 1631, figures on the second state only. They were there- fore all executed before the death of Rembrandt's father.' Besides these etchings, I know of eleven paintings executed at this period, all from the same model. They represent a bald-headed old man, with a thin face, long nose, bright eyes, full and rather red eyelids, thin compressed lips, a moustache turned up at the ends, a short beard, and a small mole on the chin. The constant recurrence of this type, the fact that Rembrandt painted him more than once in the steel gorget and accoutrements which he himself wears in the Hague portrait, and various minor indications, seemed to me strong evidences that the sitter was Rembrandt's father. My conjecture was soon fully confirmed. During my last visit to the Cassel Gallery, I noticed a pair of small portraits by Gerard Dou. They are ovals, of exactly the same size (gj x 7^ inches), and obviously represent a husband and wife. The female portrait is imquestionably Rembrandt's mother ; and in the male portrait I recognised the type so familiar to me in the plates above mentioned. Shortly afterwards, my presumption was further strengthened by two other small portraits, this time the work of Rembrandt himself One was that portrait of the artist's mother, recently acquired by my friend. Dr. Bredius, at Rotterdam, which appeared at the Ex- hibition of Old Masters held at the Hague during the summer of 1S90. The other was a little panel precisely similar in dimensions and execution, which, to my great surprise, I discovered a few weeks later in the Nantes Museum, where it is ascribed to Van Vliet. At 1 We have, moreover, proof positive that a portrait of Rembrandt's father was included among these etchings. A complete list of the plates figures in an inventory of the effects of Clement de Jonghe, dated February nth, 1679, the titles given being those by which the etchings were known shortly after the death of Rembrandt. No. 53 in the list is catalogued, Rembrandts Father (Oud-Holland, viii. p. 181). In the inventory of one Sybout van Caerdecamp, dated Leyden, February 23rd, 1644, mention is also made of " A Portrait of Mynheer Sembrandfs Father." PORTRAITS OF REMBRANDT'S FATHER 43 a glance I identified the type with that of Rembrandt's father, as l Five of Lievens' works are included in tlie inventory of Rembrandt's effects — a Raisiiii^ of Lazarus, two landscapes, a Hermit, and an Ahraliaiiis Sacrifice. (King of Sa\ony s Colle. 74 REMBRANDT he gradually inclined more and more. After the departure of Rembrandt, the passion for minute execution gained complete mastery over his pupil, and Dou became the head of that school of genre-painters at Leyden, whose works, hard, dry, and insignificant as they were, enjoyed such extraordinary vogue. Left to himself, Van Vliet's decline would have been even more signal than that of Dou, but he followed Rembrandt to Amsterdam, where he executed a considerable number of plates from the master's pictures. In these, which were doubtless carried out under Rembrandt's direction, he shows a certain degree of talent, all traces of which disappear, however, when he works from his own designs. His original plates are all disfigured by the violent contrasts, coarse drawing, and vulgar expression which sufficiently explain the complete neglect of his works by modern connoisseurs. By quitting the home circle to settle at Amsterdam, Rembrandt secured a wider sphere for his genius, and one more suitable to his artistic powers. But the years spent at Leyden had been fruitful, and their influence was considerable throughout his career. As his talent developed there had grown up in him that love of Nature which clung to him all his life. He had learnt to look at her with his own eyes, and to render her by very characteristic methods. Yet one so full of eager curiosity as he, must have been strongly tempted to yield to the current that bore .so many of his contemporaries to Italy — that Italy whose glory and whose masterpieces drew the artist-world to her in crowds. But he had been proof against the seductions spread before him by travellers' tales. He had dwelt among his own people, instead of seeking instruction abroad, as so many of his brethren had done, and, even in his own country, he had lived somewhat alone, a meditat- ive student of his art. He had struck out a path at his own peril, adopting methods peculiar to himself, satisfied with the models that lay ready to his hand: himself, his parents, and his relatives. His studies had furnished his memory and filled his portfolios with an infinite variety of types, ready for use in future compositions. He had set himself to discover the essential notes of a diversity of passions in his own mobile features. INFLUENCE OF REMBRANirrS RESIDENCE AT LEYDEN 75 But these formed only a part of his artistic preoccupations. He too had been fascinated by those problems of illumination which had attracted some of his predecessors. But, not content with the more obvious contrasts they had noted, he had gone further, and had suc- cessfully reproduced the play of those more delicate values, the relation of those less sharply defined contrasts, and of that insensible merging of light in shadow which constitute the mystery of chiaroscuro. He had divined the vast possibilities of such a science. Drawing became in his hands more than a somewhat abstract method of suggesting objects by means of a rigid and continuous system of delimitation. He had made it a vehicle for extraordinary vivacity of modelling, for expressing the surfaces of forms by obscuring their contours in part, only to bring out their essential features more forcibly. Discoveries still more unexpected and personal were reserved for him in con- nection with the uses of chiaroscuro in composition. No element of the picturesque lends itself to greater diversity of combinations, nor is any more admirably adapted to the expression of emotion, from the deepest to the most fleeting. Thus, by restricting or extending the field of light at pleasure, he was enabled to emphasise the characteristic features of a subject, and to subordinate its details according to their relative importance, or helpfulness to the general harmony. So far as we have yet followed him, the young master had confined himself to simple and direct experiments. But he was aware that a new world, rich in potential discoveries, was opening out before him. He learnt by degrees to satisfy the vague yearnings of his spirit, without loss of the material support afforded him by a keen study of nature. His determination of character urged him forward on the road he had chosen, and he kept steadily on his course to the end. We have seen that this period of voluntary isolation exercised a decisive influence on the life he had now resolved to dedicate solely to his art. Nothing, he determined, should henceforth come between him and the longed-for goal. He would give himself up wholly to his studies. As his love of seclusion grew on him, he became increasingly reluctant to leave his own hearth. He therefore began to fill his home with such things as might increase his knowledge, and 76 REMBRANDT further his work. His marked originality and strength of will were such that he had little to fear from the seductions that awaited him in a new centre. The transformation that had taken place in his character had left its marks on his face. In an etching of 1631 (B. 7), one of his numerous portraits of himself, we find no vestige of that youthful simplicity, the grace of which charms us in the Hague portrait. The features are more marked, the e.xpression more resolute, the face, broader and more masculine, breathes strength and confidence in every line. The costume and attitude enforce this impression. His hand on his hip, his curling hair escaping from under his hat, draped in a rich cloak of fur-lined damask with a collar of pleated lace, his bearing is that of a man who knows his own value, and will not falter in his life-march. Seven years ago he quitted Amsterdam a novice ; he comes back a Master. UEMDKANUT WITH FRIZZLED HAIR. About 1631 (B. BJ. CHAPTER V AMSTERDAM TOWARDS THU YEAR 1631 — HER GROWING TRADE AND PROSPERITY — THE TRANSFORMATION O'S THE CITY — THE SPIRIT OF TOLERANCE — CHARITIES — THE I-ITERARY MOVEMENT — THE ART AND TASTE OF THE DAY — DUTCH HOME-LIFE. THE situation of Amsterdam, unfurling herself fan-wise along the coast, her vast harbour, her concentric canal system, opening up commiuiication throughout the land, seem to mark her out for a great centre of international commerce. Yet this Venice of the North had risen from small beginnings, and her prosperity was won by dint of persistent struggles against difficulties of every kind. Her development from a straggling fisher-hamlet, scattered over the islets formed by the alluvial deposits of the Amstel, is a significant testimony to that intelligent perseverance and heroic tenacity which ensured the existence, pre- servation, and greatness of Holland. By the year 1631, the date at which Rembrandt took up his abode in the city, Amsterdam had risen to considerable importance. A number of emigrants from Antwerp and Flanders had been cordially SMALL GROTESQUE HEAl About 1632 (B. 327). 78 REMBRANDT received by the inhabitants, and turning their energy and business knowledge to good account, had l^ecome useful and prominent members of the community. More fortunate than some of her sister- cities, Amsterdam had escaped those horrors of war which had devastated Alkmaar, Leyden and Haarlem. She had temporised for a considerable time before finally throwing in her lot with the States General in 1578, and having dismissed the Spanish clergy and magis- trature practically without bloodshed, she quietly awaited the issue of the struggle behind the shelter of her dykes. But she had contributed actively to the success of the naval operations. Fleets were built at Amsterdam, which sailed from her harbour to assert the Dutch supremacy at sea, and to win immortal fame for her hardy sailors, admirals, and colonists. Among her navigators and adventurers were heroes such as J. van Heemskerk, Van der Does, Linschoten, Gerrit de Veer, Barentsz, Pieter Hein, Van Tromp, the De Ruyters, Jan Pietersz Coen, and his lieutenant Pieter van den Broeck, the founder of Batavia. A period of comparative security, following on the long contest, gave opportunities for the extension of commerce, and the acquisition of foreign territory. On April 2, 1595. four vessels set sail for the East Indies from Amsterdam. They were the first Dutch ships that had approached those shores. Two years later, three returned, leaving behind them settlements and counting-houses in latitudes to which none but the Portuguese had penetrated hitherto. Emboldened by these successes, ship-owners equipped other vessels. Various independent companies were formed, and amalgamating in 1602, became the great East India Company. The foundation of the West India Company in 1621 gave a fresh impetus to the trade of Holland. Half the mercantile marine of the world sailed under her flag, and her ships were found in every sea. Prom Java, I^orneo, and Brazil her vessels came laden with coffee, spices, rare woods, plants, animals, and precious merchandise of every sort, which she distributed among the nations of Europe. As commerce developed, the facilities lor barter increased, and banks were founded to aid the circulation of funds. Money poured steadily into Amsterdam ; her Bourse was a centre of very lucrative financial operations, regulating the rate of AMSTERDAM IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 79 exchann-e throughout the world. Under conditions such as these, the need for exact information as to poHtics, the markets, and other matters of public interest became evident. Journalism sprang into being ; and the Gazette of Holland, circulating throughout Europe, inaugurated the power of the periodical press. Amsterdam was the heart of such energy and development as has seldom been witnessed in the history of nations. Strangers were deeply impressed by its activity, as Descartes, whose position gave him every opportunity for observation, duly records. The philosopher, as is well known, visited Holland for the first time in 1617, and afterwards lived there for ten years. His first sojourn, then, was at Amsterdam, from 1629 to 1632. Delighted with the facilities afforded him for his studies, he lived in absolute retirement, giving himself up to abstruse speculation and scientific research. Anatomy occupied him for a whole winter, and his butcher furnished him with portions of animals " to dissect at leisure." On other occasions he made triends with the manufacturers of spectacle-glasses, and devoted himself to the study of optics. He exchanged ideas with savants on the subject of acoustics, or collected seeds of exotics from the botanical gardens of the neighbouring Universities for transmission to France. It was an ideal retreat for an inquirer of Descartes's tastes, ;md the bustling life around him made his seclusion all the more pleasurable. In a letter to M. de Balzac, dated May 5, 163 1, he expresses his amazement at the scene of which he was a spectator. " In this vast city, where I am the only man not engaged in trade, every one is so busy money-making, that I might spend my whole life in complete solitude." He extols the advantages and resources of his domicile, and adds, in further evidence of his appreciation : " Seeing how pleasant it is to watch the growth of fruits in our orchards, can you not conceive the interest with which one hails the arrival of ships freighted with all the rarities of Europe, and all the treasures of the Indies ? In what other country in the world are both necessary commodities and curious merchandise so readily obtainable as here ? Where else can one enjoy such perfect liberty ? " Returning to the subject six So REMBRANDT years later in his Discourse on Method, he congratulates himself afresh : " Lost in the crowd of a great and active people, so busy with their own affairs that they have little curiosity as to those of their neighbours, I have found it possible to live the life of a hermit, while enjoying all the resources of the most populous cities." ' Forty years later, Spinosa, who was nevertheless destined to suffer from the bigotry of his fellow- townsmen, paid a like tribute to Amsterdam : " a city in the heyday of her prosperity, the admired of every nation .... where all, no matter what their creed or country, live to- gether in perfect unity." ^ As her wealth increased, Amsterdam was gradually transformed.' Like most mediœval towns, she had found it necessary to pre- pare for attack by circum- vallation. But new exi- gencies arose with the development of her commerce. Instead of demolishing the ancient gates and towers of the enceinte which successive extensions of the boundaries in 1585, 1593, 1609 and 1612 had brought within the city, the municipal architect, Hendrick de Keyser, utilised them as entrepôts, or offices for the Customs and other administrative functions. In adapting them to new requirements, he practically restricted himself ^ DisiOl/rs sur ta Mctliodt:, p.Tit iii. - Spinosa ; Tractatus ttieotogko-potitns, c. xx. ^ For a detailed account of these changes, sec Cj. Gallard's admirable work, Gesctdclite der twlliindiscjien Botttiunst iind Bildiien'i, 1890. For information as to the manners and literature of the period, two recently iniblished books may also be consulted : Hct Land van Rembi-andt, by liusken-Huet, 3 vols. Svo., Haarlem, 18S6 ; and Gesctdctite de?- niederldndisclieji Litteratur, by L. Schneider, i vol. Leipzig, 188S. THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS 8i to the introduction of a scheme of decoration more in accordance with prevailing taste. The Montalban Tower was thus modified in i6o5, and the Haarlem Gate in 1615. In the one, the Mint was established in 1619 ; the other was used for the packing of herrings. The St. Anthony's Gate became the Standard Weights bureau, and its three flanking towers were assigned to the Guilds of painters, tailors, and surgeons respectively, for their periodical meetings. Such adaptations served a double end. They preserved ancient relics, and saved the expense of new buildings. The same VIEW OK THE ZUVDERKERK. {Facsimile oi a contemporary print ) practical sentiment governed the transformation of disused Catholic churches and cloisters into temples of the reformed faith. Buildings specially designed for the new worship also rose in various quarters. They were generally plain rectangular halls of uniform construction, crowned by a belfry. Such were the Zuyderkerk, on the south-east, built between 1607 and 16 14 ; the Noordenkerk, its interior in the form of a Greek cross, with a pulpit in the centre, begun in 1620, and finished three years later ; and the Westerkerk, a three-aisled basilica with a transept, the building of which occupied eighteen years — from 1620 to 163S. VOL. I. L 82 REMBRANDT In addition to these public buildings, a large number oi private dwellings in every style of architecture had risen to modify the original aspect of the city. If treasure flowed abundantly into Amsterdam coffers, it was spent no less lavishly. The merchant princes, after amassing their great fortunes, were, like their prototypes in Venice and Florence, ambitious to distinguish themselves by the refinement of their tastes. Many of them were leaders of the intellectual movement ; they dabbled in letters, and became patrons of art. On questions of public polity they brought to bear the same honourable intelligence that had marked their business transactions. A deep sense of solidarity united all classes in labours for the common weal. Municipal authority was no exclusive appanage of patrician birth ; it was open to all whose merits claimed the suffrages of their fellow-citizens. The instinctive leaning of this community towards wisdom and sobriety of conduct is discernible in every manifestation of its energies. Its exercise of reason was reinforced by a lofty moral sense, due to its characteristic conception of religion. The Dutch were a staid and serious race, practical and truth-loving in their desire for knowledge. We shall find zealous theologians among them ; and disputes between the innumerable sects that divided the city degenerated occasionally into riot, pillage, and bloody persecution. But the spirit of tolerance was abroad in 1630 ; an aristocracy of intellect had arisen, the members of which, though professing different creeds, were united by the tenderest friendship, and who, as their mutual knowledge grew, learnt that very opposite beliefs may bear like fruits of blameless living. The dogmatic element was not abandoned in religious teaching ; but in doctrine, as in all other intellectual matters, the Dutch demanded clarity and precision. They sought to establish some solid mutual ground, acceptable to all, and were unwearied in their exertions to this end. And as the Scriptures were the foundation on which their creeds were based, they felt it to be of great importance that the text in use should be trustworthy. They were aided in questions of exegesis by members of the Jewish colony, who had been cordially RELIGIOUS TOLERATION 83 received throughout Holland. Amsterdam, however, was the favourite refuge of Hebrew immigrants, and no less than four liundred Jewish families, chiefly from Portugal, had settled in the city before the middle of the seventeenth century. They lived apart, in a quarter of their own choosing, but were not confined to a ghetto, as in Rome and Frankfort. By 1657 the colonists were completely emancipated. They kept up a constant intercourse between their " New Jerusalem" and off-shoots established in England, Denmark and Hamburg. Many rose to distinction by their learning or qualities. Several devoted themselves to the study of medicine, like that Ephraim Bonus whose portrait both Rembrandt and his friend Lievens painted. Others took to commerce, and sailed in Dutch ships to establish counting-houses even in Surinam and Brazil. Among their Rabbis were Hebraists such as Menasseh Ben Israel, the friend of Rembrandt, and of the most distinguished men of his day. The organisation of charity in Amsterdam is yet another evidence of that spirit of benevolence which, under various forms, bound the inhabitants one to another. The system of administration established in the various hospitals, lazar-houses, orphanages and homes for the aged founded or supported by private or civic enter- prise, was so admirable, that it has been preserved intact to this day. City notables and distinguished patricians account it honourable to serve on their Councils. They check the expenditure with scrupulous care, occasionally covering deficits by munificent gifts. Supervisory jurisdiction is vested in a body of Regents ; with them is associated a Directress, who bears the title of Mother. The most exquisite order and cleanliness obtain. In the Council-rooms hang portraits of administrators or benefactors. Many of these halls have thus become museums on a small scale, possessing works of considerable importance. Canvases by Jacob Backer, Juriaen Oven, Abraham de Vries, &c., are preserved in the Municipal Orphanage of the Kalverstraat. In the Hall of the Society of Remonstrants there is a fine portrait by Thomas de Keyser, and one of Jan Ilytenbogaerd by Jacob Backer. Nowhere, as may be imagined, did the spirit of liberty work REMBRANDT with happier results than in the domain of science and letters. Though Amsterdam, less privileged than Leyden, had no University, she could boast scholarship equal to that of any neighbouring city. She had long been the centre of culture in Holland, and the most distinguished savants of the day were soon attracted by the advantages she offered, when in 1632, she founded an institution modelled on the Illustrious School of Deventer. Her Cham- bers of Rhetoric had taken the lead in the literary movement, and had founded the only permanent theatre in the country. The mysteries and allegories originally enacted in honour of princely visitors had given place to dramas deal- ing with more mundane themes, and better suited to contemporary tastes. The Beggars had their poets, whose terrible songs of rage and vengeance (Drawing by Boudier, after a phologiaph.) had been thclr battlC" hymns when they swept the country of its tyrants. The breath of popular passion touched the drama, and allusions to familiar scenes and contemporary events break the monotony of Coster's academic compositions. Thus, in his Polyxcnes, which was first acted in 1630, he sought to bring discredit on religious fanaticism, relieving his habitual coarseness and faults of taste by occasional flashes of genius. His friend and contemporary Brederoo carried such innovations much farther. He attempted to reproduce every-day life on the boards, seeking his models in the streets and markets of Amsterdam, and abating CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS 85 nothing of their freedom of speech. But he died prematurely before he had proved his capacity. Pieter Cornehsz Hooft, an aristocrat by birth and education, was the choragtts of classicism in the opposite camp. The diction of his insipid pastorals, pasticci on Tasso's Aminta and Guarini's Pastor Fido, remained unchanged — ponderous, invertebrate, full of conceits and affectations. The tragedies by which they were succeeded have 86 REMBRANDT more of grace and nature, but they suffer from the same radical feebleness of conception. Vulgarity jostles pathos at every turn ; and the action is impeded by endless digressions and irrelevancies. Hooft's broad and tolerant views raised him above party strife, religious or political, and he had friends of every denomination. A passion for the antique distinguished most of those who gathered round him at his country house at Muiden, near Amsterdam, where he had settled in 1609, on his appointment as warden of the district. The exchange of letters and verses in Latin obtained in this circle, which, under the name of the Mender Krmg, was of .some note in the literary history of the day. The daughters of Roemer Vischer were among its most brilliant members. These learned persons affected Ciceronian graces of style in their correspondence, and racked their brains for laborious paraphrases by which to describe very modern sentiments and transactions. Subtleties akin to the jargon of our own blue-stockings were ill assimilated by the vigorous Dutch temperament. Even with the most highly cultured, these artificial graces were allied to passages of doubtful taste, and to elaborately studied reminiscences, breathing pedantry in every line. Notwithstanding which, Hooft's talents, high position, and nobility of character gave him considerable influence in Dutch literature. Vondel, the hosier-poet of the Warmoësstraat, was greatly Hooft's superior in originality and strength of conception. High as was his reputation among his contemporaries, his lot was no more prosperous and peaceful than that of Rembrandt and Spinosa, and like them, he died in poverty. In Vondel's dramas, the man is more apparent than the writer ; whether inspired by some Scriptural theme, or some episode in national history, they breathe his innermost convictions. Careless of the animosity he provoked, he worked undauntedly for truth and justice, as he conceived them. Fanatics of every party poured out their wrath upon him. In his Palamedes, or the Murder of the Innocent, produced in 1625, he boldly inveighed against the persecutions engendered by religious strife. The dramatis pe7'soiiœ were his contemporaries. Prince Maurice, his ministers, and the LITERATURE murderers of Barneveld, under transparent disguises ; the allusions to political events were so numerous and pointed ' that Vondel, cited to answer for such licence, at the Hague, thought it prudent to escape incognito, and take refuge among friends and relatives. On the intervention of the magistrature, his penalties were commuted to a fine of 300 florins. In spite of this escapade, he was the popular candidate a few years later for the honour of inaugural representa- tion in the new Amsterdam theatre, where his Gysbrecht van Amstcl was produced, January 3, 1638. Vondel excelled Hooft in lyric sense, in vitality, colour, patriotic fervour, depth and ardour of religious conviction. His free spirit breathed unquenchable vigour, in caustic satires whose shafts went straight to the mark. He was destined, however, to suffer cruelly in his old age for his independent temper. A contemporary, far below him in talent, was better treated by fortune. Jacob Cats, chiefly remarkable for the minute realism with which he handled familiar themes, had both the qualities and the defects that appeal to the multitude. He was at the height of his reputation in 1630. The works of " Father Cats " were to be found in every household, side by side with the Bible. His Poem on Marriage {Formiiher van den houwelycken Siaet), published in 1625, was followed in 1632 by the Mirror of Ancient and Modern Times [Spiegel van der ouden en nieinven tyd), a work in which he seeks to prove that all practical philosophy may be summed up in popular proverbs. He illustrates his text by exhortations to prudence, order and economy, conceived in a spirit of somewhat prosaic morality. In his Nuptial Ring [Troiiwring), published shortly afterwards (1637), he details conjugal anecdotes of more than doubtful propriety with a cynical simplicity, and it is curious to find this high functionary of the State indulging in a licence worthy of Jan Steen. Cats was essentially a popular writer, and his works are almost incomprehensible outside his own country. The success of his writings (to which, no doubt, Adriaen van de Venne's illustrations * These allusions have been annotated and explained in a very interesting study by Mr. J. H. W. Unger, Oud-Holland, 1888, p. 51. 88 REMBRANDT contributed) was so extraordinary, that fifty-five thousand copies were sold by an Amsterdam pubhsher in a single year. In modern times, however, there has been a marked reaction, even in Holland, against so debased a style of poetry, and his claims to rank in a literary triumvirate on equal terms with Hooft and Vondel, are now very justly disputed. It is evident that literary success at this period was proportionate to the writer's knowledge of popular life, and ac- curate reproduction of its realities. Even in the best society, a certain coarseness marked the habits of persons whose lives were, on the whole, orderly and moral. When we remember that anoma- lies such as these existed in society throughout Europe, we shall more readily pardon them in the Dutch, a nation but just recovering from a struggle that had con- vulsed its whole social system. The education of this vigorous and hitherto somewhat uncultured race was derived from camps and ships, or from theological and political treatises. Such a training was little calculated to develope the minor graces of reticence and good breeding. It is not surprising, therefore, that their amusements, public or private, .should have been marked by a certain grossness. Although the general demeanour of the people was calm and slow, so that even when most active, they never seemed hurried, there were yet times when they threw off all restraint, and gave themselves up to a very Saturnalia of MANNERS 89 riotous movement. Those who have never witnessed one of the Amsterdam Kermesses, recently aboh'shed, can form no idea of the frenzy that suddenly transformed the sober populace, their wild yells, their frantic sarabands, into which inoffensive spec- tators were whirled relentlessly, if they happened to cross the path THE RAISING OF JAIRUS's DAUGHTER. (Pen Drawing, Seymour-Haden Collection.) of the excited crowd. The habihiès of the theatres comported themselves in much the same fashion. Decent folks were scared away by the character of the audience, and its behaviour, especially when the piece happened to be one of Brederoo's farces. A motley crew of men, women and children took possession of the go REMBRANDT pit, where they made assignations, drank, smoked, shouted, and very often exchanged any projectiles that lay ready to hand. At family gatherings, people whose normal habits were sober and temperate became, for the nonce, eaters and drinkers of Pantagruelian capacity. The number of joints consumed and bottles emptied at a wedding feast was appalling. Hooft, who condemned such excesses as bestial and degrading, likened Amsterdam to " the island of Circe, where men were changed into swine." In primitive times, the annual feasts held at the meetings of the military and artistic guilds were frugal in the extreme, consisting chiefly of a few herrings, and tankards of beer that passed from hand to hand. But such humble merry- makings gradually developed into banquets of inordinate length. Van der Heist's large canvases instruct us as to the capacity of drinking-horns drained by the civic guards, and the dimen- sions of the casks they broached. Small wonder that after such potations the eyes of his honest sitters should sparkle, and their cheeks glow! It was towards the close of such a feast, when heads were getting hot, that tlie aged Vondel, dreading the in- evitable uproar, whispered to his neighbour Flinck : " Govert, I love not strife, disputes and libations. Wilt thou remain ? I must begone." ' But such occasions were clearly exceptional, and the manifest sincerity of the Dutch painters has furnished less damaging records of contemporary life. Though they too, and notably the so-called painters of conversations, or society pieces, have shown us the pastimes of their countrymen in varying degrees of elegance and decency, from the drunken frolic of the peasant to the refined debauchery of the patrician. With Esaias van de Velde, Dirck Hals, Pieter Potter, Antoni Palamedes, and Pieter Codde for our guides, we run the risk of finding ourselves occasionally in queer company. But interesting as their works and those of their successors are, from certain sides, they are comparatively unimportant in view of the vast mass of testimony, equally trustworthy and ' Vosmaer, Retithrandt, p. 329. PROGRESS OF ART 91 infinitely more favourable, to be found in the pictures of their contemporaries. The brush rather than the pen has made Holland famous among nations ; and no name in her annals shines with more glorious lustre than that of Rembrandt. Painting is the one art that has flourished supremely on Dutch soil. The others can scarcely be said to have even taken root. In Amsterdam, the only Dutchmen who rose to eminence as musicians were the three generations of Sweelincks ; the only sculptors of note were Jansz Vinckenbrink, who produced one master-piece, the pulpit of the Nieuwekerk (1648) and a number of insignificant works ; and Hendrick de Keyser, the author of the tomb of William the Silent at Delft (1621) and the Erasmus of Rotterdam (1622). De Keyser, however, was better known as an architect, though his churches and public buildings have little dis- tinction. But painting was nearing its apogee at this period, and never in all the history of art, did genius bear such abundant fruit within such narrow limits of time and space. Although her Guild of St. Luke was a somewhat heterogeneous society, far below those of Utrecht, the Hague, Delft, and Haarlem, both in solidarity and importance, Amsterdam reaped the benefit of previous effort in other directions for her art, as she had already done for her commerce. The Athens of the North, as her men of letters loved to call her, gradually attracted all the famous masters who had been formed in other centres. There was hardly a single artist of renown who did not make a sojourn more or less prolonged within the city, and who did not look to her approval for the confirmation of his fame. Her inhabitants now formed the richest and most populous community in the country ; and among her guilds and private collectors painters found the readiest and most profitable market for their wares. Even now, though many of her master-pieces have been taken from her and scattered throughout Europe, the visitor to Amsterdam realises more strongly than elsewhere, that painting was the national art of Holland, the art that has best interpreted her aspirations and reproduced her varied social life. Foremost in genius as in numbers were her portrait-painters. In that vast 92 REMBRANDT iconography of all classes and professions they have transmitted to us, everything- that could indicate the tastes and occupations of their models has been noted with the most scrupulous care. The greater number of such portraits are not isolated examples ; the wife makes a pair with her husband ; or the couple figure on the same canvas, as if to attest the harmony of their union. In some instances the whole family clusters round the parents, the married sons and daughters with their partners, others drawing or making music, the younger children with their playthings. To com- plete the illusion, servants are placed beside their masters, either in the usual sitting-room or in a landscape before the house. The composition varies in taste with the painter, but the likeness is always sin- cerely and conscientiously studied. Together with these STUDY OF AN OLD -MAN'. domestic portraits, the (King of S.-ixony's Collection.) ^ ' important canvases painted for the numer- ous guilds form as it were a series of official documents, illustrat- ing the history of the city, and preserving the memory of great institutions, and famous men. Art patronage was now exercised solely by the guilds or private collectors. The demand for votive pictures had passed away with the Catholic worship and its clergy. The princes of the House of Orange were very luke- CONDITION OF ARTISTS 93 warm protectors of the arts, and Frederick Henry was the first among them to give some attention to the building, fur- nishing and decoration of his palaces. Even his artistic sympathies were rather Flemish than Dutch, and the rich citizens and THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE, (Pell and wash, Hi;seltine CoUeclioii.) men of letters shared his predilections. Hooft, Van Baerle, and even Vondel, recognised no rivals to Van Dyck and Rubens. They could not understand Rembrandt, and never allude to him in their writings. 94 REMBRANDT Amateurs who prided themselves on their enlightenment, varied their collection of Flemish masters by the purchase of Italian pictures, a predilection for which was supposed to stamp the collector at once as a person of the highest taste. Examples of the Italian masters were consequently much sought after, and fairly numerous in Amster- dam at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Among local painters, the Italianisers enjoyed most favour, and commanded the highest prices. The large majority who knew nothing of the artistic quality of a picture was captivated by their choice of elevated themes, and their close adherence to tradition in treatment. The literary and historical episodes they affected further gave the pur- chaser a chance of displaying his own learning in explanation and comment. The most popular among the landscape-painters were also those who sought inspiration abroad. The painters of Biblical or mythological figures in rocky landscapes and learned per- spectives accounted the scenery of Holland tame and unpicturesque. With so little perception of its beauties, they naturally felt no desire to reproduce them. As has happened in every age, the most meretricious talent found the readiest appreciation among so-called connoisseurs, who saw in minute finish, exactness of imitation, and kindred tricks of facile mediocrity, the highest artistic achievement. The true masters, whose nobler genius demanded franker and more characteristic expression, had a hard struggle for bare existence. The genre painters of this period often represent very modest in- teriors as adorned with a surprising number of pictures, and recently published inventories of the seventeenth century prove that many a plain citizen owned a considerable collection. It might therefore be inferred that contemporary painters found a good market for their works. But the absurd prices at which these works were valued, and sold at auction bear dismal witness to the true state of affairs. At Amsterdam, as at Leyden, canvases were to be bought for a few florins, signed by masters now famous throughout the world, whose separate works command prices greater than the sum total of their gains in life. Many of them lived needy and neglected, and DUTCH INTERIORS 95 died in misery. The shrewder among them supplemented their art by some more lucrative calHng. Van Goyen speculated in old pictures, tulips, and house-property ; his son-in-law Steen rented two breweries, which he turned to profitable account ; Hobbema obtained the post of gauger at the Amsterdam docks. Pieter de Hooch was reduced to serve as steward under a master who claimed a proprietary right in a certain number of his pictures ; many became bankrupt, or died in the hospitals. It is the glory of these men that they sought a higher reward than the suffrages of the crowd. But our judgment of the contemporaries who ignored their greatness should not be too harsh. It was hardly possible that they should recognise art presented to them in such novel guise — art not only differing from, but in apparent conflict with, all received standards. It is only by slow degrees that the importance of the great Dutch epoch has been fully established. Its record is no less glorious than complete. Side by side with those correct and impeccable artists, whose accomplished technique satisfied the average taste of the day, it numbers inno- vators whose vivifying originality gave the crowning excellence to a school in which every diversity of style and talent has had its representative. Such was the art which furnished the citizens of Amsterdam with the chief ornament of their homes. In these a great change had taken place. The vast halls of Van Bassen's pictures, and Vredeman de Vries's engravings had given place to smaller and cosier interiors, better adapted to the tastes and habits of the times. In the architec- ture of public buildings, Italian influences mainly predominated ; but that of private houses preserved its irregular character, each house, even on the exterior, retaining its individuality of aspect. The ornate façades, crowned with gables ending above in " crow-steps," or in huge moulded volutes, displayed every variety of ornament, from the sculptured caryatid or garland, to the emblems and devices proclamatory of the owner's profession, political leanings, and moral or religious beliefs. Entering such dwellings, generally of moderate dimensions, even in the most fashionable quarter, the stranger would 96 REMBRANDT be struck by the order, comfort, and exquisite cleanliness in all, and the subdued luxury of the wealthier among them. The all-pervading influence of the Dutch housewife was apparent at a glance. Innumerable portraits have made us familiar with those incomparable helpmeets — familiar with their candid faces, rosy complexions, frank JOSEri! CONSOLING THE FKISONERS. (Brilibh Museum.) eyes, and decent sobriety of mien. Some among them have a charming grace and distinction ; but as a rule, health and vigour characterise them, rather than beauty. Marking the rigidity of their closely-fitting costumes, the, hair drawn tightly under the coif, the throat concealed by a stiffly gauffered ruff, we divine the virtuous regularity of lives devoted to the cares of a household, and the education of children. DUTCH LIFE AND ART 97 With advancing age, the steady practice of honest and wholesome virtues stamps itself on the serene, unruffled faces, giving an indescribable air of dignity that commands respect. Later, as wealth increased, manners changed. But for a long time, something of primitive simplicity lingered in certain families, even among the most exalted, and the Dutch cliâlchxine saw nothing derogatory to her rank in the faithful discharge of daily duties, the watchful super- vision of her household, and the personal direction of its humblest details. Thanks to her ceaseless care, everything about her was orderly, and had its appointed place. Coppers sparkled like gold, VOL. I. M 98 REMBRANDT tiled floors shone spotless ; coffers and presses, bright with inces- sant waxing and polishing, breathed forth the pleasant fragrance of clean linen, that close fine linen renowned throughout Europe, the chief luxury of the Dutch house-mistress. Along the walls, chairs were ranged at equal distances ; on the sideboards stood silver ewers or vases, massive in shape, but delicately chased by some cunning artificer, such as Jan Lutma or Adam van Vianen. Above the carved woodwork, stamped leather, or por- celain tiles that ornamented the lower part of the walls, hung the pictures. These were generally of medium size, bright and luminous, to show up well in the scanty sunlight filtering through the leafy shadows of trees on the neighbouring quay. The execu- tion was usually careful and minute, enabling the owner to make gradual discovery of beauties at first unnoticed. Those whose means denied them what was then the modest luxury of picture, contented themselves with engravings, and the printsellers of the Kalverstraat — the Danckerts, Visscher, Clement de Jonghe, Pieter Nolpe, and many more — offered them a choice among those innu- merable plates which circulated from Amsterdam throughout the world. In other rooms again we find maps substituted for pictures. In all these Dutch interiors few things were non-utilitarian, none were mere incumbrances. Here and there perhaps was some curiosity brought from the Indies, lacquers, finely carved ivories, pieces of that Chinese or Japanese porcelain which it was becoming the fashion to collect, and beside which the first manufactures of Delft still held their own. In the little garden adjoining the house, narrow, finely gravelled paths divided beds neatly bordered with box, gay with bright-leaved shrubs, and flowers ; tulips, narcissi, anemones, and all the bulbous plants that flourish in the soil of Holland, and even in those days formed an important branch of her commerce. The exteriors, so faithfully reproduced by Van der Heyden, were continually washed, and repainted every year, with that minute and apparently superfluous cleanliness, which is found on experience to be an essential condition of life in Holland. Indica- DUTCH LIFE AND ART 99- tions of order, care, and foresight strike the observer on every, hand ; all things bear the impress of that precise and practical spirit of which we might multiply evidences. The formal lines of houses, the rows of trees planted at regular intervals along the canals, the noiseless procession of boats bringing daily neces- saries to each dwelling, may seem dull and monotonous to the stranger. The Dutchman never wearies of the scene ; the uni- formity so familiar to him is reflected in his own life. The bounties disregarded by others because so freely bestowed on them by Nature, he has won by his own exertions ; they are his creations ; he knows what they cost him, and what he has done to deserve them. The buildings that protect him, the sea from which he draws his wealth, the freedom he enjoys, the very soil on which he stands, recall a long series of determined efforts and heroic struggles. All he has won he has still to defend and preserve, as he declares in his modest device : " I will maintain." Self-reliant and self-sufficing, he has given a noble example to the world. Artists, now the admired of every nation, for whose works the wealthy eagerly compete, worked for him, and for him alone. The great revolution accomplished, the Dutch sought to develope " an art congenial to their tastes and suitable to their conditions." ..." A race of traders," as Fromentin ably puts it,' " practical, industrious, unimaginative, without a touch of mysticism — frugal in habits and essentially anti-Latin in intellect — its traditions overthrown, its worship stripped of symbols and imagery — such a race turned almost involun- tarily to a genre at once simple and daring — the only one in which it had excelled for fifty years — and demanded portraits from its painters." Rembrandt both conformed to the popular programme, and went immeasurably beyond it. We have tried, not altogether idly, we trust, to paint the population among which he was about to live, in order to give a clear idea of the influences afterwards brought to bear upon him, his gradual emancipation from them, and the final triumph of his originality. He was now to measure ^ Les Maîtres d' autrefois, p. 172. M 2 loo REMBRANDT himself with rivals not unworthy of him. We shall see him presently outshining them all, and becoming a fashionable favourite, but we know that he was not the man to accept the bondage of popularity. He was never a complaisant idol of the multi- tude, and his success, so far from intoxicating him, rather moved him by a reactionary impulse, to press forward more resolutely than ever, in the path marked out by his own sincerity. (Heseltine .Collection.) CHAPTER VI REMBRANDT SETTLES AT AMSTERDAM — HIS FIRST PICTURES — HIS FEMALE MODELS — THE 'good SAMARITAN' — THE 'RAPE OF PROSERPINE' STUDIES OF OLD MEN THE PORTRAITURE OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL THOMAS DE KEYSER— PORTRAITS PAINTED BY REMBRANDT IN 1632. ON his arrival at Amsterdam, Rembrandt took up his abode with his friend Hendrick van Uylenborch, with whom he had lodged on former occasions. But his stay was probably brief, for one of his inde- pendent character and with his passion for work must have been anxious to find himself in a home of his own, where he could give ^ ^ himself up freely to his studies. The lodging he chose was on the Bloeiiigracht, a canal to the west of the town, in a warehouse, no doubt spacious enough to afford him a studio where he could arrange his models conveniently, under favourable conditions as to light. Rembrandt found facilities in his new residence that had been denied him in Leyden. Male models were procurable, and some few women sat to him. There was at least one, whose face and form — too easily recognisable, alas ! — we find in several etchings of the I02 REMBRANDT period. We are bound to admit that the so-called Bathing Dia^ia (B. 201) has little of the classic grace and beauty suggested by the title. Rembrandt's interpretations of mythologie fable were rarely happy. It is hard to imagine a type more vulgar than this coarse-limbed, harsh-featured wench, with her pendulous breasts, shapeless stomach, and legs scored by the garters she has just discarded. But though we cannot be blind to the repulsiveness of such details, especially in a subject of this kind, we may draw attention to the firmness, the frankness, the skilful sobriety of the handling, the remarkable knowledge of effect, and the airy lightness of the vegetation in this plate, which, though it bears no date, is signed with the monogram affected by Rembrandt at this period. We further note the mantle with embroideries of gold and precious stones, which formed part of Rembrandt's artistic wardrobe at this date, and which he introduced in many con- temporary works. The Naked Woman seated on a Hillock (B. 198) and the Danaé (B. 204) are from the same model, under aspects even more vmpleasant, and the cynical and loathsome ugliness of the Wife of Potiphar (1634, B. 39), who lolls upon a couch in another etching, was perhaps inspired by the same sitter, and sufficiently accounts for the precipitate flight of Joseph at the revelations made by this shameless creature in the inconceivable hope of his seduction ! The study of the feminine form as displayed by these viragoes added little to the master's reputation, and fortunately he soon abandoned these essays, for some time at least.-' The above bear significant testimony to his e.xaggerated respect for nature, and his conscientious insistence on her most revolting realities, with that consequent total eclipse of taste we shall have occasionally to notice in his work. The episode of the Good Samaritan had a peculiar attraction for Rembrandt, and he returned to it several times. He made use of it at about the same period for a picture and an etching (B. 90), very unequal in originality. The composition is the same in both, and is ^ He reached occasionally a better type at a much later period. See the " IVoman tvith the Arrow.'''' — F. W. "THE GOOD SAMARITAN " 103 identical with that of an earher plate by Jan van de Velde, save for the modification of certain details. In Van de Velde's print the Samaritan stands in front of the horse, and hands some pieces of money to the host. The latter holds a torch, for night has fallen, and the gloom is further relieved by a second torch in the hand of a child on the steps above. The distant landscape lies in total darkness. Rembrandt, strange to say, though never more absorbed in the problems of chiaroscuro than at this period, neglects the picturesque opportunities proper to such a theme, and sets his figures in broad daylight, against a luminous sky. There is infinite depth in the neutral tonality of this sky in the picture, but the composition has little character. The actors are uninteresting, with the exception of the wounded man, whose look of pain and despair is very moving. The .figures are piled one above the other in the same unfortunate manner as in the Baptism of (he Euniicfi. We are far from sharing, or even understanding, the boundless admiration expressed by Goethe, who knew the work only through the etching. He con- sidered the plate "one of the finest in the world; executed with the most scrupulous care, and yet with marvellous facility." His enlargements on this judgment are full of the romantic spirit that informed the art criticism of his day, and caused critics to read into a work of art, subtleties never dreamt of by its author — subtleties not merely futile from the artistic . point of view, but harmful and grotesque. In this case, Goethe's elucidations over- leap all bounds of probability. After endorsing Longhi's praise of the spirited figure of the old man on the threshold, the great writer remarks that the wounded traveller, instead of sinking into the arms of the servant who offers to carry him into the inn, resists, and endeavours, by gesture and expression, to move the pity of a young man, who glances at him indifferently from the window above. In him the sufferer recognises the chief of the brigands who attacked him, and reduced him to his present state. His despair on finding himself in the actual den of the murderers is only too well founded ! ' Save for the cask to the right of the etching, ' Goethe; Schrijten und Aufsdtze ziir Kunsi : Rembratidt der Denker. 104 REMBRANDT and the dog who is planted in a somewhat. . . . over-familiar attitude in the foreground, the picture of the Good Samaritan, now in Lady Wallace's collection, is an exact reproduction (reversed) of the plate.' The latter bears on the fifth state only the words Rembrandt inventor et feeit 1633. The fact of the reversal proves that the plate was executed after the picture. The attribution of the print to Rembrandt has been warmly con- tested of late, and notable divergences from his usual treatment in the trees, architecture, and even in some of the figures, have suggested the authorship of Rodermont or of Bol. It would perhaps be nearer the mark to assign a cer- tain portion of the work to Rembrandt, while ad- mitting the probable col- laboration of some pupil. But we reserve our opinion as to the names suo'o-ested, DIANA BATHIKG. About 1631 (B. 201). until we can treat it at length in our discussion of Rembrandt's scholars. The execution of the painting is a further proof of its priority, and like Dr. Bredius," we consider its analogies with that of the Presentation, in the Temple so strong as to rank it among the works of 1631 or thereabout. It must, however, be borne in mind that, in Rembrandt's case, such chronological problems are often delicate matters. In his work as a ^ It has been stated that the dog originally figured in the picture, and was erased at the desire of a former owner. No trace of such suppression is apparent ; if it actually took place, it must have been some considerable time ago, for there is no dog in the engraving in the Choiseul " Gallery," to which collection the Good Sa7naritan belonged at the close of the last century. - Nederlandscjie Spectator, 1S89, No. 19 : ' Old Masters' in Royal Academy, 1889. "THE GOOD SAMARITAN" 105 whole we shall find him gaining steadily in breadth and freedom as his talent developed ; yet we shall occasionally meet with examples bearing dates that seem almost incredible, taken in conjunction with THE GOOD SAMARITAN, .633 (B. 90). Other signed and dated works of the same year. Such anomalies may be variously explained. Many of his canvases remained for a long time in his studio, either because he delayed the finishing touches, or REMBRANDT because purchasers were slow in making up their minds. In either case, he probably left them unsigned till finally disposed of. Others were certainly re-painted, wholly or in part, after considerable intervals, and bear distinct traces of successive re-touching. Others again, though carried out more or less continuously, are very unequal in execution, the touch being in some parts minute and careful, in others bold and summary. Finally, Rembrandt seems to have felt the need of diversity in his methods. It was his habit to revert, after the execution of some broad and sketchy work, to his more sedate and elaborate manner, as if by way of discipline. Such variations and returns to earlier stages of development were very natural at the period we are now considering. A new-comer in Amsterdam, and anxious to make his way, it cost him little to conform in some degree to the reigning taste. His natural inclination, as his earliest works proclaim, was towards a minute study of nature, and his reverence for realities now brought him back on several occasions to the scrupulous finish that was his surest passport to public favour. We are therefore struck by the elaboration of various works of this period which, though later than the Holy Family of the Pinacothek, are more closely allied to preceding pictures. We may instance two small examples in the Berlin Museum (Nos. 828c and 823). The subject of the former is, as the Catalogue remarks, some- what obscure. Is it a Judith? A Minerva? It is impossible to decide. The picture was long ascribed to Ferdinand Bol, and hidden away in the magazines. Dr. Bode reinstated it, and restored it to the master, to whom it was ascribed in early inven- tories. The ascription is fully borne out by the handling, and by the half-effaced monogram of Rembrandt's first period. The young woman's fantastic costume belongs to that Oriental Utopia the master loved to render. Her dress of bluish gray is embroidered with silver, and a purple velvet mantle lined with fur, and bordered with gold and precious stones, is thrown across her shoulders. A gaily-coloured scarf encircles her waist. On the table at which she ".sits are books, a suit of armour, and a lute ; a trophy consisting of a THE "JUDITH" IN THE BERLIN MUSEUM helmet, a sword, and a shield, in the centre of which is a Medusa's head, hangs against the wall. Pale and fragile, her fair hair fastened by a spray of delicate foliage, the young woman gazes resolutely at the spectator. Nothing very precise is to be gleaned either from costume or accessories. The technique is that of an accomplished artist, who has painted the objects on the table with elaborate care, and has done his utmost to suggest differences of texture by dexterous variations in the brushwork. The touch, soft and mellow in velvets and silks, is firm, incisive and resolute where it expresses" the hard- ness, polish, and metallic brilliance of arms and jewels. It recalls the sincerity and precision that mark the Presentation in the Temple at the Hague. But the harmony is cooler and less golden, inclining somewhat to gray, and the shadows of the carnations have a greenish tinge. None of the obscurity of this subject can be laid to the charge of its companion, the Rape of Proserpine. The theme is here apparent at a glance, though Rembrandt has disregarded all classical traditions in his treatment. It was probably painted at about the same date as another picture, a Rape of Europa, to which it may have been a pendant. We have been unable to find any traces of this latter, which bore the date 1632, and was included in the Due de Morny's sale in 1865. The Proserpine, however, has great originality, both in conception and composition. The maiden, who wears a robe of white overlaid with gold, has been snatched by the God of Hell from among a band of girlish attendants in rich dresses of varying grays and violets, as they gathered flowers in the adjoining meadow. Throwing herself back in the arms of her ravisher, she struggles vigorously, tearing his face with her nails. But Pluto, though he turns aside to avoid her onslaught, presses her closely to his breast. Beside himself with joy and triumph, he urges on the horses, who dash forward into space, with flaming eyes and smoking nostrils. Catching wildly at her draperies, Proserpine's companions strive in vain to hold her back; the black waters of the Styx already gush out from beneath the feet of the horses, who are about to plunge into the stream. Rembrandt has io8 REMBRANDT turned the picturesque elements with which his imagination clothed the scene to the happiest account. A fine and appropriate effect is won by opposing the glowing sky and rich vegetation of the country to the darkness and desolation of the infernal regions. The contrast between the pale beauty of the victim and the strange features and brown skin of her future lord is no less marked. Two worlds seem to rise before the spectator, and each is characterised by the painter's happy choice of its minutest details. Note the delicate plants, tulips, pinks and cornflowers, blooming in the sunshine : the creepers hanging from the rocks above ; the car of the god, with its powerful wheels, and the golden lion, with gaping jaws and threatening fangs, carved upon its front ; the fantastic horses, straining furiously at the steel chains that link them to the car, and above all, the wild passion and impetuosity that breathe from the whole scene. Mythology, with which Rembrandt so rarely succeeded, inspired him happily for once. Brushing aside established commonplace and decora- tive convention, he gave reality to the hackneyed legend. His inventive genius transfigured it, informing it with an indescribable vitality and fervour that lift us at once into the higher realms of poetry. In execution, the Rape of Proserpine is as highly finished as the first-named picture. The cool, almost cold, tonality of the two, is especially characteristic of this period. In each we recognise a feminine type that figures in several earlier works — an oval face, with a small mouth, round eyes, pale complexion and fair hair. Dr. Bode believes the model to have been Lysbeth, Rembrandt's young sister, and from the frequent recurrence of the type at this period, he infers that Lysbeth had accompanied Rembrandt to Amsterdam, and was keeping his house. No mention is made of such an arrangement in any of the family records that have survived, and it seems unlikely that Lysbeth should have followed her brother, leaving an aged mother at Leyden, who probably needed her care. We know further from the arrangements that were made after the mother's death, that Lysbeth was more especially attached to her elder brother Adriaen, for he then took her to live with him, and less than a year later, REMBRANDT'S SISTER in a will dated July 24, 1641, she left the bulk of her property to him, subject only to a small charge in favour of her remaining brothers. On the other hand, there are considerations which give weight to Dr. Bode's theory. Remembering Rembrandt's methods, it seems certain that a person whom he painted so often was a member of his household. In addition to which, we have already pointed out that this young girl figures in several of the Leyden pictures, notably the Lot and his Daughters. She re-appears in various por- traits executed at the beginning of his sojourn at Amsterdam : one, a pendant to a portrait of himself, is in Lord Le- confield's collection at Petworth ; another is in the Brera at Milan, and a third belongs to Sir Francis Cook of Rich- mond. But we think that Dr. Bode has perhaps unwittingly swelled the list of Lysbeth's por- 1632 (Cassel Museum). traits, by the addition of several that really represent Rembrandt's wife, Saskia, who, as we shall be able to prove, appears in the painter's work somewhat earlier than has been hitherto supposed. It is, in fact, difficult to distinguish very accurately between the two. As we have already explained, the works painted by Rembrandt from members of his family, or from intimate friends, are more in the nature of studies than portraits, and likeness was often subordinated to picturesque effect, or the solution of some problem of chiaroscuro. There seems to have been a certain analogy between the types of the two young girls ; or it STUDY OK AN OL; 1 10 REMBRANDT may be, as Dr. Bode conjectures/ that Rembrandt, in his early portraits of Saskia, unconsciously gave her some of the attributes of his sister. Be this as it may, Rembrandt eagerly availed himself of the new models offered him in Amsterdam, though he continued to paint from the members of his own family. Several fresh types of old age now take the place of those familiar to us in the works of his Leyden period. Among them are two dated 1632, in the Cassel Museum. The first (No. 210 in the Catalogue) is a portrait of an old man with a bald head and gray beard, a high wrinkled forehead, and small eyes under overhanging brows. The face is characterised by a mingled shrewdness and benevolence, and the handling, though apparently very free, is no less careful than assured. The inipasto is fairly thick, and is worked up very elaborately in the modelling, the brushing following the surfaces with great precision ; the shadows, on the contrary, are very simply indicated by means of a warm, transparent wash, through which the oak panel is almost discernible. Certain of the transitions, notably that from beard to cheek, are managed with extraordinary delicacy, and the way in which the contours are 'Tost" gives as much charm as power to the relief. The other head in the Cassel Museum (No. 211) bears the well- known monogram with the affix : Van Ryn. It represents another gray-bearded old man, with scanty hair, and strongly marked eyebrows. The features are somewhat large, and though the wrinkles, many and deep, tell of advanced age, the complexion is fresh and ruddy. The work is carried out in a full impasto, with rapid, feverish touches, the strokes sharply juxtaposed, with no attempt at fusion. As in most of the master's early studies, the hair and beard are capriciously drawn with the butt-end of the brush in the moist paint. Rembrandt seems to have had the model on the premises, or close at hand, for he painted him several times at this period. He is the Saint Peter a picture in the Stockholm Museum (No, 1389 in the ^ In an interesting study published by the Graphischen Ki'niste : Rembrandt van Ryn und sdiu Schule in der Liechtenstein Gallerie. Vienna. 1891. STUDIES OF OLD MEN III Catalogue), which bears the same date as the above, 1632, and also the signature, R. H. van Ryn. It is interesting to note how the type has been modified by the artist to suit the title of his work. He has given greater animation and expression to the face. The saint grasps a staff in his right hand, and with his left presses to his breast a key, the symbol of the dignity just conferred upon him. A brown mantle is thrown across his dark dress ; full of faith and zeal, he seems ready to start forthwith upon his mission. The Metz Museum owns another head of this same old man, signed: Rembrandt, 1633, and therefore painted just a year later. But here again the work is merely a study, very frankly and boldly handled. The face is turned full to the spectator ; the strongly modelled features stand out in startling relief and the somewhat coarse and downright painting is in excellent preservation. The Marquis d'Ourches, who left this precious relic to the town of Metz,' believed it to be a portrait of a member of his family, Charles le Goulon, a pupil of Vauban, who fled from his native town in 1685, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and took refuge in Prussia. It is scarcely necessary to add that this hypothesis is in no wise borne out by the fancy costume and the date on the picture ; it is further contradicted by numerous other studies of the same person, evidently a model, whose energetic features had caught the artist's fancy. We recognise him in a life-size study of a Saint, which M. Sedelmeyer bought uot long ago in England," and he also figures in a picture m the Oldenburg Museum, attributed to Elevens (No. 187 in the Catalogue). In the latter he wears a brown robe bordered with fur, over a red doublet, and a gold medallion on his breast. We may also mention ?. study of a head in this Museum (No. 167 in the Cata- logue) dated 1632, which recalls the Simeon of the Presentation in the Temple. The free treatment attests the young painter's accuracy of observation and technical skill. The tumbled hair and grizzly beard are drawn, as usual, with the butt-end of the brush ; but the delicate ^ By his will, dated 1866. - The composition is an exact reproduction of that of a drawing in the Louvre, from which Rembrandt etched the plate known as the Old Man Studymg ( Vieillard Homme de lettres. B. 149). The plate is, however, reversed. 112 REMBRANDT transitions from hair to forehead, and from beard to cheek, the dashing bravura of the high hghts, the transparency of the shadows, and the vigour and brilKance of the colour, give an extraordinary effect of vitahty. Studies such as these were Rembrandt's relaxation in the intervals of portrait-painting, for the numerous commissions that had brought him to Amsterdam now occupied the greater part of his time. Portraiture had long enjoyed special favour in Holland. It had become in some measure a national specialty, to which the qualities of the Dutch school were peculiarly adapted. Their painters had excelled in this branch from the first dawn of art in the country. It is the kneeling donors painted on the shutters of their votive triptychs that engross our attention, rather than the central composition. The truth and vitality with which they are rendered persist even among mannerists such as Martin van Heemskerk and Cornells van Haarlem, and all must admire the truth, the dignity, and the austere grandeur that mark the portraits of Antonio Moro. It may perhaps be urged that he was a cosmopolitan, whose adventurous spirit had led him from his native city Antwerp, and the studio of his master Scorel, first to Italy, then to Madrid, Lisbon, London, and Brussels. But masters such as Moreelse and Mierevelt of Delft, Ravesteyn of the Hague, and Frans Hals of Haarlem, were pure Dutchmen. And long before they flourished, Amsterdam boasted a school of distinguished portrait-painters. Dirck Jacobsz, Cornells Teunissen Dirck Barentsz, and Cornells Ketel, were succeeded by the imme- diate predecessors of Rembrandt, Cornells van der Voort, Werner van Valckert, Nicolaes Elias, and many others, whose once famous names have been brought to light again in recent years, after a long interval of neglect. In his new home Rembrandt had oppor- tunities of studying, not only the best works of these masters, but a considerable number of portraits by Holbein, Van Dyck, Rubens, and the Italians, collected by rich amateurs. We may be sure that one so inquiring, so eager in the pursuit of knowledge, did not fail to profit by the advantages thus offered him. Among painters of an older generation than himself, then at work in Amsterdam, the most THE DUTCH PORTRAIT PAINTERS 113 prominent was Thomas de Keyser, the son of the sculptor-architect, Hendriclv de Keyser. He was from thirty-four to thirty-five years old at the time of Rembrandt's arrival, and had won a great and well-deserved reputation. The Dr. Egbcrtsz Lesson in Anatomy now in the Ryksmuseum at Amsterdam, one of his first pictures, was painted in 16 19, and was followed by a series of portraits, some of which were single figures, others pendants, and others again groups, in which the various members of a family were assembled. A past master of every resource of his art, he combined faultless drawing and fine colour with the vigour and lle.xibility of a technique at once lively, tasteful, and dignified. Whether he puts forth all his strength in some large canvas, or proportions his touch to the more restricted dimensions of less important works, his execution is equally free and broad. Though he never parades his accomplishment. De Keyser shows an unfailing respect for reality ; and his vigorous and brilliant colouring is largely due to the extreme accuracy of his modelling in a full, rich impasto. His composition is always simple, his action always natural ; while his technical mastery, and sober dignity of treatment fairly entitle him to rank among the Dutch painters side by side with Hals, and only just below Rembrandt, the one master who surpassed them both. Before he could be accounted the rival of De Keyser, however, the younger artist had several lessons to learn from him. Hitherto he had treated his models as the fancy of the moment suggested. His sitters had consisted chiefly of his own friends and relations. In working for strangers, he was forced to renounce those freaks of costume, attitude, and illumination in which he had formerly delighted, and to content himself with the habitual severity of Dutch dress, and a close adherence to the living model. It was also necessary that he should learn something of the daily lives of those who relied on his genius for faithful transcripts of their diverse personalities. Under these novel conditions he had to measure himself with rivals, who had met and conquered the difficulties that beset him. Rembrandt accepted the contest on these terms. Biding his time for the full VOL. I. N 114 REMBRANDT manifestation of his genius, he resolved that in equipment at least he would make himself the equal of the most accomplished. Setting aside his own tastes and fancies, he accepted the wholesome discipline of a strict fidelity to nature, and a close investigation of all problems connected with his art. This phase of his development seems to us of great interest. It is touching to note the unswerving courage and tenacity which this youth, naturally fiery and impulsive, brought to bear upon his task. One of the earliest portraits of this period was not long since in Mr. Wesselhoeft's choice collection at Hamburg, which is now made over to the Museum of the town. It is dated 1632, and in common with many works of this year bears the affix: Van Ryn, after the well- known monogram. It is of small size, and the person represented pression, however, is keen and penetrating ; the mouth, with its small curled moustache, is full of subtlety, and the bare head, crowned by a mass of hair, is set well on the shoulders. The recall certain small pictures by him. From an inscription on the back of the panel, we learn that this apparently austere personage was Maurice Huygens, Secretary to the Council of the States at the Hague, and brother of that Constantine Huygens, who, as we know, professed so great an admira- tion for Rembrandt. Such a commission from a person of Maurice's rank proves that Rembrandt's reputation was already considerable. Several more important works of this period bear out the pre- sumption. One of these, the so-called Portrait of Coppenol in the Cassel Museum (No. 212 in the Catalogue), represents a man in black, standing near a table covered with books and papers. He holds a pen daintily in his left hand, and cuts it with the pen-knife in his right. seems commonplace enough on first in- ■spection. The type is a vulgar one, with a short, flat nose, and round, widely opened eyes, under thick eyebrows. Their ex- dress is extremely simple. The careful execution, and the full and vigorous tonality, though not up to De Keyset's level. FIRST PORTRAITS The picture is not dated, but we think it may certainly be assigned to the year 1632. This opinion we base not only on the execution, but on the fact that the monogram is followed by the designation: van Ryn, a signature almost exclusively confined to 1632, and only to be found on a single later work, one of the Philosophers in the Louvre, painted m 1633-^ The identity of the sitter has been contested of late, though the picture figures as a portrait of Coppenol in an inventory of '749. and in G. fioet's Catalogue of 1752. On comparison of the portrait with one in the fiermitage, and with Rembrandt's two etchings of Coppenol (B. 282 and 283), Dr. Bode came to the conclusion that there were notable differences, especially in the shape of the nose. With regard to the two etchings, there is no possible doubt that they are portraits of Coppenol. The likeness between the two, and the in- scriptions on several of the proofs, finally dispose of the question ; and, though there is no date on either, we shall show, in due course, that one was executed in 1651, and the other in 1658. It will hardly be dis- puted that notable changes may have taken place in the sitter's appearance during the intervals of nineteen and twenty-seven years that divide the Cassel picture from these two plates respectively. But though the type is fuller and heavier in the etchings, we cannot trace any essential differences between it and that of the picture. There are the same medium-sized nose, small eyes and high forehead — the same cut of the beard and moustache — and even in the picture, there are indications of the double chin which is so pronounced a feature of the prints. The apparent age of the sitter agrees perfectly with what we know of Coppenol, who was born in 1598. The person represented is evidently a man of about thirty-four, which was Coppenol's age in 1632. Whoever the model may have been, the portrait is un- questionably one of the most remarkable painted by Rembrandt at this period. The placid, honest face that confronts the spectator is full of a naive satisfaction. This expression, and the gravity with which the writer cuts his pen, as if profoundly engrossed by his important occupation, are further proof, in our opinion, that 1 It occurs once more, but quite at the close of the master's career, on a Returti of the Prodigal, in the Hermitage, painted about 1668. N 2 REMliRANDT the sitter was the famous writnig-master, whose vanity was pro- verbial, and who, according to tradition, formed an early friendship with Rembrandt. We are less inclined to vouch for another so-called portrait of Coppenol in the Hermitage (No. 808 in the Catalogue), formerly in Count Bruhl's collection. The appellation is more modern than that of the Cassel picture, for in the selections from the Briihl collection, published at Dresden in 1754, this portrait bears no distinc- tive title. There are also notable differences in the type. The eyes are less round, and much more piercing ; the nose is thinner, and the mous- tache thicker. The sitter is placed before a table, on which stands a small bureau, with a number of books and papers. He certainly holds a pen in his hand, but the characters on the half-written sheet before About 1632 (Cassei Museum hini are by uo Hicans choice specimens of cali- graphy. They have none of the complicated flourishes and embellishments with which a virtuoso such as Coppenol would have adorned the page. The model, in our opinion, was simply some honest merchant, busy over an account in the ledgers before him. Dr. Bode assigns the picture to the year 1631, and in fact discovered this date upon it. We have been unable to decipher more than the first three figures, but the monogram used, and the style of the execution, make the date a very probable one. PORTRAITS OF COPPENOL 117 Another portrait, bearing the same monogram, and the date 1632, was formerly in Cardinal Fesch's collection, and now belongs to Captain Holford. It represents a man in the prime of life, dressed in black, with a white ruff and cuffs. He wears a high black hat ; his right hand is laid upon his breast, and in his left he holds a paper on which is written : Marten Looten, a name not uncommon in Amsterdam at the period, but referring in this case to a well- known merchant of the city. The work is a remarkable one, carried out in a rich impasto at once firm and supple : the skilful handling, which shows no trace of effort or hesitation, recalls the manner of Thomas de Keyser. The same broad, yet conscientious workman- ship marks the portrait of a young woman, seated, and wearing a black dress with white collar and head-dress, in the Vienna Academy. It bears the same date and 1632. monogram. We may add to the list of works thus signed a male portrait which we saw not long ago in the possession of Mr. Ouaries van Ufford at the Hague. It is a three-quarters length of a man of fine presence, with regular features, and luxuriant hair. He faces the spectator, wearing a military costume with a gold embroidered baldrick, and resting his left hand on a sword. His right hand grasps a gun. According to a study on one of Rembrandt's pupils, Pauhis Lesire of Dordrecht, published by Messrs. G. Ii8 REMBRANDT Veth and Bredius in Oud-Hol/and, this martial sitter was probably a certain Captain Joris de Caulery, who seems to have had a mania for portraits of himself. He was painted in turn by M. Uytenbroeck, J. Lievens, P. Lesire, Van Dyck, and Rembrandt, who represented him "with a gun in his hand." As Mr. van Ufford's portrait is the only one by the master in which we have been able to discover this weapon, there seems every reason to suppose it the picture in question. In addition to these single portraits, Rembrandt painted several pairs, of husband and wife, and in cases where the two have found their way into the same collection, it is very interesting to note the combinations of costume or attitude by which the painter seeks to make each enhance the effect of the other. This is specially the case in two large oval portraits, which have lately passed to America from the collection of the Princesse de Sagan. In the male portrait, signed, and dated 1632 like the rest, the face, beaming with health and vigour, looks full at the spectator from beneath the broad brim of a black hat.' The wife, who is also painted almost full-face, has a somewhat sickly appearance. The handling is marked by great refinement, and there is infinite delicacy in the passage from the somewhat cold lights of the carnations to their transparent shadows. We may further note (though merely by way of record, for we have not seen them) a pair of large portraits of a man and his wife, formerly belonging to the Beeresteyn family," to which Dr. Bode recently drew attention on the occasion of their purchase by an ^ The features of this person, and even his costume, recall those of Dr. Tulp in the Anatomy Lesson, and this resemblance justifies the very prevalent belief that the portraits represent Tulp and his wife. It would not be easy, however, to determine whether the commission for the Anatomy Lesson was given after the execution of the portraits, or whether the success of the former picture brought about the painting of the portraits, for all three belong to the same year. 2 The signature and date on these two pictures were discovered on the occasion of a sale held by the Beeresteyn family at their château of Maurik, near Vecht, October 24th, 1884. The bidding rose rapidly to 75,000 florins, at which price they were bought in by the owners, who had been ajjprised of the discovery. FAMILY PORTRAITS 119 American for presentation to the Museum of New York.' In a pair of portraits in the Belvedere, probably painted about this same year, 1632, to judge l^y the execution,^ the arrangement of the two with a view to their mutual effect is even more obvious. The separate pictures seem to form one harmonious composition. The husband, a man of refined and distinguished appearance, is turned three quarters to the front. He seems to be speaking, and claims his wife's attention by a gesture. She, seated near a table, looks lovingly towards him, and mutely acquiesces in his speech. Neither wife nor husband is remarkable for personal beauty. But the intelligent vivacity of the man's face, the sweet- ness and affectionate confidejice that beam from the dark eyes of his companion, and the devotion with which she listens to him, far from weakening the individual likeness, add the crowning touches of vitality. The young master, not content with a mere application of the technical skill he had acquired, was evidently anxious to produce a life-like and expressive work. He sought, not to discard, but to rejuvenate, tradition. He spared himself no pains, in spite of his great facility and rich natural gifts, and Houbraken tells us that it was his habit to make innumerable sketches before attacking his final conception. He considered it of vital importance to know exactly what he was attempting, and to plan out his creations, not only as a whole, but in the smallest details. Thanks to this initial effort, into which he threw himself heart and soul, he went at once to the root of the matter. The harmony in which his active imagina- tion and powerful will worked together was one of the distinctive traits of his character. We shall find him full of energy and animation at every point of his career, regardless of sorrows and advancing age. Such careful and scrupulous effort, conjoined ^ MiincJiener neuesie Nachrkhte?i^ July 9, 1S90. - The date 1630 suggested by Mr, Engerth in liis Catalogue (Nos. 1139 and 1140), and based by him on the somewhat cold tonality of the shadows, seems to be inad- missible. Rembrandt was incapable of such work at that date, and the portraits are unlike anything he produced at Leydcn. 1 20 REMBRANDT with such facility, such absolute sincerity of expression, united to such conscientious vigilance, ensured him the suffrages alike of his brother-artists and of the public. His reputation and popularity increased steadily. He was already a painter of note when his great opportunity came with the Lesson in Anatomy — the work that was to proclaim the full measure of his genius, and of his superiority to his rivals. -About 1632 (B. 344). (Duke of Devonshire'^ Collection.) CHAPTER VII THE IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATION PICTURES IN HOLLAND THE ' ANATOMY- THEATRES' — PICTURES OF 'anatomy-lessons' IN ITALY AND HOLLAND — REM- BRANDT's predecessors IN THIS GENRE ; AERT PIETERSEN, MICHIEL MIEREVELT, nicolaes elias, and thomas de keyser — dr. tulp — rembrandt's 'lesson in anatomy' (1632.) THROUGHOUT all ages and countries great things have been effected by the spirit of co-operation, and no- where have its results been more remarkable than in Holland. By its means, the Dutch fashioned their territory, and afterwards de- fended it against the sea ; it nerved them in the heroic struggle by which their political and religious independence was won ; and About 1632 (B. sgfi). finally, by concentrating all the vital forces of the nation in common action, it effected a material and moral greatness truly astonishing in view of their insignificant dominions, and the enormous difficulties attending their development. It was natural that the numerous corporations which embodied this spirit of national enterprise should exercise no small influence on Dutch art. Their important share in its development was, 122 REMBRANDT however, hardly suspected till the foundation of the Haarlem Museum, with its fine series of the works of Hals. It has since been brilliantly demonstrated by the establishment of the Ryksmuseum of Amsterdam, and the gathering together of the great canvases formerly scattered among the different hospitals and guild-halls of the city. Under these new conditions, the student may readily trace the parallel growth of national art and national history. Religious painting, or at least that branch of the art which had for its object the decoration of churches, disappeared from the Nether- lands after the triumph of the reformed faith. Court patronage ceased with the removal of the Catholic clergy. But the corporations hastened to fill the breach, and soon opened fresh fields to the activity of Dutch painters. The heads of associations were painted in the robes and insignia of their dignity. Their portraits, hanging in council- chamber or banquet-hall, were so many exhortations to the brethren, urging them to follow the e.xample of devotion, patriotism, or charity set them by their predecessors. By these means, miniature museums were gradually formed in every large town, and enriched by successive donations due to the gratitude of members, or the vanity of dignitaries. The idea of a portrait-group soon occurred to both. The vanity of each class found satisfaction in such a scheme. The chiefs, because their superior honours were more apparent thus surrounded by their satellites ; the inferior members, because this was their only chance of figuring in such pictures. The painters, as may be supposed, fell in readily enough with arrangements which did not debar them from more interesting tasks, while providing them with lucrative com- missions Payment was generally made by voluntary contributions, proportioned to the rank of each sitter. By this device all were satisfied, the individual outlay being small, though the artist made a reasonable profit. There were, however, other difficulties to be met, for all these sitters had to be brought into unity by some common action characteristic of the special association to which they belonged. This was comparatively easy in the case of the military guilds, by far the most important of these bodies. But we shall find that the first ANATOMICAL STUDIES IN HOLLAND 123 essays of painters in this field were halting and tentative, their progress slow and painful. Literary and scientific associations offered very unequal facilities in the matter of picturesque treatment. In the case of the former, it was no easy matter to exactly specify the nature of their studies. How, for instance, was a painter to discriminate between professors of law, history, and literature ? In dealing with the sciences, his task was simpler. These it was possible to symbolise more explicitly by characteristic episodes or attributes. The study of medicine, in particular, lent itself readily to such treatment. It had long been held in peculiar honour among the Dutch, and its import- ance had greatly increased during the long warfare of the nation. The great diversity of wounds inflicted by fire-arms was the occasion of incessant research and progress in the domain of surgery; but such investigations could have no solid basis without a more extensive knowledge of the human frame than was then obtainable. Despite the impetus given to science by the Reformation, such study was jealously restricted for a long time to come. It was not until 1555 that Philip II. agreed to authorise the dissection of corpses, and even then, such dissection was limited to the bodies of condemned criminals. It was violently opposed by the nation at large, the popular disapproval being mainly dictated by religious scruples based on the doctrine of the resurrection. Several of the most intelligent men of the day made themselves the spokesmen of the dissentients. Hugo de Groot declared that the ancients, who had produced so many famous physicians, knew nothing of such " torture chambers for the dead." He declaimed against " the useless cruelties practised by the living on the dead " as " sacrilegious profanation." Gradually, however, those higher interests of humanity which were involved won the day, and dissections became more frequent. Among those who contributed most powerfully to this result was the famous Doctor Pieter Paauw, born at Amsterdam in i 564, who had returned from his travels eager to introduce into his own country the system he had seen at work in Italy. Appointed professor of botany and anatomy at Leyden in 1589, he had thrown himself ardently into his work, organising botanical expeditions three or four times a year, to 124 REMBRANDT explore the neighbouring meadows, dimes, and marshes. But his zeal and enterprise showed to greatest advantage in his anatomical lectures. In spite of which, however, the total number of bodies he had been able to obtain for dissection during his twenty-two years of professorship amounted only to sixty. For many years to come the Universities had to rely entirely on the corpses of criminals handed over to them by justice. It was not until 1720 that the first dissection of a female corpse was performed by Professor Frederick Ruysch, the father of the famous flower-painter, Rachel Ruysch. From the moment that such experiments were legalised, physicians and surgeons fully recognised the value of the resources placed at their disposal, and the various anatomical preparations of which they made use in teaching, became the natural ornaments of their lecture - halls. These halls were fitted with concen- tric tiers of benches, with an open space in the middle for the professor, and a revolving table, on which the various objects necessary to his demonstration were placed before him. This arrangement, which was based on that of the theatres of antiquity, gave rise to the term Theatre of Anatomy. The first row of seats was reserved for the professor's colleagues, and persons of distinction, the second for surgeons and students, while the rest were open to the public. The Universities and Guilds of various towns, Leyden, Delft, and Amsterdam, soon vied with each other in decorating these halls with busts, minerals, anatomical preparations, and natural curiosities of every sort. Rembrandt had already seen one of these theatres at Leyden — the most famous indeed then in existence. Its construction had been directed and superintended by its promoter, Pieter Paauw. An exact reproduction of its general appearance has come down to us in the collection of prints already mentioned. The plate engraved by Swanenburch in 1610 ' shows us a dissecting-table with a corpse already opened upon it. Along the circular benches are arranged skeletons of various animals, stuffed birds and beasts, and human skeletons, holding banners on which are mottoes or philoso- 1 Under the title. Vera Anatoniia Liigduni Batavic cum selectis et reliqtiis quœ Un extant delineatis. DUTCH DISSECTING ROOMS 125 phical maxims in the prevailing taste : Mors ultima linca rcrum : Nascentcs morimur; Principium moricndi natalis est, &c. Scalpels, knives, saws, and other surgical instruments are exhibited in glass cases, for these halls rapidly became museums much frequented by the curious, and even by ladies. In Swanenburch's engraving, a lady is being shown round by an inhabitant of the house, who does the honours, and, with gallantry worthy of Diafoirus, gracefully tenders her the skin he has removed from one of the subjects. These strange sights were very popular while their novelty lasted. Visitors of both sexes came in crowds, and we learn from a contem- porary description ot Leyden that, on market days, the peasants of the neighbouring districts flocked to the University lecture-rooms. M. de Monconys, who visited the Leyden Theatre oj Anatomy in 1663, praised it as "prettily devised, with an amphitheatre of woodwork, which is kept very clean," and mentions that it contained ■' a great number of skeletons, both of men and animals, and many curiosities." ' Portraits of the most famous professors also adorned these museums, and either at the request of their models, or on their own initiative, artists commissioned to paint the professors soon began to represent them at their work, surrounded by their pupils, and by objects relating to their lectures. In painting these subjects, the Dutch were but following the example of the Italians, whose painters and sculptors, as is well known, took as keen an interest in ^ JourJial des Voyages de AÎ. de Àlojiconys : Voyage en Hollande en i 663. Lyons. 1677. 126 REMBRANDT anatomical studies as tlieir physicians and surgeons. Strange to say, the two first worlds in this genre were published in Venice, between which city and Amsterdam such strong analogies may be found in situation, in commercial prosperity, and in intellectual and artistic activity. The earlier of the two occurs in a Treatise on Medicine edited by Johannes de Ketham, a German domiciled in Italy. Plate XXVI. in the second edition of this treatise (Venice, 1493), represents the professor, lecturing, hat on head, from his rostrum. On a table at his feet lies a naked corpse, whose chest an operator prepares to open. An assistant seem.s to be pointing out the exact spot for the insertion of the scalpel. In a treatise by Jacopo Berengerio da Carpi, published some forty years later (Venice, 1535), we find a plate of an anatomy lesson, in which the arrangement is almost the same. But it was reserved for Vesalius to collect and digest the sum of contemporary knowledge on this subject in his work On the Stmcttire of the Hitman Body? The plates in this volume were of such peculiar excellence that they long passed for the work of Titian.- One among them, the frontispiece, has a special interest for us. It is a Lesson in Anatomy, with certain of the details studied from life, but forming in the main a composition somewhat in the manner of the School of Athens. The action takes place in a sort of rotunda with columns; a concourse of persons in various attitudes crowds the arena and the circular seats. Vesalius stands in the centre at a dissecting- table, on which a corpse faces the spectator, the stomach already opened. By the professor's side is a taper, with an inkbottle, a sponge, and various surgical instruments. In his right hand he holds a scalpel, which he rests on the edge of the wound; the left he holds up, pointing with his forefinger to emphasise his exposition. A huge skeleton rises behind him ; grouped around are assistants, some sharpening their knives, and scholars, some absorbed in the lesson, others discussing it. To the left, one of the pupils holds a monkey in a leash, and another a dog, the victims no doubt 1 Andrœ Vesali Bruxellensis Scholœ medicorum l'atavinœ professons : De liumani corporis fabrica, lihri septem. Basle. June, 1543. 2 They are now known to have been dr.iwn by Jan van Calear. 'ANATOMY LESSONS 127 of an approaching experiment. The whole scene is full of life and movement. In the tail-pieces and initials, the decorative motives are of a similar character: children dissecting animals, or fragments of the human body; others setting a skull to boil, or performing surgical operations. All such details testify to the passionate interest excited by research of this kind, which in Italy no less than in Holland had met with much opposition before its formal acceptance in the domain of science. In his preface, Vesalius speaks of the support given to the cause by Charles V. and expresses a hope that Philip II. will continue the favour shown it by his father, and will not allow himself to be prejudiced by the intrigues of antiquated detractors.* In the engravings we have described, the Italians, with the taste and natural aptitude so characteristic of them, pointed out the pictorial capabilities of a branch of art towards which they themselves showed little inclination. They never painted these compositions, and made use of them only for illustrations in books on special subjects. Their painters had no lack of other themes, more in accordance with Italian taste and tradition, and better calculated to find favour with the princes and clergy, their natural protectors. On the other hand, these subjects, intractable as they seemed, were well adapted to Dutch art, an art always swift to observe and eager to interpret the manifestations of national life. The first essays of the Dutch painters were not, however, strikingly successful. Their realism was more uncompromis- ing, their taste less refined, their composition less 'dexterous, than those of the Italians. Such shortcomings manifested themselves in various attempts, more or less imtoward, to which Mr. Vosmaer first drew attention.^ But here again, as in every branch of their activity, the entire sincerity and unconquerable perseverance of the Dutch at last bore fruit, building up, out of their very difficulties, pregnant and original works. ^ The greater part of the information relating to pictures of anatomical lectures is borrowed from a curious publication by Dr. Ludwig Choulant, Geschichte und Biblio- graphk der anatoinischen Abbildungen. Leipzig. 1852. ^ Les Leçons (F Anatomic dans la Peinture hollandaise. See LAft for 1877, vol. ii. P- 73- 128 REMBRANDT The first essay in tin?, genre now extant is tlie Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Sebastian Egbertsz de Vry, which, after long adorning its original destination, the hall of the Surgeons' Guild at Amsterdam, has been removed to the Ryksmuseum. The picture is dated 1603, and signed with the initials of its author, Aert Pietersen, flanked on either side by his family cipher, the fuller's trident, with which his father, the famous Pieter Aertsen, also signed his works. The professor, an important personage in his time, successively échcvin and burgomaster of Amsterdam, delivers his lecture, his left hand resting upon the corpse before him, a pair of scissors in his right. The foreshortened body is partially hidden by the assistants in front. The numerous auditors, youths and men of mature age, face the spectator, standing with uncovered heads, and gesticulating in various attitudes. They are ingenuously ranged one above the other in parallel lines, and far from seeming to be absorbed in the lesson, they look neither at the professor nor the corpse ; all eyes are turned towards the spectator. The hands are well drawn, and there is considerable character in the various heads. But the work lacks the force of expression and breadth of handling that make a masterpiece of the painter's Syndics of the Cloth Hall. The latter is nevertheless earlier by some four years ; it is dated March, 1599. But the verve, the ease and assurance, so admirable in this group were hardly to be looked for in the same degree in a work of less importance, the execution of which, as we learn from Dr. Tilanus, was impeded by endless delays and obstacles.' Begun in 1601, this Anatomy Lesson was not finished till 1603. Five of the doctors represented were carried off by the plague in the interval, while the others were kept so ceaselessly employed by it that they had no leisure to sit. The next in chronological order is the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Willem van der ALcer, a large canvas painted for the Delft Hospital, where it is still preserved. According to its Latin inscription, it was designed and begun by Michiel Mierevelt, and finished by his son Pieter in 161 7. Here, though the execution is inferior to that of Pietersen's picture, the arrangement is better, and the professor, who 1 Bescliryving der Schilderyen afkomstig van Iiet Cliirurgytis-Gild te Amsterdam. 1885. REMBRANDT'S PREDECESSORS 129 Stands in the centre of the circular reserved space, is more in evidence. But tlie audience seems perfectly indifferent to the lesson, and the painter, instead of sparing us the more revolting details of his subject, seems to have taken pleasure in dwelling on them. The entrails are visible in the gaping abdomen of the corpse, and a further grim touch is given in the smoke of aromatic balls thrown on a chafing- dish to neutralise the putrid exhalations. Another picture in the Ryksmuseum represents Dr. Egbcrtsz giving \'ll-.\V I, F THH ÙATi; OF ST. AM'lln.W, A M s'l I-' I; I -AM . (The entrance to the Theatre of Anatomy was in the tower to the right.) (Drawing by Boudter, after a photograph,) a lesson in osteology to six students only. This, the earliest known work of Thomas de Keyser, painted in 1619, was probably commissioned for the inauguration of the anatomical theatre of the Surgeons' Guild, which was opened in this year. The painter was barely twenty-three, and though the commission proves that his reputation was already consider- able among his fellow citizens, the work itself shows a plentiful lack of experience. The skeleton divides the composition vertically into two almost equal parts, in which the figures are symmetrically opposed ; two in the foreground on each side seated, and facing the spectator ; VOL. I. o REMBRANDT the other four standing-, and turned towards the skeleton. To avoid ah possibihty of mistake, numbers are placed over the heads of each, corresponding to those against their names in the list. The various personalities are ably suggested, though the modelling of the heads is summary enough ; while the too lavish display of vermilion on their cheek-bones recalls the carnations of Cornells van der Voort, and gives additional strength to the hypothesis that De Keyser was his pupil. Finally, another of Rembrandt's predecessors, Nicolaes Ellas, who divided the popular favour with De Keyser, painted an Anatomy Lesson for the hall of the Guild. The work, which is now in the Ryksmuseum, was ordered on September 6, and delivered a year later, on October 15, 1626. It represents Professor Johann Holland, called Fonteyn, physician to the Prince of Orange, lec- turing on a skull. He is surrounded by eleven persons, among whom are the four dignitaries of the Guild. But of the twelve portraits originally contained in the work, five have disappeared, in consequence of damages caused by the fire of November 8, 1723. The remainder were much injured, and were restored and partly repainted by Ouinckhard in 17S5. It is therefore impossible to form any opinion as to the merit of a work, which, in its present state, seems vastly inferior to the admirable group of the Four Regents of the Spinhuis, painted by Ellas shortly afterwards, in 1628. Thus far, such had been the chief productions of a genre in which Rembrandt, after his first successes as a portraitist, was called upon to try his strength in the beginning of 1632, when Dr. Tulp commissioned him to paint the picture he wished to present to the Surgeons' Guild, in memory of his professorship. With the exception, perhaps, of the Delft example, all these compositions must have been familiar to the artist, for they all figured in the hall for which his own work was designed. It is very likely that Vesalius's book was also known to him, for successive editions had been published in Holland with great success. One of these indeed had appeared at Leyden, in 16 16, with notes by P. Paauw. The PROFESSOR TULP 131 latter had himself pubhshed a work on human anatomy a year earlier, entitled : Primitia; anatomiccc de Immani corporis ossibiis. It contained a quarto plate, engraved by Andreas Stock, after a drawing by Jakob de Gheyn, representing the professor in a long robe, engaged on the dissection of a corpse, into the entrails of which he has plunged his hands. A lighted taper is placed beside him, and scented plants are strewn upon the ground to counteract the poisonous smell. A crowd of persons of all ages and conditions surrounds the professor and his assistants. The Professor Tulp who gave Rembrandt the commission was one of the most distinguished men of the day. But the name he made famous was merely a pseudonym borrowed from the tulip (in Dutch, fulpeii) carved upon the facade of his house. His real name was Claes Pietersz. He was the son of a rich Amsterdam merchant, one Pieter Dircksz. Born October 9, 1593, he was in his full prime in 1632. He had been one of the most enthusiastic advocates of anatomical studies, and shortly (in 1636) succeeded in bringing about a complete re organisation of pharmacy, which had gradually fallen into great disorder. His high reputation was due as much to his benevolence as to his talents, and his life fully bore out the device on one of his portraits : Aliis inserviendo consumor} Qualities such as these combined with his progressive energy to bring him prominently before his fellow-citizens. He was chosen échevin (sheriff) in 1622, and held the office of burgomaster no less than four times. Tulp had been professor of anatomy since 1628 : he lectured twice a week in a room above the lesser Meat Market. When, in 1639, a hall was assigned to the Guild in the Gate of St. Anthony, Rembrandt's picture was removed thither. It has been twice carefully re-lined (in 1817 and i860), and was cleaned in 1732. In 1781 Ouinckhard "repaired Dr. Tulpius's cloak." The work fortunately escaped more severe handling. It has lately under- ^ In addition to the marble bust carved by A. Quellinus, several engravings by C. van Dalen and J. Visscher, and Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson, Tulp was painted in 1624 by Cornells van der Voort, and in 1633 or 1634 by Elias, probably in recognition of his services to the painter's little daughter. See an interesting notice by Dr. J. Six, Niiolaes Elias: Oud-Holland, 1886, p. 95. O 2 132 REMBRANDT gone a judicious cleaning, and is, on tlie whole, in fairly good condition. But Holland has narrowly escaped losing it altogether. In 1828, the funds of the Surgeons' Guild were so reduced, that it was found impossible to give sufficient relief to the widows of destitute members. The authorities decided to sell some of their pictures and, among others, the Lesson in Anatomy. Had it been put up to public auction, it would very probably have been taken out of the country, but at the instance of a few amateurs, William I. bought it for the sum of 32,000 florins (^2,700 approximately), at which price it had been valued by experts. The main features of this work, now one of the gems of the Hague Museum, are familiar to all. It is also generally known that in signing it the master discarded the monogram he had been in the habit of using and wrote his name in full, spelt as below : REMIJHANDT's SICiN ATl Ki;. Tulp, who wears a broad-brimmed felt hat, is seated in a vaulted hall at a dissecting-table, on which the corpse is laid obliquely. The professor holds up one of the tendons of the left arm with a pair of forceps, and seems to be enforcing his demonstration by a gesture of his left hand. Seven students,' all men of mature age, are grouped to the right round the corpse, at whose feet lies a great open volume." All are bareheaded, and all, like their master, dressed in black, except the man nearest to Tulp on the right, who wears a dress of neutral tint, inclining to violet. Broad white collars, stiffened or hanging loosely about their necks, enframe their faces. With the exception of two who look out towards the spectator, all are intent on the ' Not students in the ordinary sense. If ere they iiot^ lil^e Tulp hiinseif, actual practitioners, though less learned in anatomy 1 — F. IV. ^ The name of the criminal whose corpse was the subject of Tulp's lecture has been preserved. He was one Adriaen Adriaensz, known as het hint (the child). Iconographia Batava, by E. Moes. J. Clausen. 1890. THE ANATOMY LESSON" 133 demonstration. As in De Keyser's picture, numbers are placed over their heads, and their names are inscribed in the following order on a paper held by one of them : i. Tulp ; 2. Jacob Blok ; 3. Hartman Hartmansz ; 4. Adriaen Slabran ; 5. Jacob de Witt ; 6. Mathys Kalkoen ; 7. Jacob Koolvelt ; 8. Frans van Loenen. The figures, painted life-size and three quarters length, are illuminated by a soft light from the left, which is concentrated on the corpse, on the heads of the two seated auditors in the foreground, and on the face of Tulp, whose calm attitude, air of authority, and expression of confident intelligence at once rivet attention. A transparent penumbra, deepening by imperceptible gradations above, envelopes the rest. The unmitigated black of the dresses, the depressed whites of the collars, the tones of the carnations, the pallor of the corpse, and the neutral gray of the wall, make up the sober chord of colour. We may admit with Fromentin that " the general tone is neither warm nor cold, but simply yellow"; that "the handling is thin and unimpassioned ; that the effect is rather startling than strong ; and that there is little richness either in the stuffs, the background, or the atmosphere." We may even agree with him that the corpse is puffy and ill-constructed, and shows a want of knowledge in the modelling ; that it is too obviously a mass of pale light in a dark picture, and thus " has neither the beauty, the horror, the characteristic accidents, nor the terrible inipressiveness of death." But we think the able critic has scarcely done justice to the work. For, as indeed he adds, " it marks a stage of great advance in the painter's career . . . and though it does not fully indicate his approaching greatness, it gives some hint thereof" Such a rigorous criticism, though it hardly gives due weight to the progress made by the master, may be accepted so far as it measures Rembrandt's work by his own achievements of a few years later. But it seems inadequate when we compare his composition with those of his predecessors. When we consider the earlier Anatomy Lessons, and recall the confused assemblies, in which the most revolting details are rendered with manifest enjoyment ; the figures ranged side by side, with a symmetry or an irregularity alike 134 REMBRANDT disastrous ; the audience, with eyes fixed on the spectator, utterly oblivious of the master and his lesson ; the diffused light, equally distributed throughout the composition, and bringing its want of unity and faults of taste into strong relief ; when, after the contemplation of such essays, we turn to Rembrandt's conception, its immeasurable superiority cannot fail to be recognised. His work, indeed, is not faultless, and exception may justly be taken to the awkward grouping of his figures, which are ranged pyramidically one above the other in the fashion we have already had to criticise in several of his works, notably the Samson and Delilah, and the Baptism of the Ejtmick. The handling, which is somewhat thin throughout, shows traces of timidity here and there ; and the chiaroscuro is hesitating in parts. We need not go into the question (a particularly unprofitable one, in our opinion), as to whether the picture is, or is not, an absolute master-piece. But, with the reservations we have noted, we shall find many beauties to admire ; foremost among them, the figure of Tulp, its happy simplicity of pose, its decision and vigour of expression, and the intelligent faces of the two disciples nearest the master, who hang upon every word, gazing intently at him, and endeavouring to penetrate his inmost thought. But the composition in its entirety is more striking than any of these fragmentary excellences. It is remarkable for the sobriety of the details, their perfect subordination, and the elimination of all such as by their puerility or vulgarity might impair the gravity of the subject. The arrangement of the masses appeals alike to the eye and the mind of the spectator, bringing out the essential features in strong relief : on the one side the listeners in a compact group ; the corpse, the object of their common studies, between them and the professor ; and Tulp himself, placed, like the corpse, in a strong light, but apart from the rest, the attention of the spectator being directed to him by the convergence of the principal lines, by the concentration of all eyes upon him, and finally by his own commanding gesture and authoritative mien. In these respects it must be conceded that Rembrandt fully carried out the proposed conditions of his undertaking. His work ably suggests the idea of scientific teaching as it was then understood — of scientific teaching, that is to say. SUCCESS OF '^THE ANATOMY LESSON" 135 which concerns itself rather with facts than with abstractions. His predecessors, it is true, had insisted on these facts, but they had failed to make them rightly pictorial. Rembrandt's treatment was at once more convincing and more elevated; and while basing his conception on a realism as precise as theirs, he gave to his very characteristic interpretation a significance loftier in quality, and wider in appli- cation. Popular instinct has not been at fault in this case, and the public, while neglecting previous works of this class, or studying them merely as documents, continues to rank Rembrandt's Anatoviy Lesson among those typical achievements which sum up and annihilate previous efforts. It will be no over-statement of its historical import- ance to say that it forms an epoch, not only in Rembrandt's career, but in the art of his country. For this work consecrated the Dutch ideal, as it were, and awoke in the Dutch school a consciousness of its own strength, exhorting it to persevere in its chosen course ; such art was in harmony with its tastes, its love of truth, its conscientious pre- cision, its hankering after perfect technique. But Rembrandt, at every fresh essay in the treatment of contemporary themes, enlarged their horizons, and touched them with new life. The poetry with which he thus informed the national art had nothing in common with the traditions of his first masters, the Italianisers. Without recourse to trivial allegory or hackneyed symbol, he personified Science in the men of his own country and times, and expressed it by showing it engaged on the problems that form the basis of its studies. As one of the master's most fervent worshippers has truly said, he has chosen " to render life rather from the actual than the ideal side. He is a painter who paints, and paints well, because he sees well, and who can nevertheless feel and think deeply."^ But fully as we recognise the expedience of a revolution that rejected academic tradition to return to the exclusive study of Nature, we cannot follow Burger in his proclamation of the superiority of Dutch to Italian art. Comparisons of this kind, which must always be based to some extent on personal predilection, are absolutely futile. At the period of which we are treating, Italian art had produced its rich harvest of master- ^ Biirger, Àfushs de la HoUmide^ p. 196 et seç. REMBRANDT pieces, and had gradually declined. It was soon to die out, exhausted and effete, in the hands of unworthy successors of the great masters. As it was then, it was certainly ill-suited to inspire the genius of a nation that had but lately achieved independence, and was eager to proclaim it in every manifestation of its activity. The art this nation had developed was, on the other hand, in its full vigour ; a native birth, it faithfully translated native life and manners. And, at this decisive momen*, its aims were summed up by Rembrandt's Lesson in Anatomy. OLD MAN WITH A SliOUT LIIiARI). About 1631 (B. 300). CHAPTER YIIl REMBRANDT s GROWIN'G SUCCESS AS A PORTRAIT-PAINTER — PORTRAIT'S PAINTED IN 1632 AND 1633— 'the SHIP-BUILDER AND HIS WIFE' 'MARTIN DAEY AND HIS wife' COMPOSITIONS OF THIS PERIOD : — ' ST. PETER'S BOAT IN THE STORM ' ; THE 'philosophers' REMBRANDT'S RELATIONS WITH HUVGENS— THE SERIES OF PIC- TURES ON THE PASSION PAINl'F.D FOR PRINCE FREDERICK HENRY. T' *HE success of the Anatomy Lesson was brilliant. Rembrandt's name, already well-known in Amsterdam, now became famous. His rank among the first living painters was assured, and commissions flowed in rapidly. As Dr. Bode has remarked,' whereas in 163 1 he painted only two or three portraits besides the studies of himself and his family, in 1632 he had ten in hand, and from 1632 to 1634 at least forty. His manner became broader, though he abated nothing of the sincerity and conscientious care that had made his reputation. He enlarged, without substantially altering his style. The execution of his first large canvas had made him sensible of certain deficiencies in freedom and breadth of conception and vigour of drawing. ^ Studien. ]"!. 399. FItlUSE OF A POLANDER. About 1633 (B. 140). REMBRANDT Taking his works in chronological order, we find several young couples among the painter's clients. Occasionally the two portraits, though painted to form a pair, are separated from each other by some twelve months ; either Rembrandt's many commissions made it impossible to finish both in the same year, or his talent and success had brought his models into fashion. The earliest examples are in M. Henry Pereire's collection, and belonged to the late Mr. Wynn Ellis. The male portrait is signed Rembrant, and dated 1632 ; the female is signed Rembrandt, and dated 1633. The husband wears a broad-brimmed black hat, a black dress, and a white collar, which enhances the freshness of his complexion. He is a man of middle age — forty-seven years old — with curled moustache and grizzled beard ; but his vigorous head and confident expression denote a virile and robust character. Deep shadows throw the face into strong relief ; the modelling, however, is extremely delicate. The most exact care has been bestowed on every detail, and the scrupulous precision of execution is carried so far, that each pleat of the gauffered ruff is in its right place, exactly in perspective, and catching exactly the right amount of light. Notwithstanding which minuteness, the general effect is bold and striking. In the portrait of the young woman, Cornelia Pronck — for both her name and age (thirty-three years) are known — the handling is somewhat less broad. Her long oval face is turned almost full to the spectator, and in spite of her red lips, she has an ailing look. In accordance with the fashion of the day, her hair is concealed beneath her lace cap, and her white collar stands out from a black dress embroidered with gold. A mild light falls on the pleasant face, which bears in every feature the impress of virtue and sincerity. With the exception of a delicate shadow that subdues the white of the collar, the whole is clear, limpid, transparent, and luminous. The cool, slight half-tones with which the flesh is modelled have the greenish tinge peculiar to the period. It is repeated in the background against which the charming head is set. The handling is neither brilliant, nor even very characteristic. But for its superior delicacy, it might be the work of Thomas de Keyser, and it is by no means extra- ordinary that the authenticity of these two portraits was questioned in PORTRAITS FROM 1632-1633 139 1876. Rembrandt's youthful works were so little known at that date, that the Director of the English National Gallery, who, according to the terms of the Wynn-EUis bequest, was privileged to take his choice of the donor's collection, rejected them. The portraits of another couple, now in the Brunswick Museum, were painted, like the above, at the interval of a year one from the other; that of the husband in 1632, and its pendant in 1633. They formerly passed for Grotius and his wife, but this idea was plainly a mistaken one, as may be seen by comparing the Brunswick picture with any of the famous writer's known portraits. Like the preceding pair, these are of oval shape, and the sitters are dressed in black, with double white ruffs, each pleat of which is elaborately painted. Here again the portrait of the husband is the more life-like and expressive of the two, though the earlier by a year. It is a striking face, full of vivacity and decision, with brilliant eyes, upturned moustaches, and hair brushed away from the temples towards the top of the head. The wife's expression, on the other hand, is dull and inert ; the eyes have no animation ; the lips are set in a peevish pout. This un- attractive head was apparently litde to the painter's taste. Another couple, who deserved a better fate, have fared worse than these, and are now separated. Both portraits are signed, and dated 1633. The husband, ^ . Willem_ Burchgraeff of Rotter- (/(fjjl^randt' T U dam, IS m the Dresden Museum. 1 ' His wife, Margaretha van Bil- / ' derbeecq, in the Stadel Institute liEMBRANDr's SIGNATURE. at Frankfort.^ Both are dressed in black. The faces, which are turned almost full to the spectator, have extraordinary vigour and vitality. The rapid and confident execution shows that Rembrandt painted them in one of his happiest moods ; the frankness of handling and colouring are admirably suited to the robust character of the sitters. The two large portraits, the Burgomaster Pellicorne with his son ^ Some documents recently discovered by Dr. Bredius have enabled him to correct the spelling of these names. Burchgraeff was a baker and corn-dealer at Leyden. 140 REMBRANDT Casper, and his wife, Suzanna van Collen, with her daughter, are probably of the same date. They are signed Rembrant, and the figures 163 are decipherable on the wife's portrait. Both are in the Wallace collection, having been bought by the late Lord Hertford at the King of Holland's sale. These canvases were unfortunately rolled up at one time ; they have suffered much in the process. In arrange- ment they are not especially happy ; Pelli- corne, dressed in black, and wearing a broad- brimmed hat, sits in an arm-chair, and ofters a purse of money to his little son, a child of about eight years old, who stands beside him in a gray costume. His wife, who wears a black dress embroidered with gold, and a wide white collar, is seated. She gives a piece of money to her daughter, a red- 163a (Brunswick Museum). haired little damsel with small, blinking eyes. |The treatment is careful, but somewhat dry, and the drawing of the hands is not irreproachable. The illumination is feeble, and little attention has been given to the chiaroscuro. The timid execution and greenish tone of the carnations seem to us strong evidences in favour of the date 1631-1632, which is further confirmed by the signature [Rembrant, as in the Anatomy Lesson). The portrait of Jan-Hermansz Krul in the Cassel Museum is dated 1633. He is painted three-quarters, length, standing, one hand PORTRAIT OF J.-H. KRUL 141 upon his hip, the other hanging by his side. A strong light falls on the rubicund face, which is relieved against a gray-toned architec- tural background. The personage thus simply posed was a poet of the school of Cats, and the author of some insipid pastorals imitated iVom the Astnea. A year after the date of this portrait, he founded the Chamber of Music, a sort of opera-house, at Amsterdam. His elegant dress makes it difficult to imagine that he began life as a lock- smith. There are traces of his humble origin, however, in his bulky person and powerful hands, as in the tone of somewhat vulgar gal- lantry that obtains in many of his pieces, notably the Theodore and Dcjanira. Notwith- standing his robust ap- pearance, Krul died in 1644, aged barely forty- two. He was intimate with Rembrandt and his circle, for one of ,.o). ik,mt uk ,1 wo.man. his works, the Pam- ,633 (b,™™^ M„se„m piere IVere/d (the Paper World), contains an etching by Bol, Death and the Courtier, formerly attributed to Rembrandt, in which the woman's face bears some likeness to Saskia. The year 1633 was such a prolific one that we must be content with a brief mention of the various small portraits of children, ex- amples of which are owned by Lady Wallace, the Rothschild family, and Prince Youssoupoff. The Prince's seems to me one of the best. It represents a bright-looking boy, with a round rosy 142 REMBRANDT face, wearing a fur-trimmed cap and a dark red costume. Mr. James Simon of Berlin has one of these Httle portraits (i/j^u x 14/1^ inches), painted about 1633-1634, a full-length of a young woman, wearing a black head-dress, a black gown with violet sleeves, and a white collar and cuffs. She stands near a table covered with a crimson Smyrna rug, beside a gray chair. The rug, the chair, the light upon the wall, and the charming expression of the young face, justify the attribution of the little panel to Rembrandt, in spite of a suspicious clumsiness in the drawing of the hands, and heaviness in the exe- cution. A more important work on this small scale is the whole- length portrait of a young couple in a room, about one-third of life- size, signed, and dated 1633, in the Hope collection at Deepdene. The husband, a man of rather thick-set figure, stands beside his young wife, who is seated to the left. Both are evidently in high good humour, and neither their faces nor attitudes betray the discomfort of their posture. But it seems that the master, who had inclined to works of this size at the beginning of his career, now began to feel oppressed by their restricted dimensions. He required a larger field for the exercise of his newly acquired qualities. He holds his own by virtue of his superior knowledge of chiaroscuro and deeper insight into character, but he has more than one rival. His small portraits have neither the incisive touch and dazzling bravura of those of Hals, nor the firm and delicate modelling and exquisite refinement that mark such master-pieces of De Keyser's as the two family portraits in the Berlin Museum {1628), the portrait of the magistrates in the Mariritsliiiis the Hague (1631), and the fine male portrait, formerly in the Secrétan collection, and lately acquired by M. Rodolphe Kann. In the male portrait of the Stockholm Museum (No. 585), Rembrandt returns to the scale in which his supremacy is undisputed. The picture bears neither date nor signature, but we believe it to be a work of 1633. The sitter, who is dressed in black and wears a black skull-cup, holds a roll of papers in his hand. The refined and intellectual head is crowned by hair slightly streaked with gray. The work is said to represent Jan , Uytcnbogaerd, an ardent X2 PORTRAITS OF THIS PERIOD 143 theologian, who took an active part in the passionate religious con- troversies of the day. But we can trace no likeness between this and other portraits of the famous minister.^ Be this as it may, the painter's work has extraordinary vigour and brilliance. Following a practice often adopted by him at this period, he has opposed the most strongly illuminated side of the face to the darkest part of his background. Of a very different character to this austere conception is the Comte de Pourtalès's fine portrait of a young man, formerly in the Farrer collection. The young patrician, who is painted life-size and rather more than three-quarters length, has just risen from his seat. He rests one hand on the table beside him, and holding out the other in the light, appears to be welcoming some visitor with much cordiality. His genial face is shadowed by a black hat ; he is richly dressed in a black doublet with bows of ribbon and silver shoulder-knots, relieved by a collar and cuffs of white lace. The charm of this beautiful work, one of the most remarkable of its period, lies in the broad yet careful handling, the frankness of the chiaroscuro, and above all, in the debonair distinction of the sitter. But Rembrandt's great masterpiece of 1633 — a year so rich in important works — is the large canvas known as The Sliipbuilder and his Wife, in the Royal collection at Buckingham Palace. The husband, an elderly man, with a white beard and moustache, and strongly marked, but placid features, sits at a table, busily drawing the plan of a ship's hull. He holds a compass in his right hand, and turns for a moment from his task to his wife, an old woman in a white cap, who has just entered the room to hand him what is doubtless a letter." Both are very simply dressed, and all the details of their modest dwelling indicate an orderly life of mutual affection, honour- ably maintained by the labours of the old man and the good 1 Jiembrnndfs etched portrait of this t/ieologian is dated 1635.— j^. ]V. - Dr. Bredius thinks that the superscription of this letter, " To the very honourable Jan Vij," gives the name of the shipbuilder. {Niederlandsche Spectator, 1889, No. 17.) The plan on which he is engaged bears the signature Rembrandt, and the date 1633. 144 REMBRANDT management of the help-meet who looks at him with so cordial a smile, Worthy pair! We feel the depth of their attachment; we see, that growing old together they have shared each other's joys and sor- rows, and that age has but boimd them more closely to each other. Rembrandt seems to have been touched by their tender affection, so sympathetic is his rendering of its moral beauty and serene pathos. The frank and generous execution, the soft warm light, the sober colour, the transparent shadows, are all in exquisite harmony with the homely scene, and attune the spectator's mind to fuller sympathy with the old couple. The idea of painting husband and wife, and even the several members of a family, on the same canvas, was not, of course, a novel one. Many of Rembrandt's predecessors, notably De Keyser, had produced admirable works on these lines. But here the young artist outstripped both predecessors and rivals. In- creasing the scale, he used each figure to complete the truth and individuality of the other. By bringing them thus together, he has given us not merely a picture, but an epitome of two lives, which, thanks to his art, are as closely associated in our memories as in reality. Two years had barely elapsed since Rembrandt's arrival at Amsterdam, yet, as we have seen, he had found patrons in every rank of society. Theologians, doctors, magistrates, poets and merchants, plain burghers and young patricians, venerable matrons and fashionable ladies, persons of the most diverse temperament, age, and condition, had flocked to his studio, and all had been portrayed with equal sincerity. Great as was his pleasure in fantastic costumes, plumes, weapons, and foreign stuffs, he accepted the uncom- promising actuality of Dutch costume, its somewhat monotonous severity, its dark colours, its uniform make. But small as was the licence allowed by such raiment, there were differences in the manner of wearing it, from which the tastes and habits of a life might be inferred. It is in subtleties such as these that the true artist manifests himself; restrictions serve but to develop his infinity of resource and the variety of his combinations. As in the costume of his sitters, so in their gesture and attitude, Rembrandt in a manner appropriate to their occupations and temperaments, marking with unerring instinct the most characteristic features of VOL. I. r 146 REMBRANDT their bearing, their faces, their personahty at large, and insisting chiefly upon these. He was now a consummate master of every secret of his art — truth of perspective, correctness of drawing, vigour and dehcacy of modehing, the expression of surfaces and textures by variations of touch, harmony of colour, and the intricacies of chiaroscuro. But though he recognised that nothing is unimportant in this difficult art, and that the great portrait-painter is he who wins the richest result from his boundless material, he also perceived, with the earlier masters, that the eyes and mouth are the supremely significant features of the human face, the features to which we look for the expression of life, of thought, and of the various emotions that stir the soul. Our other features change comparatively little with years, and are but slightly modified by our moral action, while these are fashioned in great measure by ourselves, and take on the impress of individual habit. In Rembrandt's personages the eye is the centre wherein life, in its infinity of aspect, is most fully mani- fested. His portraits are distinguished, not only by the absolute fidelity and precision of the likeness, but by a mysterious limpidity of gaze, which seems to reveal the soul of the sitter, inviting us to yet closer study and a yet deeper knowledge of its secrets. Hence it is that it is impossible to forget these portraits. At a distance we are conscious of their vitality. A second inspection has always some fresh revelation in store for us, for they never yield up the full measure of their beauties at first sight, and superb as they may have seemed in retrospect, they surpass our expectations each time we return to them. The master, with his unfailing love of nature, and his marvellous powers of percep- tion, could not be indifferent to the humblest of his fellow- creatures. In all he discovered a magic that kindled and inspired him, and throwing himself heart and soul into his beloved work, he informed the personality of his model with something of his own genius. The success of such an artist, and his speedy popularity, may be easily imagined. So great was the demand for his works, says Houbraken, that amateurs were content to wait their turn to be REMBRANDT AS A PORTRAIT-PAINTER 147 served, and, in the words of a proverb he quotes, would-be purchasers had " not only to pay, but to pray " for a picture. Persons of distinction flocked to his studio, and among his sitters at this period we shall find members of the richest and most fashionable circles in Amsterdam. Such, for instance, is a young man in a broad-brimmed black hat, whose portrait, signed, and dated 1634, is now in the Hermitage. He has regular features, and his rather long face, surrounded by abundant chestnut hair, stands out in frank relief against a background of grayish green. A wide lace collar is turned over his black dress. The painting is discreet and sedate, but full of energy, the warm shadows bringing out the cool carnations with admirable effect. The sitter has an air of great distinction, and his refined features proclaim him the son of some noble house. Vosmaer's statement that the portrait represents the Dutch admiral, Philip van Dorp, seems to us improbable. The youthful elegance of the model tells strongly against such an identification ; besides which, we can trace no likeness whatever between this picture and an engraving executed by Savery in 1634, from a portrait of Van Dorp by Rembrandt, in which the admiral is posed almost full-face, and wears a medallion hanging from a chain over his gorget. Among the works of this period there are further two bust portraits of oval shape at Bridgewater House, the first (dated 1634) of a girl of eighteen in a greenish dress with rich ornaments ; the second of another girl, fair and fresh-complexioned, painted nearly full-face, who wears a double lace collar, and a gold chain over her black dress.' Both pictures have suffered somewhat from time, the shadows having lost their transparency, but they are marked by a youthful freshness and charm that must have delighted the aristocratic patrons with whom the master had found favour. Abating nothing of his sincerity, Rembrandt here manifests a sense of feminine grace and beauty which some had been disposed to deny him. This grace ^ This ]3ortrait is not dated, and may, as Dr. Bode believes, be later by a year or two than the first. P 2 148 REMBRANDT and beauty are even more vividly displayed in a work of greater importance, the life-size full-length of Machteld van Doom, painted as a pendant to the portrait of her husband, Marten Daey. Both were formerly in the possession of the Van Loon family, of Amsterdam, and became the property of Baron Gustave de Rothschild in 1877. Only the portrait of the husband is signed, and dated 1634; but, in spite of Vosmaer, who supposes that of the wife to have been painted in 1643, some nine years later, we agree with the opinion already expressed by Dr. Bode that they belong to the same period, an opinion fully justified by the respective ages of the pair, and the character of the execution. Marten Daey, whose grandfather was apparently of English origin, is a well-known personage in Dutch history, whose ad- venturous career was the subject of a study by Madame Bosboom Toussaint some little time back.' Attached to the person of Count Louis of Nassau, he accompanied him to the Brazils, where he served in the twofold capacity of officer and administrator. Rembrandt's portrait represents him as a young dandy of the highest fashion. His elegant dress by no means conforms to the prevailing severity, and is even somewhat extravagant in taste. But the costume, which, we may be sure, was ' built ' by some famous tailor, is worn with a gallantry and ease of bearing that preserve it from absurdity. The young man, a smile on his round, ruddy face, advances towards the spectator in an attitude akin to that of the Pourtalès portrait, apparently welcoming a visitor. It was Rembrandt's delight to seize such momentary aspects of life, but he was ever careful to choose such as were appropriate to the condition and personality of his models. In the young wife's portrait he has attempted more ; her dignified pose, and the chastened elegance of her costume bear out the consummate distinction of her whole personality. Like her husband, she stands almost facing the spectator. She wears a black dress with a white rosette in the bodice, and holds in her right hand a fan, fastened to a gold chain; with the other hand she lifts her ample skirt, revealing a dainty foot in a tiny white satin slipper. What grace in the figure, what serenity in the gaze, what sweet dignity in the bearing! The ' De Gids, September, 1S67. Man Preparing for Bed, Pen and Sepia, (STULKHOLM I'ltINT IIUOM.) Printed by Draeger & Lesiaur, Paris PORTRAITS OF H. AI.ENSON AND HIS WIFE 149 masterly yet unobtrusive handling, broad, but full of gradation, contributes largely to the general effect; and the slight droop of the head, the illumination of its transparent shadows by reflections from the white collar, and the exquisite modelling of the aristocratic hands, complete the charm of a portrait that may bear comparison with the noblest and most refined works of Van Dyck. Two other life-size full-lengths, no less remarkable than the above, though of a very different character, are signed, and dated 1634. These are the companion pictures of Hans Alenson and his wife, owned by the Schneider family.' In this case the male portrait bears away the palm. The wife's, however, is not unworthy of Rembrandt. The minister's help-meet, dressed in a black gown of voluminous folds, is seated in a very simple attitude, almost facing the spectator. She is a woman of middle age, but her placid face and fresh complexion denote health and vigour. The features of this buxom dame have, however, little character, and though the master ably suggests the flaccid gentleness of her temperament, her somewhat colourless individuality pales to insignificance in the formid- able neighbourhood of her husband's portrait. The latter is a masterpiece. We see at a glance that the painter had found a model completely to his taste. Like his wife, the minister is seated, in a rather heavy arm-chair, with a back of red leather studded with gilt nails. Some books are open before him on a table covered with a greenish cloth, and he seems to have paused in his reading of one, probably a Bible. Alenson's dress is a black robe with wide hanging sleeves, a white gauffered ruff, and a small black skull-cap. His powerful head stands out sharply from the background, and the eyes, which look straight at the spectator, are full of fire, intelligence, and authority. His whole personality bears the stamp, not only of bodily health, but of extraordinary moral energy. His small and somewhat wrinkled left hand is laid upon his breast with a gesture that seems ^ Vosmaer, who calls him Elhson, says he was a minister of the AngHcan Church at Amsterdam. The portrait was sold by this name and title in 1S60 at the S. Colby sale in London. But Mr. Moes informs us in his Iconographia Batava that there was no Anglican minister of the name of Ellison at Amsterdam in 1634. He discovered, however, that there was a Mennonite minister called Alenson living at Haarlem. 15° REMBRAN DT to attest the strength and sincerity of his convictions. Rembrandt alone could endue a portrait with such depth and intensity of expression; but even he had never before achieved such mastery and such eloquence. The picture, though absolutely faithful to nature, passes out of the domain of mere portraiture. It is a historical docu- ment, a living, irrefragable witness, so to speak, to the nature of those zealous and impassioned religious personalities that figure so pro- minently in Dutch history of the period, and whose influence was so pronounced in the intellectual and political life of Holland. Save that similar vagaries are common in the records of auctions, it would be difficult to explain the strange reception of these portraits by the public in 1876, when they were offered for sale on the death of Mr. Schneider. Not only did the bidding fall short of the reserve of ^4,400, but certain amateurs, whose knowledge of Rembrandt's manner at this period must have been rudimentary indeed, cast doubts on their authenticity, ignoring all those internal evidences that should have placed their genuineness above suspicion. Here again we rejoice to find ourselves in perfect agreement with Dr. Bode, who fully appreciates the beauty and the excellent condition of the two portraits. A work of less importance, though not less precious, and perhaps even better preserved, is the portrait of an old woman in the National Gallery, signed, and dated 1634. The painter, with a touch of coquetry pardonable enough in view of the age and appearance of his model, has preceded his signature by the inscription; "Ai. Suae 83.'' The careful dress of the old lady adheres strictly to the fashion of her day. Her black gown, with its stiffened epaulettes, is very simple in make, and without ornament of any sort. She wears the usual little white cap with detached side pieces over her grey hair. Her face is deeply scarred by time; the wrinkled flesh is drawn tightly over the temples, and hangs loose and shapeless on the cheeks. But the head is a venerable one, nevertheless. The generous blood still pulses under that faded skin ; the mouth is tender and benevolent, the eyes still gleam with kindly intelligence under their puckered lids. Though her interest in the outside world PORTRAIT OF AN OLD LADY has grown faint, the moral h'fe is still vigorous in this octogenarian, and it is easy to understand how attractive the study of such a personality must have been to the master. His happy insight has enabled him to show us, side by side with the bodily accidents of age, the elevation of a soul purified by the sorrows of a long life, and gradually detaching itself from the world to find its solace within. As in the portrait of Alenson, the expres- sion of the inner life is the keynote of the composition, but here the freedom and individuality of treatment are of a totally different order. The harmony of the colour is only to be equalled by its boldness ; on close inspection of the luminous flesh-tints we are amazed at the audacity of the tones, the touches of pure vermilion on lips and cheeks, the daring brilliance of high lights applied with unerring assurance, the resonance of colours juxta- posed without fusion, yet melting into harmony, and when viewed at a distance, vibrating in unison. On his scrupulous study of reality in its minutest details, Rembrandt brought to bear the knowledge and inspiration of a consummate craftsman, yet he never allowed himself to be carried away by his technical facility. Always master of himself he subordinates all the resources of his art to the achievement of his proposed end. Though he had now risen to the highest rank among portrait-painters, he had no inten- tion of taking upon himself the bondage such a situation usually implies. He could content himself with nothing short of perfec- tion, and strove unceasingly to satisfy his own aspirations. Among his models of every condition in life, his interest was mainly concen- trated on those whose marked individuality promised to reward his penetration. He did not ply a trade, after the manner of many fashionable painters, but gave himself unreservedly to his art, with passionate ardour and ever-increasing loftiness of aim. Numerous as were his portraits, they did not entirely absorb the young master. He neglected no opportunity of improvement. Thus, about 1634 we find him painting the study of a young negro's head, known as the Black Archer, now in the Wallace collection. The model wears a greenish blue costume trimmed with fur, and holds a bow in his hand. REMBRANT1T The artist, in his zeal, perhaps prolonged the sitting imduly, for the little blackamoor has a bored and sulky expression, no doubt faithfully copied from the original. In addition to studies such as these, Rembrandt devoted a certain portion of his time to the satisfaction of his teeming imagination. No very important compositions date from this period. His days were too fully occupied to allow of serious undertakings demanding study and preparation. But among his productions other than portraits there are several that claim our attention. We may instance the picture dated 1633, and known as S/. Peter s Boat, which was famous even in the days of Houbraken, who praises its truth of expression and careful finish. At the time he wrote it belonged to a well-known contemporary amateur, the Burgomaster Jan Hinloopen. It is now in England, in the possession of Lord Francis Pelham- Clinton. The episode of Christ sleeping in the storm was one likely to appeal strongly to the painter's imagination, and his rendering is both picturesque and pathetic. The murky sky is partially lighted by a sinister glow, and the waves dash violently against the frail ship, which seems about to sink under the foaming waters. The disciples strain desperately at the ropes and sails, while others turn to rouse the Master, whose peaceful sleep is in strange contrast with their terror. Setting aside a vulgar detail very characteristic of Dutch taste at the period — a passenger leaning his head over the bulwarks, whose dis- comfort is somewhat too realistically suggested — the scene is im- pressively and eloquently rendered by one who, from his native shores, had often watched the fierce onslaught of waters let loose by the tempest. The undated David playing the Harp before Saul in the Stadel Institute at Frankfort, is probably a work of 1633, though it may be earlier by a year or two. The king stands in the centre, grasping a spear, and listening with a wild expression on his face, to the harmonies of the young musician, who is placed a little on one side. The vulgar features of the king, the faulty drawing of his hand, and a certain heaviness in the execution have raised doubts as to the authenticity of this work, which the Catalogue ascribes to S. Koninck. But the Study for tlic ' Philosopher " in the Louvre ( 1633). Ked Chnlk. (kKHI.JN I'UIN'l" HOO.M.) Pr'inLcd bj DraGgcrA Lesicui-, Paris ' THILOSOPHERS ABSORBED IN MEDITATION 153 quality of the light, the expression on Saul's face, the fine harmony of his red mantle and the cool grays that prevail throughout the picture, and finally the handling itself, which closely resembles that of other early works, all sanction Dr. Bode's restitution of this example to the master. Rembrandt treated the theme again in later years, on a more important scale. No question can possibly be raised as to the two small panels of this date in the Louvre, the pair of Philosophers abso7'bed in Meditation. The more remarkable of the two, No. 408 in the Catalogue, suffers to some extent from an excrescence it could have dispensed with : a woman in the fore- ground to the right, who is stirring the em- bers in a wide fireplace, evidently a prete.xt for the rendering of natural and artificial light in juxtaposition, and their combined reflections. The episode, however, is by no means obtru- sive, and scarcely dis- tracts our attention from the real subject, the meditative old man to whom the title refers. He has paused in his reading, and sits in a contemplative attitude, with folded hands, by a window. The waning daylight still illumines his humble retreat. In this peaceful atmosphere, he reviews his past life, and lost in thought, with a fixed gaze that takes no heed of outward things, he looks within. The venerable face of the old man, the subdued tints ÛRTIÎAJT OV AN 0[.P LAD\ 1634 (NaLional Gallery). 54 REMBRANDT of his draperies, the softness of the fading light, the dehcate trans- parency of the deepening shadows, the choice of details, and the exquisite art of their treatment, all combine to charm the spectator by their indefinable poetry. Many other painters before and after Rembrandt attempted similar effects. In the Louvre itself, close to the Philosopher, hangs a Rustic Interior by Adriaen van Ostade, dated 1642, which seems to have been inspired by the master, and reproduces a similar impression. At a later period. De Hooch perhaps owed something to Rembrandt, when he brought all the perfection of his art to the rendering of those admirable Interiors, in which the complex play of light and shadow, exactness of values, and the infinite diversity of reflections, are even more subtly observed than in the works of his great prototype. But the problems with which these artists were con- cerned were purely picturesque, and we shall look in vain to them for any of that expressive significance, and intimate union between subject and treatment so characteristic of Rembrandt. In his art, humanity was always the essential element, and he made the infinite modifications of light subservient to the revelation of its moral life or dominant emotions. Such is especially the case in this instance. The importance he attached to the central figure of the philosopher is attested by many preliminary studies. The type is, in fact, that of the old man we have spoken of as the model for many of the earlier pictures and etchings, and for the graceful drawings in red chalk in the Berlin Museum, the Louvre, and the Hermitage. Rembrandt further made a special study from this model in black chalk and wash, the year he painted this Philosopher. It is now in the Stadel Institute at Frankfort. The second Philosopher (No. 409 in the Catalogue), differs but slightly from the first, save that the composition is reversed, and that it is inferior in quality. The features lack the distinction of the first example, and the distribution of the light, though skilful, is less poetic. Another picture of this period, the Christ with the Disciples at Emmiius, formerly in the Leroy d'EtioUes collection, and lately =1, COMMISSIONS FOR PRINCE FREDERICK HENRY 155 acquired by M. Edouard André, bears the same monogram as one of the Philosophers, but is, in our opinion, a rather earlier work. In this first conception of a subject that Rembrandt treated more than once, chiaroscuro again plays an important part. The originality of arrangement borders on eccentricity. But the treatment is tlioroughly characteristic, even in this early essay, and shows how strong a hold the episode had already taken on the painter's imagination. At this juncture, when Rembrandt's growing fame was bringing him ever more and more prominently into public notice, his successes were crowned by a series of important purchases and commissions made on behalf of the Prince who, under the title of Stathouder, then governed Holland, and whose name will be lastingly associated with her supreme period of prosperity. Frederick Henry, son of William the Silent, found, on succeeding his brother Maurice, that his country was at last free from the most crushing of those difficulties with which his predecessor had to contend. In the calmer days in which his own lot was cast, it was possible to devote his leisure to the arts, and to busy himself in the decoration of the palaces he had inherited, or had caused to be built, at Buren, Ryswyk, and Honsholredyk. In common with all the patricians of his day, his tastes inclined rather to the art of the Flemings — Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens, and Gonzalez Coques — than to that of his own countrymen. But he could not entirely neglect the latter, and the brilliant achievements of contem- porary Dutchmen combined with considerations of public expediency to demand the encouragement of national art. Mierevelt, Ravesteyn, and Honthorst, the accredited portrait-painters of the House of Orange, divided his patronage with the Italianisers, notably Moses Uytenbroeck, Pieter de Grebber and Dirck Bleker. The prince was a liberal paymaster, for we find him giving the then considerable sum of 1 700 florins for a Venus by the mediocre Bleker. Constantine Huygens, his secretary, acted as intermediary in his transactions with artists, and we have seen how high was the opinion entertained by Huygens of Rembrandt, who had long been intimate with him and his family. It will be remembered that Rembrandt painted the small '56 REMBRANDT portrait of his lîrothcr Maurice in 1632, and that of his brotlicr-in-law, Admiral Philip van Dorp in 1633, for though the portrait in the Hermitage which is supposed to represent the latter, differs both in feature and costume from S. Savory's engraving, this engraving was certainly after a por- trait by Rembrandt, as is stated in the inscrip- tion. It was probably in consequence of his ac- quaintance with Huygens that the young master was recommended to the Prince's favour. Severa. letters exchanged be- tween Rembrandt and Huygens give some in- teresting information in connection with a series of compjositions bought at various intervals by the StatJioiider. In 17S1 these works passed from his collection to that of the Elector Palatine and sub- sequently from the DUs- seldorf Gallery to the Munich Pinacothek, where they are now preserved. [■•HUM Tllli DE-SLEN'T I'UUM ' 1633 (Munich Pinacothek\ In 161 Rembrandt had two of the finished works in his studio : the Elevation of Ihc Cross and the Descent from the Cross. The opening letter of the correspondence doubt- less refers to these.' One of them had taken the StatJioiider s fancy, 1 The original, of wliic'i ^'osnlacl■ givess botli a copy and a translation (p. 187") is in the British Musenm. SERIES OF PICTURES ON THE PASSION 157 and he had announced his intention of buying- it. The artist invites Huygens to come and see whether the pendant, which is also ^ - I., i . - i DESCENT FKOM THE CKOSS. 1633 (B. Si). for sale, might not suit the Prince. He values it at 200 livres, but with perfect confidence in the judgment of "his Excellency, he will be content with what he offers." He adds in a postscript REMBRANDT that " the effect of the picture will be much enhanced by hanging it in a strong light." Like all the other works of the series, the Elevation of the Cross is an upright picture rounded at the top. As in Rubens's great triptych in Antwerp Cathedral, the cross, held obliquely aloft, divides the gloomy sky against which the livid body of the Saviour is relieved, into two equal portions. The features bear the marks of unspeakable suffering ; the eyes are raised as if in supplication to the Father. A soldier in helmet and armour, and four persons who support the cross below, are endeavouring to raise it. At a little distance, a captain in an oriental dress and high turban superintends the execution, mounted on a white horse, only a portion of which is seen. To the left, guards are bringing forward the two thieves. A man in a blue cap, whose features bear some likeness to those of the painter himself, clasps the lower part of the cross, and looks pityingly at the pierced and bleeding feet of the Divine Sufferer. Surrounding the central group is a confused crowd of soldiers, women, priests, and curious bystanders. The subject is clearly expressed in its more salient features, and the strongly illuminated figure of Christ is in striking contrast with the mysterious gloom of the background. In the Descent from the Cross, the central group of which we reproduce, the body of Christ has just been detached ; His head, convulsed with agony, falls upon His shoulder. A man, leaning over one of the arms of the cross, holds up the winding-sheet on which four persons standing below support the body. The precious burden, droop- ing, mangled and inert, is received with tender respect. On the ground below, the disciples and the holy women arrange the draperies for His burial, or press forward to aid the Virgin, who falls fainting into the arms of the Magdalene. A man with a gray beard, in a turban, looks on callously at the pathetic scene, his indifference emphasising the emotion of those around him. Though the picture is carefully executed and elaborately finished, we detect various hesitations and corrections. A very evident pentamento shows that the two upper 5gures on either side of the Christ were originally rather higher up SERIES OF PICTURES ON THE PASSION 159 The condition of this work, as of the others of the series in the Pinacothelv, is very unsatisfactory. It is covered with cracks and repaints, and the shadows have become so opaque that it is ahnost impossible to distinguish the details of background and foreground. The master's numerous variations on this, the most remarkable picture of the series, show that he himself had a strong predilection for it. The first in order are two etchings, evidently of later date than the picture, for the proofs are reversed. One was left unfinished by Rembrandt, the other was executed under his direction. We shall have more to say of these later on. The following year (1634) he painted a replica, at one time in the Cassel Gallery, whence it passed to the Malmaison collection, and eventually to the Hermitage (No. 800 in the Catalogue). In this instance the master seems to have felt that his increased breadth of manner called for larger dimensions.' The excellent condition of the work allows the student to observe the gradations of light more exactly than is possible in the earlier example. Its full brilliance is focused on the body and the white winding sheet, and falling less vividly on the figures that surround the cross, it gradually melts away into shadow relieved only by livid reflections, among the persons of the background. Thanks to the learned economy of these modulations, simplicity and unity are preserved in the general effect, in spite of the multiplicity of episodes and contrasts. The Prince's purchases were not confined to these two pictures. He was doubtless pleased with his acquisition, for a letter written by Rembrandt in February, 1636,^ informs us that Frederick Henry had commissioned the painter to produce three other works, an Entovib- meiit, ^Resurrection, and -m. Ascension, "uniform with the Elevation of the Cross, and the Descent from the Croj'j' " already received by the Stathoitder. The artist tells Huygens that " one of the three pictures, the Christ ascending into Heaven, is finished, and the others are ' The Pinacothek Descent from tlie Cross measures 35-fV by 25I inches; that in the Hermitage, 62 J by 46^ inches. ^ This date was added long ago by a different hand, but it seems a very probable one, in view of the letter itself, which, after having been for some time in the Verstolk van Soelen collection, was purchased in England in iSyr. i6o REMBRANDT more than half done." He could either send the finished work, or keep it till he had completed all three ; in this matter he would follow such instructions as he should receive. It seems probable that the Ascension was straightway delivered, and that the two remaining canvases were not handed over to the Prince till three years later. The dimensions of the Ascension (36^ x 25f inches) are almost the same as those of the preceding pictures, but it has darkened even more than these, and is indeed the worst preserved, as well as the least interesting of the series. Here and there we note a face full of expression, such as that of the old man with the gray beard among the disciples, clasping his hands in an ecstasy of love and adoration. But the little angels scattered about the sky are singularly ungraceful, and the strange attitude and fantastic draperies of Christ Himself are entirely opposed to the sentiment of such a scene. The last two pictures of the series, the Entombment and the Resurrection, were not completed till 1639. On the 12th of January in that year, Rembrandt writes again to Huygens, informing him that he " has carried them out with great care and diligence . . . that he has endeavoured to make these the most vigorous and natural of the series, which is the main reason why he has had them so long in hand." He asks whether he shall despatch them, and, in recognition of the secretary's good offices in the transaction, reiterates the proposal of the former letter, that he should accompany them by a canvas some ten feet by eight, which he begs Huygens to accept for his own house. The latter seems, however, to have hesitated, but Rembrandt returns to the charge a few days later (January 27, 1639) in another letter, in which he asks for instructions as to the consignment of the pictures, and begs that payment may be made "as promptly as possible." He trusts "that Huygens will not disdain this, the first souvenir he has offered him," seeing what a pleasure it will be to the artist thus to acknowledge his indebtedness to the secretary. He further requests in a postscript, as on a former occasion, that the picture may be hung " in a strong light, so that it may be looked at from a distance, for thus it will be seen to the best advantage." The order for the transmission 'THE ENTOMBMENT' i6i of the pictures having duly arrived, Rembrandt sent them off, with a few lines stating the price he expected to receive for them. He supposes that he will not be offered "less than looo florins for each ; however, should His Highness think this more than they are worth, he must give what he thinks right. He (Rembrandt), for his part, relies on the judgment and discretion of His Highness, and will grate- fully receive the sum allotted to him." Although later by three years than the Ascension, the Entomb- ment and the Resurrec- tion — the latter is dated 1639 — might easily be assigned to the same year. This may be ex- plained in a great measure by the fact that all three were begun before 1633, and that Rembrandt, when finishing the two last, evidently tried to make both style and execution conform to his first inception. But we shall see that in the interval he had modified his manner very considerably. His increased breadth and smiplicity now enabled him to express himself more vigorously and clearly. The conception of the Entombment lacks neither grandeur nor eloquence. The cave, its entrance hung with creepers; the distant view of Calvary, with the sinister outlines of the three crosses against the horizon ; the turbulent crowd, the fitful gleams of light, the heavy shadows round the pallid corpse — all these are details VOL. I Q PORTRAlTiOF REM13RAN 1633 (B. «7)- 102 REMBRANDT worthy of the master, and attest the wealth of an imagination that discovered aspects undreamt of by his predecessors in the most hackneyed themes. We must not, however, overlook defects so obvious as the meagre and puny figure of the Christ, the repulsive ugliness of several among the bystanders, the multiplicity of episodes, and the complexity arising from the use of such various sources of light as the golden reflections of the setting sun on the horizon, the flaming torch which Nicodemus shades with his hand, and the lantern to the right of the picture. In spite of such blemishes, the work seems to have been highly appreciated in its day, for three copies, made probably in Rembrandt's studio, are extant, one in the Brunswick Museum, and two in the Dresden Museum. One of the two at Dresden (No. 1566 in the Catalogue) appears to have remained in his studio, for the master worked upon it himself in certain places, and finally added his own signature, and the date 1653. The execution of the work he thus consented to father is very unequal. Certain portions, such as the group of holy women to the right, and the men who are bearing the body, are elaborately finished, while the figures in shadow at the mouth of the cave are touched in with a heavy and inexperienced hand. The figure of Christ is merely indicated, the black outlines of breast, legs, and arms being plainly visible through the paint. The heavy impasto of the winding sheet is also hastily laid on with a broad brush. Rembrandt afterwards re-modelled the composition in two etchings (one executed about 1645, the other in 1654), and in a pen drawing, formerly in the Crozat collection, and now in the Stockholm Museum. The arrangement is much simpler here, but the sketch has the same upright form as the earlier work, and Rembrandt, no doubt, intended to paint it in this shape, for the proposed dimensions of his picture are in his handwriting on the margin. The complexity, ugliness, and faults of taste that mar the Entomb- ment are still more glaring in the Resurrection. It would be difficult to conceive of a figure more uncompromisingly vulgar than that of the angel who has rolled away the stone from the sepulchre ; and the frightened soldiers, tumbling confusedly one over another, are grotesque in the extreme. And yet, while admitting such defects, we recognise THE RESURRECTION" 163 Rembrandt's brilliant creative genius in the figure of the Saviour, which dominates the whole scene, in spite of the complexity of its lines, and its violently contrasted effects. This central figure, raising itself slowly by one hand laid on the edge of the tomb, is little short of a miracle of invention. For those who have once seen it, it is impossible to forget that wan face, hardly living as yet, in which life seems to be slowly dawning as they gaze — the hollow eyes struggling to see — the uncertain gestures of the helpless limbs. It is one of those indefinable conceptions which seem to lie almost beyond the resources of painting — one which only the frank audacity of genius could attempt, or bring to a happy and powerful issue. ^ The Resurrection is the last of this series, which in spite of the intervals dividing the works, we have taken consecutively, by reason of their analogies of arrangement and execution, and also because they deal continuously with the various episodes of the Passion. Interesting as they are, they cannot be ranked among Rembrandt's masterpieces. His anxiety to please the Prince, and to justify the honour done to himself, led him perhaps to multiply figures and contrasts in works the scale of which unfitted them for such complexity of treatment. It is evident that the master was no longer at his ease in the dimensions he had formerly affected. He seems further to have been haunted by memories of the Italians who had treated these lofty themes before him ; but in their passage through his Dutch imagination these involuntary reminiscences lost much of the grandeur and beauty that charm us in the masters of the Renaissance. By forcing his talent to a certain extent, he abated something of his power. He amazes us by the originality of his combinations, but he no longer moves us as in familiar scenes better suited to his temperament. The absence of his characteristic merits emphasises his defects, his eccentricities and vulgarities, his tendency to crowd his compositions with a bewildering mass of details. Yet his sincerity is unquestionable, ^ The condition of this picture is no better than that of the others of the series, in spite of the somewhat pretentious inscription placed on the back by the Elector's court- painter, who restored it in the eighteenth century ; Rembrandt creavit me ; F. H. Brinck- mann ressuscitavit. Q 2 164 REMBRANDT and as he says in the letter already quoted, he believed he had put into these works "as much of life and reality as possible." But such qualities, which were indeed peculiarly his own, are less apparent here than in many earlier works. The time was to come when he would attain to them more absolutely, with infinitely less of effort, preserv- ing all his " reality," with an increasing mastery of the resources of a subject, and a fuller power of expressing its picturesque and its emotional aspects. .633 (B. 3sO. CHAPTER IX. SASKIA VAN UYLENBORCH AND HER FAMILY — REMBRANDt'S PORTRAITS OF HER THE 'JEWISH bride'- — -REMBRANDT MARRIES SASKIA (jUNE 22, 1634) STUDIES AND PICTURES PAINTED FROM HER: THE ' ARTEMISIA ' IN THE PRADO, THE 'BURGOMASTER PANCRAS AND HIS WIFE,' THE 'REMBRANDT AND SASKIA ' IN THE DRESDEN GALLERY — HIS INDUS'l'RY. 'E have seen how laborious were Rem- brandt's first years at Amsterdam. But our long list of the works painted at this period is far from complete. To it we must add a number of drawings, and many etchings, executed either by himself or under his supervision. As, however, any dis- cussion of the latter involves vexed questions as to collaborators, we will consider them in our next chapter, when dealing with the first pupils whom the master's fame attracted to his studio. In- defatigable as was Rembrandt, and jealously as he guarded the time he desired to consecrate wholly to his art, we cannot but marvel that such an extraordinary mass of work should have been accomplished by one man. A whole series of portraits About 1634 (B. 2.) i66 REMBRANDT painted at this period remains to be noticed : those which the young artist, faithful to a habit he retained throughout his life, painted either from himself, or from his intimates. They form an important section of his œimre, and, apart from their intrinsic merits, are interesting as throwing considerable light upon his career at this date. Among the portraits of 1632 is one in the Haro collection, dated, and signed with the monogram of the period, followed by the words : "Van Ryn." It is an oval, on canvas, and represents a young girl, her face in profile, and turned to the left. The forehead is some- what prominent, the nose straight and small, but thickening slightly towards the end, the mouth very dainty, the face rather full, with a hint of an approaching double chin, the small eyes rather heavily lidded. These irregular, and by no means remarkable features are glorified by a brilliant complexion, and fair hair waving over the forehead in charming disorder. The costume is remarkable for its elegant simplicity, and the execution, agreeing with the attitude and expression, is irreproachably correct and demure. This young girl, whose features we shall recognize in many works painted during the nine years of life that remained to her, was Saskia van Uylenborch, who was shortly to become Rembrandt's bride. A native of Friesland, she had lost her mother in 1619^; her father, the scion of a wealthy patrician family of the province, had served in the magistracy of Leeuwarden either as échevin or burgomaster from 1584 to 1597. He was a distinguished jurisconsult, and so well reported of among his fellow citizens, that several political missions had been entrusted to him. One of these took him to Delft in 1584, to communicate with William of Orange, and when a guest at the Prince's table, he was almost a witness of his assassi- nation, of which he wrote an account to his employers. Rombertus died himself not long after his wife, in 1624. By this time most 1 For the details relating to Saskia's family we are indebted to Mr. W. Eckhofi' an archivist of Leeuwarden, who published them in a pamphlet called La Femme de Rembrandl. 1862. THE SASKIA FAMILY 167 of his nine cliildren were settled in life. Two of his sons followed their father's profession; the third was a soldier. His daughters, with the exception of Saskia, were all married ; Antje, to one J. Maccovius, a professor of theology at Franeker, and an ardent Calvinist ; Hiskia, to Gerrit van Loo, secretary of the commune of the Bildt, who lived in Saint Anna Parocchie, one of the parishes of this bailiwick, towards the southern extremity of Friesland ; Titia, to the commissary Frans Copal ; Jeltje, to a compatriot named Doede van Ockema ; while the fifth, Hendrickje, wedded, on August ig, 1622, Wybrandt de Geest, the artist. De Geest was a historical painter and clever portraitist, born at Leeuwarden in 1596. From 161 1 to 1630 he had travelled, for a time in France, but mainly in Italy, where his talents were so highly appreciated that he received the nickname of the Eagle of Friesland. After a short sojourn in Antwerp he settled in his native city, where he died in 1659. The Ryksmuseum owns a considerable number of portraits by him of the Counts of Nassau, Stathouders of Friesland, or princes of their family, and, thanks to the generosity of Dr. Bredius, the collection has lately been enriched by a fine portrait of a lady, full-length and life-size. These works, which testify to the esteem in which he was held, are somewhat in the manner of Moreelse and Mierevelt ; but his masterpiece, a family portrait in the Stuttgart Museum, painted in 162 1, shortly after his return to Leeuwarden, shows greater originality, both of observation and execution. Saskia, who was left an orphan at the age of twelve, had lived with several of her sisters in turn, and also with a cousin, wife of the minister Jan Cornells Sylvius, who had worked for a time in Friesland, before his "call" to Amsterdam, in 1610. Another cousin of Saskia's, Hendrick van Uylenborch, was, as we know, established in the town, where, after practising for a time with little success as a painter, he became a dealer in pictures and bric-à-brac. We know further that Rembrandt, even before leaving Leyden, was sufficiently intimate with him to lend him a considerable sum of money, and to accept his hospitality during his brief sojourns i68 REMBRANDT in Amsterdam. When the young master settled in the city, these friendly relations were maintained, and we may naturally conclude that it was Hendrick who induced Saskia to have her portrait painted by Rembrandt. The young couple were thus brought together, and were apparently mutually pleased. It gradually became a habit with Saskia to visit the artist's studio, and she sat to him again twice in this same year, 1632. But on these occasions the result was not a set portrait as before, and the likenesses in the Stockholm Museum and the Liechten- stein Gallery are very different in character to the H arc example. Dated 1632, and signed with the monogram used by Rem- brandt at this period, the one represents Saskia in profile, the other full-face. Her peculiar, and, in our opinion, easily recognisable features, are modelled with no less delicacy than before, but with greater breadth, the result being more a study than a portrait. Her face had become familiar to Rembrandt, and he now lays greater stress on the dazzling bloom of her fair complexion, the expre,ssion of her small but brilliant eyes, and the beauty of the silky hair, waving in golden abundance about her face. The costume, which is almost identical in both studies, is less severe than in the earlier portrait. The young sitter has allowed the painter to drape her in the gold- embroidered cloak which was one of his studio " properties," and 1 The latter was bought at the Secre'tan sale. PORTRAIT 0[-- SA.'iKlA. 1632 (M. Haro.) The fcivish Bride (alwvf 16^2). 0-IFi llTFN'ÎTFIX r.AI.I.FRV, ) SASKIA PORTRAITS 1 69 in which various members of his family had already figured. The costume and general treatment of these two portraits, which evidently followed close upon the earlier picture, seem to indicate a rapid growth of intimacy between the two young people. We believe Saskia to be the original of another work, signed, and dated 1632, which was famous at the end of the last century as The Jewish Bride} It was recently bought from Sir Charles Robinson by M. Sedelmeyer, and has since passed into the possession of Prince Liechtenstein. Seated, and almost facing the spectator, the young woman wears a white satin dress embroidered with gold and over it the heavy crimson mantle we have already pointed out in several pictures of this period. An old woman stands behind her, comb- ing her long fair hair. The figures are relieved by an architectural back- ground of warm gray, which brings out the reds of the drapery, and the cool carnations. A low bench and a candelabrum are just distinguishable against the wall. The face and hands of the young woman are exquisitely modelled in very high tones, and the learned precision of touch, and transparent delicacy of the chiaroscuro make this labour of love one of the most important, as it is certainly one of the best preserved works inspired by 1633 (Stockholm Museum). It figured in Madame de Bandeville's sale in lyS; under this name, 170 REMBRANDT Saskia at this period. Dr. Bode, however, beheves that this picture and the portraits just described, represent Rembrandt's sister Lysbeth.' But against this opinion we may urge that Rembrandt is not Hkely to have painted an elaborate portrait of his sister, like that in M. Haro's collection, at a time wlien he was overwhelmed with com- missions, and that such careful treatment of the model was entirely opposed to his usual dealings with sitters of his own family. Besides which, a comparison of the various studies here reproduced with the acknowledged portrait of Saskia in the Cassel Gallery, to which we shall return presently, will convince our readers of the identity of type, so far as it is possible to trace it in works so freely treated, and so evidently rather in the nature of studies than of portraits. Be this as it may, Rembrandt now neglected no opportunity of closer intimacy with Saskia. He had made the acquaintance of the Sylvius family, with whom she was living at this time, and a portrait of the minister occurs among the etchings of 1633. Sylvius was then a man of about sixty-nine, and had been working in the ministry for over forty years. He was held in general respect, and a Latin epigraph, written by" C. van Baerle for another portrait of Sylvius, engraved by Rembrandt in 1646, justly extols his learning, his eloquence, his simplicity of life and dignity of manners, and the authority with which such qualities endued his teaching and example. In the print of 1633 Sylvius is represented almost full face. His features are venerable and somewhat austere, and their expression harmonises with his bearing and attitude. He has paused for a moment in his reading, and meditates, his two hands laid upon the open book before him. An inscription made by Rembrandt on one of the prints shows that the artist had presented him with several mpressions of the portrait: "To Jan Cornells Sylvius, these four impressions." - Rembrandt's numerous portraits of Saskia, and his attentions to 1 See the article in the Graphisclien Kiinste already quoted. 2 The print in question belonged to Madame van Lennep, a descendant of Sylvius in i860. GROWING INTIMACY 171 members of her family, proclaim the feelings with which the young girl had inspired him. Love, once admitted into that passionate heart, had taken absolute possession. Up to this date the young painter had lived a very retired life at Amsterdam ; he had no taste for the amusements that pleased his brother-artists, and was never to be met with in any of the taverns or other haunts frequented by them. Absorbed in his art, he never willingly left his studio. A man with such habits and with Rembrandt's loving disposition must have longed for a home of his own ; his thoughts naturally turned to marriage. His meeting with the gentle, well-born girl was not without results. She, he felt, was the mate for him. He accordingly unbosomed himself to the Sylviuses, her guardians. In a family which, though mainly composed of ministers and lawyers, already reckoned several artists among its members, no prejudice was likely to be felt against his calling. De Geest was making an honourable living in Friesland, where he was highly esteemed ; a cousin of Saskia's, named Rom- bertus, like her father, was also a painter, and finally, there was Hendrick van Uylenborch, ready to answer for his friend at need. He had kept up the most friendly relations with the artist, and to him Rembrandt confided in 1633 the sale of the important engraving, the Descent from the Cross, which, if not actually by the master himself, was at least executed from his design and bears his signature. Hendrick's dealings with collectors enabled him to give his relatives a favourable account of the young painter's means. No artist was more sought after in Amsterdam at that period, nor was there one whose future seemed so full of brilliant promise. He was the fashion- able portrait-painter of the day ; sitters of the highest social position in Amsterdam were always to be found in his studio ; the Stathouder himself had honoured him with important commissions. His earnings were therefore considerable, and even to a bride of independent fortune, like Saskia, the position he offered was an enviable one. The evidence as to character was equally favourable, his goodness to his parents, his studious life, and temperate habits, being greatly to his credit. His moderation was remarkable, for according to Houbraken ; — " He lived very simply, and when at work, contented 172 REMBRANDT himself with a herring or a piece of cheese, and bread." His only extravagance was one with which Hendrick was not disposed to find fault. This was his passion for curiosities and objets dart, which he was just beginning to collect. But no one was likely to blame him for thus adorning his dwelling. It seemed, indeed, commendable, and in some measure a guarantee of domesticity. We may add that the portraits he painted of himself at this period I — one at Dulwich, and I one at Petworth, both I dated 1632 and very delicately handled ; one in the Hague Museum I (about 1633 — 1634), where he figures in the martial costume he loved to don ; and two in the Louvre, dated 1633 and 1634, where the treatment is broader j and freer — all represent him as peculiarly at- tractive in person. The last of these, especially, is the portrait of an accomplished cavalier ; 1632 (Liechiciisiein Coiieciion). his opcu face and con- fident bearing bespeak the full maturity of strength and of genius, together with the easy good breeding of one at home in Society. The career that was opening before Rembrandt, his sober life, his industry, and his personal charm, pleaded powerfully in his favour. The position he had secured by his talents was such as to inspire confidence even in the cautious minds of the Sylviuses, while Saskia was naturally won by his youthful ardour, and the halo of THE ENGAGEMENT 173 glory that already encircled his name. His suit was successful, and the numerous portraits lie painted of his betrothed show that the young couple were much together. But, whether to test the strength of their attachment, or to allow the young girl herself to bestow her hand upon her lover, the marriage was deferred till after her majority. In the interval, Rembrandt fed his passion, both for Saskia and for his art, by multiplying por- traits of her. We re- cognise her type, as we know it from Prince Liechtenstein's picture of 1632, in an oval painting belonging to Baron Hirsch, dated 1633. The head, with its unruly auburn hair, rounded fore- head, and dainty, pouting mouth, is turned almost full to the spectator. The fresh carnations are brought into strong relief by the brown background and the neutral gray of the deep shadows. In another portrait, in the Dresden Museum, signed, and dated 1633, the head is slightly turned and gaily illuminated by a ray of sunlight. The crimson cap with its gray plume, throws a warm, transparent shadow over the forehead. A blue dress patterned with white is coquettishly trimmed with gold loops and shoulder-knots, and the hands are encased in gray gloves. The half-closed eyes twinkle roguishly, and the smiling lips reveal teeth whiter than the pearis upon the chemisette. Radiant in all her youthful bloom, Saskia PORTRAIT OF SASKIA. About 1634 (Cassel Museum). 174 REMBRANDT seems to be dreaming of the life which looked so full of happy promise. The portrait of Saskia in the Cassel Gallery is of a totally different character. Though painted with extreme care, and perhaps one of the most finished and elaborate of Rembrandt's works, it is neither signed nor dated. It was probably painted for Saskia herself, and there was no need to attest an authenticity which the picture itself proclaimed. ^ The young girl wears a broad-brimmed hat of red velvet, with a sweeping white feather. Her face is in profile, and this must certainly have been the aspect he thought most favourable to her, for she is about the only person he painted thus. The complexion is as brilliant as ever, and though the face is now rather thinner than in the Haro and Stockholm portraits, the characteristic features are the same, not- ably the shape of the eyes, the nose, thickening a little towards the end, and the slightly compressed lips. Saskia's dress and jewels are extremely rich, and her picturesque, but voyant costume is rendered with great elaboration. ^ It is evident that, together with a scrupulous study of nature, the painter desired to show the utmost refinement of knowledge in his modelling, enhanced by all the additional charm to be won from harmony of colour and delicacy of chiaroscuro. An allusion to the relations between the artist and his model is to be found in the sprig of rosemary — the emblem of betrothal in Holland — which the young girl holds against her heart with her right hand. As the date fixed for their marriage was still distant, Saskia left Amsterdam for Franeker in the autumn of 1633. She may have been summoned by her sister Antje, who was probably an invalid at the time, for she died November 9, 1633. Saskia then went to the Van Loos, at Anna-Parocchie, where she spent the winter. • The replica of this portrait in the Antwerp Museum, which long passed for an original, is a somewhat heavy and mediocre copy made in Rembrandt's lifetime, probably by one of his pupils. 2 The skilful restoration undertaken by Herr Hauser in 1888 has revived the extra- ordinary brilliance of this picture, and has brought to light several pentametiti, such as an alteration of the hat, which Rembrandt, eager to beautify his mistress, had at first adorned with one or two more feathers. Portrait of Saskia (about lô^ô — TÔ^j). (MR. SAMITII, Jû(;e1'H'=; CdJ.i.ECTinN. ) OTHER PORTRAITS OF SASKIA 175 But she must have paid a visit to Amsterdam in the spring of 1634, for Rembrandt then painted a fresh portrait of her. This was the picture in the Hermitage, somewhat unaccountably known as The Jewish Bride. The title Flora would be more appropriate. Following a very general fashion of the period, Saskia is arrayed as a shepherdess and stands at the mouth of a grotto hung with creepers. In her right hand she holds a flower-twined crook ; on her head is a heavy wreath of ranunculus, anemone, fritillary and iris, a columbine, and a striped red and white tulip. Some sprays of foliage are intermixed with these perhaps somewhat over-abundant spring blossoms. They are, however, very carefully studied from nature, and fix the season at which the picture was painted. The date, 1634, in white figures is placed under the master's signature. The rosy face, turned almost full to the spectator, is strongly illuminated. The luxuriant hair enframing it falls in disorder upon the shoulders. An oriental scarf is crossed upon her breast, and with her left hand she draws round her the folds of a wide mantle of pale green, which is thrown over her white brocaded gown. Her attitude, the slightly bent figure, and the massing of the folds about the waist, give her a somewhat matronly air, and but for the unquestionable authenticity of the date, the portrait might well have been painted a year later. Innocent and engaging in her brilliant draperies and gaily tinted flowers, she stands, a graceful apparition, the light falling full upon her. Spring itself seems to be singing a psean of love and poetry from the master's palette, at the dawn of that year which was to bring about the propitious union. Rembrandt seems to have been pleased with the travesty, for he repeated it with but slight modifications, in another picture painted not long after, which belonged successively to W. H. Fortescue, the Duke of Buccleuch, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, and in later times to Sir Edmund Lechmere. The composition is almost identical ; the young woman faces the spectator, her abundant hair falling about her shoulders. As in the Hermitage picture, she carries a crook wreathed with flowers ; but her dress is cut rather lower, and in her left hand she holds a nosegay. The execution is very free, and the treatment more decorative than in the earlier example. 176 REMBRANDT At the beginning of the summer, Saskia returned to her sister Hiskia. The date of the wedding was fixed, and Rembrandt was soon to rejoin her. In the marriage register of Amsterdam, under the date June lo, 1634, we find the declaration made before the commissaries by the preacher Jan Cornelis Sylvius, who, as Saskia's cousin, pledges himself on her behalf to give his formal consent to the marriage before the third publication of the banns- On his side Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, of Leyden, aged twenty- six years, residing in the Breestraat engages to produce his mother's consent in due course, and triumphantly adds the signature of which we give a facsimile. Rembrandt, we may conclude, fetched this consent from Leyden himself, taking the opportunity of a visit to his mother, and then hastened to rejoin Saskia. "f " Four days later, on June 14, he 1634 (u. 347). ^ brought the notarial act dealing with the authorisation, to Amsterdam, and appealed to the com- missaries to abridge some of the formalities connected with the publication of the banns. When all was in order, the artist returned to his bride ; the marriage took place in the town hall of Bildt, in the presence of the Van Loos, June 22, 1634, and was afterwards solemnized at the parish church by the minister, Rodolf Hermansz Luinga. Ardent in temperament and somewhat unsociable as we know 1 Rembrandt: Discours sur sa Vie et son Génie, by Dr. Scheltema ; published and annotated by W. Burger. Paris. Renouard. 1S66. EARLY AtARRIEn LIFE 177 Rembrandt to have been, we can readily imagine tliat he hastened to carry off his bride to the home he had prepared, and in which he was impatient to hide his happiness from the world. Saskia's 1 Illi J!£\VIS1[ lIKDii:. 1634 (Ilermllagi). simple and loving nature knew no wishes but her husband's Entirely devoted to him, she never sought to direct his course, and there was no consciousness of sacrifice in the VOL. I. R 178 REMBRANDT readiness with which she gave up all to him. Rembrandt's tastes and pleasures should be hers. To him, idleness was impossible ; rejoicing- in the possibility of combining the two passions of his heart, he set to work at once, taking advantage of the charming model who henceforth was never to leave him. A beautiful silver point sketch in the Berlin Museum, to which Vosmaer was the first to call attention, shows us Saskia's pleasant features, drawn with a firm and elegant touch. The young woman, who wears a broad-brimmed hat, rests her head upon her left hand, and holds a flower in her right. Her face is full of a sweet tranquillity. The inscription written below by Rembrandt gives us the following information ; " This is a portrait of my wife at the age of twenty-one, drawn the third day after we were betrothed, June 8, 1633." Vosmaer's rendering of the Dutch term getronwt by the word " married " raises a question as to the authenticity of this drawing, for Rembrandt and Saskia were married, as we know, on June 22, 1634 ; but, as Dr. Bredius points out, getromvt was also used in the sense of engaged, betrothed. We therefore fully concur with Dr. Bode, who, like Vosmaer, believes the drawing to be by Rembrandt. He justifies the attribution by arguments not merely sufficient in themselves,' but fully borne out by the execution, and its analogies with various etchings of this period, representing either Rembrandt himself or Saskia. We may instance a charming little portrait of the latter, dated 1634 (B. 347), drawn with a firm and skilful hand, the face in profile again, and the general appearance marked by great elegance. A fitting pendant may be found in the small portrait of the master himself : Rembrandt tvi/k moustachios (B. 2). It is neither signed nor dated, but from the great similarity of handling, we believe it to belong to the same year. The air of youth, of manly assurance, and of good breeding that characterise this little etching, make it one of the most attractive of the master's many renderings of himself. Among the works of this period, many more important than these 1 SUidien, p. 423. Portrait of Saskia (lôjj). Lead l'uiicil. (UEKLIN l'KINT HOOM.) Prinled by Draeger & Lesieur, Paris SASKIA STUDIES AND PORTRAITS 179 were also inspired by Saskia. Rembrandt, we know, did not wait till after his marriage to deck her according to his fancy. But now that she had become his house-mate, he brought out all the treasures of his wardrobes to vary her attire. For the next few years, she was his most frequent model, and the greater number of his pictures were directly or indirectly suggested by her. Just as in earlier days he had made use of himself and of the various members of his family, for his studies, he now took full advantage of the complaisant model by his side. We recognise Saskia's type in a picture, recently bought by M. Sedelmeyer in England. It belongs to this period, but is disfigured, unfortunately, by several repaints. The likeness to Saskia is more apparent in the picture at the Prado, Madrid, signed and dated 1634.' It figures in the Catalogue ■as, Artemisia receiving the Ashes of Maiisolus, and the title Cleopatra at her Toilet has also been suggested. The scene is, in fact, somewhat enigmatical ; but we believe it to be probably some episode from Scripture that is represented ; Bathsheba, the Bride of Tobias, or Judith, would perhaps more aptly describe it, as Rembrandt rarely drew his subjects from profane history, and showed a marked preference for sacred themes. The young woman, whoever she may be, is turned full to the spectator, and brilliantly illuminated. One hand is laid upon her breast, the other on a table covered with a cloth, on which is an open book. A little girl on the right hands her a small cup, shaped like a nautilus, and an old attendant, who has assisted at her toilet, is just distinguishable in the shadow of the background. She wears a rich costume, and her luxuriant hair lloats upon her shoulders. The features, which are somewhat sharply accentuated, and outlined by dark shadows, look rather vulgar in the vivid light, and the only touch of elegance is in the plump and delicate hands. The har- mony is high and cool in tone ; the colour scheme, as in the Jewish Bride of the Hermitage, being made up of pale greens and silvery grays. Two large portraits dated 1634, which form a pair, were recently 1 This signature and date are written in white, as in the so-called Jnvisli Bride of the Hermitage, which belongs to the same year. REMBRANDT (in 18S9) sold in America. They were at one time in the Princesse de Sagan's collection, and we believe them to represent Rembrandt and Saskia. There are chfferences, it is true, but the features, though somewhat more elongated, diverge but slightly from the familiar types, and we believe that the artist, here as on other occasions, has concerned himself little with exactitude of likeness, treating the works rather as studies than as portraits. The costumes in which the persons are arrayed confirm such an idea. The yellowish chemisette, worn under a low bodice with a gold trimming, the mantle, fastened both by a clasp and chain, the comb set with pearls, and the numerous jewels, we have already seen in many of Saskia's portraits, and Rembrandt's fondness for the martial accoutrements in which he figures, is attested by several earlier pictures. Both portraits have deteriorated ; the opacity of the shadows, which gives them a hard and somewhat gloomy aspect, is due, no doubt, to their indifferent preservation. The likeness to Saskia and Rembrandt is more apparent, though not very exact, in the so-called Biirgoniasler Paneras and his Wife, in the Queen's collection at Buckingham Palace. Misled by the title, Vosmaer assigned this work to the year 1645, the date of the Burgomaster's marriage. But the husband is undoubtedly Rembrandt, and in the wife's face, save that the oval is rather less pronounced, we recognise Saskia's characteristic features, her rosy mouth, her prominent forehead, and the fair hair waving above it. With Dr. Bredius, we think that the picture must have been painted about 1635.' The young woman sits before her mirror, dressed in a rich costume. She is putting the finishing touches to her toilet ; with a somewhat affected gesture, she fastens a pearl in her ear, and contemplates the effect with a languishing air. As if she were not already sufficiently bejewelled, her husband, who stands behind her, holds a peari necklace in readiness for further adornment. He himself wears a rich fancy costume of dark green, the tones of 1 It is signed ; Xembrant, and, as Dr. Bode has pointed out, this form of the signa- ture, which appears on etchings of 1632, and on the Susanna of 1637, in the Hague Museum, was never used after the latter date. SASKIA STUDIES AND PORTRAITS i8i which form a beautiful harmony with the vivid red of the table-cover. On this occasion Rembrandt evidently arrayed his wife himself, enriching her costume with the gorgeous draperies and jewels he had gathered together for her. His THE EURGOJIASTER l-ANCRAS AND HIS WIVL-:. About 1635 (Buckingham Palace). taste for such acquisitions grew with his delight in thus applying them, and he began to lavish money on the artistic treasures with which he beautified his home. Always something of a recluse, he had none of the desire for change and travel so common among his brother-painters. His world l82 REMBRAND r was but some few feet in extent. It lay between the four walls of a dwelling now doubly dear, since it sheltered both his work and his affections. Some courage may perhaps have been necessary at first, to resist the various temptations that beset his youth and isolated position in a great city. But work had now become an imperious necessity to him. Impatient of all distractions, he wished for no pleasures outside his art, that art which was so closely interwoven with his life, which coloured its every transaction, and to which he turned for the expression of every emotion, profound or transient. Thus the most trifling events of his career are recorded in his pictures. He withdrew himself from the eyes of the world to give his fullest confidence to his art, and in his works his most secret thoughts are revealed to us. In their happy solitude, forgetful of the outside world, and free from all restraints, the newly married pair found their pleasure, like children, in the merest trifles. Each day some fresh travesty and amusement was devised, some feast or comedy, where each entertained the other, and where they themselves were the sole guests and actors. But even on days like these, the painter could not be idle. He has immortalised one of these innocent orgies in the famous picture of the Dresden Gallery, where he has painted himself, with Saskia sitting on his knee. So fragile and dainty is the little bride that she looks a mere child, in spite of her twenty-two years, and her delicate charm is enhanced by contrast with Rembrandt's robust manhood. The artist is seated in a chair, dressed in a military costume, and brandishes a long glass of .sparkling wine in his right hand. With his left, he clasps his wife's waist. .Saskia wears a rich, but somewhat fantastic dress. Her sweet, fresh face is turned towards the spectator. Before them is a table covered with an Eastern rug, on which are a plate, and a raised pie surmounted by a peacock with out-spread tail. Rembrandt, whose eyes are slightly misty, laughs aloud, displaying both rows of teeth, and shakes his flowing hair. Saskia's face looks smaller tlian e\'er beside his great head ; she might be a fairy in the grasp of a giant, confident of her own power, trustful and happy in the love she has inspired. Her e.xpression is Rembyandl and Saskia (about i6js). (DRESDEN (iALLKUY.) r REMBRANDT AND SASKIA 183 calm, and she seems rather astonished than amused ; the fanitest suspicion of a smile hovers about her lips. As to the master himself, his noisy gaiety is rather forced ; the part he plays seems to involve a certain degree of effort. It is evident that such junketings are not usual with him ; that he is a man of sober habits, attracted by the picturesque aspect of the scene, rather than by its appeal to gluttony and sensuality. The exquisite distinction of the harmony, made up of subdued reds and dull greens, the softness and delicacy of the chiaroscuro, the sedate and accurate execution, seem to enter an involuntary protest against Rembrandt's choice of sul^ject. It is difficult here to avoid an invidious comparison with Hals ; we imagine the devil-may-care vigour with which he would have endued such an episode ; and recall his rollicking picture of Ramp and his Mistress} There, no shadow of constraint or of shame-facedness is to be found. The couple are not posing ; they have no thought for the gallery ; they are intent on their own amusement, and are enjoying themselves to their heart's content. What a well-matched pair ! With what ardour does the red-cheeked damsel press against the youth, into whose hot head the wine has already mounted ! Beside himself his eyes aflame, he shouts at the top of his voice. A large yellow dog, infected by the excitement of his owners, thrusts his muzzle in between them, begging for a caress. The feverish brilliance of the execution is in perfect harmony with the scene. What decisive vigour in the brushing ! With what ease the master rises to the requisite pitch of intoxication ! Hals, a frequenter of taverns, had often witnessed such scenes, and delighted to reproduce them. But neither the laxity nor the bravura essential to their treatment was proper to Rembrandt's temperament. He was not at home in this domain, and indeed, made few excursions thither. In his quest for novelty, he seized, it is true, the opportunity of treating a new aspect of life, the elements of which lay ready to his hand. He loved to vary his labours in this fashion, to pass from some study undertaken for his improvement, to a carefull)' executed portrait, or a composition that stimulated his imagination and his creative faculties. He sought repose in change ^ Now in the possession of tlie Comle de Fourtalès in Paris. REMBRANDT of occupation ; and though hi other respects he was incapable of directing or resisting the impulses of his ardent nature, he at least never failed to turn every successive phase of circumstance to account in the development of his art. The one point on which he showed himself inflexible was in exacting respect for his working hours. This was a matter in which he allowed no trifling. In the hey-day of his happiness, as throughout the cruel sufferings that awaited him, he remained the laborious, indefatigable craftsman, content with nothing short of the highest achievement, and knowing no satisfaction greater than that of entire absorption in his work. I'EN DRAWING, HEIGHTENED WITH WASH. (Duke of Devonshire's Collection.) CHAPTER X. Rembrandt's etchings of this period (1632-1639) — his diversity of method — studies of himself and familiar subjects. portrait of j. uytenbogaerd — religious compositions — rembrandt's collaborators the ' resurrection of lazarus,' the ' descent from the cross,' and the ' ecce homo ' — the three 'oriental heads'— the 'abraham's sacrifice' ix the hermitage. A' s Rembrandt loved to vary the subjects of his studies, so, too, he toolv pleasure in constant change from one process to another, and in fully developing the special capacities of each. He painted, drew, and engraved in turn. In his early etchings his methods were e.xtremely simple, in some cases consisting merely of a few strokes of the needle. Even towards the close of his career, he occasionally produced one of these open and simple plates, eloquent in their very concision. But at the same time, he was unwearied in research and experi- ment bearing on the art in which he had achieved such mastery. He was thus enabled to attempt and to render effects beyond the reach of his predecessors. Learned and complex as were many of his processes, he showed none of the specialist's narrow- ness in their application ; he made free use of them, adapting Q TKAVELLIN About 1634 (B. 144). REMBRANDT them to the exigencies of the moment, and combining tliem ,sl. 121), triumphantly displaying the slain; or a Mountebank (B. 129), sword on thigh, vaunting the efficacy of his drugs; or a Woman making Pancakes (B. 124) in the open air, and turning her savoury compound in the boiling fat, to the delight of the street-boys round her. These were followed by A travelling Peasant and Ids Wife (B. 144) tramping in vagabond destitution through the country; another Peasant in Rags (B. 172) whines for Portrait of a Man. Red and Blick Chalk. (late hoi. ford COLl.KC TION.) PAINTINGS INSPIRED BY THE BIBLE 191 an alms, ready at any moment to enforce his demand with the cudgel concealed behind his l^ack. All these subjects were drawn lightly on the copper, either very frankly sketched from nature, or recorded when the impression of some out-door scene was fresh in the master's memory. The happy facility of the touch shows that he sought distraction in these airy trifles from the more serious works that occupied his days without wholly absorbing his activity. On the other hand, there is manifest effort in the drawings he was commissioned to make for .some of the illustrated books Dutch publishers were pro- ducing in large numbers at this period. Rembrandt had no aptitude for such tasks. His illustration of Herckmans' text in the plate he engraved for that writer's poem, The Praise of Navigation (Der Zcevaertlof), should have ensured his exemption from work so little suited to his genius. His incapacity to make himself the medium of another's thoughts on given themes, especially when these were allegorical, resulted in fantastic and incoherent compositions, so obscure that it is impossible to say which particular passage of the author they are intended to illustrate. Thus Vosmaer sees in the (tn