Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn - biography and paintings. Rembrandt paintings Difficult financial situation

Creation Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn(1606-1669) marks the highest flowering of Dutch art of the 17th century and one of the peaks of world art in general. Democratic and truly humane, imbued with an ardent belief in the triumph of just principles of life, it embodied the most advanced and life-affirming ideas of its time. The artist raised fine art to a new level, enriching it with unprecedented vitality and psychological depth. Rembrandt created a new pictorial language, in which the main role was played by finely developed techniques of chiaroscuro and rich, emotionally intense color. The spiritual life of man has now become accessible to depiction by means of realistic art.

Rembrandt was an innovator in many genres. As a portrait painter, he was the creator of a unique genre of portrait-biography, where a person’s long life and his inner world were revealed in all its complexity and contradictions. As a historical painter, he transformed distant ancient and biblical legends into a story about real earthly human feelings and relationships, warmed by high humanism.

The mid-1630s is the time of Rembrandt’s greatest proximity to the pan-European Baroque style, lush and noisy, full of theatrical pathos and stormy movement, contrasts of light and shadow, the contradictory juxtaposition of naturalistic and decorative moments, sensuality and cruelty.

IN Baroque period written "Descent from the Cross"(1634). The painting illustrates the Gospel legend about how Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and other disciples and relatives of Christ, having received Pilate’s permission, took down the body of Christ at night, wrapped it in a rich shroud and buried it.

The legend is told by Rembrandt with stunning life-like truth. The tragic death of the teacher and son plunged those involved in the event into deep grief. The artist peers into faces, trying to penetrate people’s souls, to read everyone’s reaction to what is happening. He excitedly conveys the fainting of Mary, the mother of Christ, the crying and groaning of women, the suffering and sorrow of men, the fear and curiosity of teenagers.

In this work, Rembrandt based himself on the famous Rubens painting of the same name, using individual compositional motifs of the great Fleming and trying to surpass him in expressing the spiritual movements of the characters.

Another important achievement of this painting, along with the individualization of the feelings of the characters, was the use of light to achieve the integrity of the multi-figure composition. The three main moments of the legend - the descent from the cross, the fainting of Mary and the spreading of the shroud - are illuminated by three different light sources, the intensity of which decreases in accordance with the decreasing significance of the scene.

The beginning of a new period in the life and creative activity of the master was marked by two important events that occurred in 1642: the untimely death of Saskia, his beloved wife, who left him a one-year-old son, and the creation of the painting “Night Watch” - a large group portrait of the Amsterdam shooters, the most famous works of the master.

A family tragedy and the completion of an important commission confronted Rembrandt with difficult problems in his personal and creative life. The artist emerges from this crisis matured and wise. His art becomes more serious, more collected and deeper, and most importantly, his interest in the inner life of a person, in what is going on in his soul, becomes more and more clear.

In close connection with the evolution of Rembrandt’s work in the 1640s, one should also consider one of the artist’s most important works - "Danae", although there is a date on the picture 1636. Rembrandt was inspired by his first love, Saskia, to create the image of Danae, the legendary Greek princess imprisoned by her father to avoid his predicted death at the hands of his grandson. But ten years later, as recent research has shown, the artist, dissatisfied with the initial decision, significantly reworks the image of the main character. Apparently, the model for the final version of the painting was Geertje Dirks, a young widow who settled in Rembrandt’s house after Saskia’s death, first as a nanny for one-year-old Titus, and then as a full mistress. Thus, the head, right hand and, to a large extent, the body of Danae, waiting in her prison for her lover (according to legend, Zeus, who fell in love with Danae, entered her in the form of a golden shower), as well as the figure of the old maidservant, were painted anew, in a bold, broad manner mid and second half of the 1640s. Almost all other details of the picture remained the same as they were painted in 1636, with a neat, drawing stroke characteristic of the previous period.

The coloring of the painting has also undergone significant changes. The original version was dominated by cool tones, typical of the mid-1630s. Having replaced the golden rain of the first version with golden light, as if foreshadowing the appearance of a loving god, Rembrandt now paints the central part of the picture in a warm tone with golden ocher and red cinnabar as dominants.

In the second version, that is, in 1646-1647, Danae received an in-depth psychological description, thanks to which the innermost inner world of a woman was revealed, the entire complex and contradictory range of her feelings and experiences. “Danae,” thus, is a clear concrete example of the formation of the famous Rembrandt psychologism.

Rembrandt's work in the 1650s was marked primarily by achievements in the field of portraiture. Externally, portraits of this period are distinguished, as a rule, by their large size and monumental forms. calm poses. Models usually sit in deep armchairs, with their hands on their knees and facing the viewer. The face and hands are highlighted with light. These are always elderly people, wise from long life experience - old men and women with the stamp of gloomy thoughts on their faces and hard work on their hands. Such models gave the artist brilliant opportunities to show not only the external signs of old age, but also the spiritual appearance of a person. In the Hermitage collection these works are well represented by uncommissioned portraits:

“The Old Man in Red”, “Portrait of an Old Lady” and “Portrait of an Old Jew”.

We do not know the name of the person who served as the model for the portrait "The Old Man in Red" Rembrandt painted it twice: in a portrait of 1652 (National Gallery, London) he is depicted sitting in a wingback chair, his head bowed on his right hand in deep thought; The Hermitage version treats the same theme - a person alone with his thoughts. This time the artist uses a strictly symmetrical composition, depicting an old man sitting motionless from the front. But the more noticeable is the movement of thought, a subtle change in facial expression: it seems now stern, now softer, now tired, now suddenly illuminated by a surge of inner strength and energy. The same thing happens with the hands: they seem to be either convulsively clenched or lying exhausted. The artist achieves this primarily thanks to the brilliant mastery of chiaroscuro, which, depending on its strength and contrast, introduces elegiac relaxation or dramatic tension into the image. The manner of applying paint to the canvas also plays a huge role. The old man’s wrinkled face and knobby, worn-out hands acquire artistic expressiveness thanks to a viscous mixture of paints, in which intertwining thick strokes convey the structure of the form, and thin glazes give it movement and life.

The nameless old man in red, with emphasized dignity, fortitude and nobility, became an expression of the new ethical position of the artist, who discovered that the value of an individual does not depend on a person’s official position in society.

By the mid-1660s, Rembrandt completed his most soulful work - "Return of the Prodigal Son" It can be seen as a testament to Rembrandt the man and Rembrandt the artist. It is here that the idea of all-forgiving love for man, for the humiliated and suffering - the idea that Rembrandt served throughout his life - finds its highest, most perfect embodiment. And it is in this work that we encounter all the richness and variety of painting and technical techniques that the artist has developed over many decades of creativity.

Ragged, exhausted and sick, having squandered his fortune and abandoned by his friends, the son appears on the threshold of his father’s house and here, in the arms of his father, finds forgiveness and consolation. The immense bright joy of these two - the old man, who has lost all hope of meeting his son, and the son, overcome with shame and remorse, hiding his face on his father's chest - constitutes the main emotional content of the work. The involuntary witnesses to this scene stood silently, shocked.

The artist limits himself extremely to color. The picture is dominated by golden ocher, cinnamon red and black-brown tones with an endless wealth of subtle transitions within this meager range. A brush, a spatula, and a brush handle are involved in applying paint to the canvas; but even this seems insufficient to Rembrandt - he applies paint to the canvas directly with his finger (this is how, for example, the heel of the prodigal son’s left foot is painted). Thanks to a variety of techniques, an increased vibration of the paint surface is achieved - the paints either burn, or sparkle, or dully smolder, or as if glowing from within, and not a single detail, not a single, even the most insignificant, corner of the canvas leaves the viewer indifferent.

Only a person wise with enormous life experience and a great artist who has traveled a long way could create this brilliant and simple work.

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn (Dutch: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn [ˈrɛmbrɑnt ˈɦɑrmə(n)soːn vɑn ˈrɛin], 1606-1669) - Dutch artist, draftsman and engraver, great master of chiaroscuro, the largest representative of the golden age of Dutch painting. He managed to embody in his works the entire spectrum of human experiences with such emotional richness that fine art had never known before. Rembrandt's works, extremely diverse in genre, reveal to the viewer the timeless spiritual world of human experiences and feelings.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon (“son of Harmen”) van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606 (according to some sources, in 1607) in the large family of the wealthy mill owner Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn in Leiden. Even after the Dutch Revolution, the mother's family remained faithful to the Catholic faith.

In Leiden, Rembrandt attended the Latin school at the university, but showed the greatest interest in painting. At the age of 13, he was sent to study fine art with the Leiden historical painter Jacob van Swanenburch, a Catholic by faith. Researchers have not been able to find works by Rembrandt dating back to this period, so the question of Swanenbuerch’s influence on the development of Rembrandt’s creative style remains open: too little is known today about this Leiden artist.

In 1623, Rembrandt studied in Amsterdam with Pieter Lastman, who had trained in Italy and specialized in historical, mythological and biblical subjects. Returning to Leiden in 1627, Rembrandt, together with his friend Jan Lievens, opened his own workshop and began to recruit students. Within a few years he became widely known.

Lastman's passion for variegation and detail in execution had a huge influence on the young artist. It clearly comes through in his first surviving works - “The Stoning of St. Stephen" (1629), "Scene from Ancient History" (1626) and "The Baptism of the Eunuch" (1626). In comparison with his mature works, they are unusually colorful; the artist strives to carefully describe every detail of the material world, to convey the exotic setting of biblical history as accurately as possible. Almost all the heroes appear before the viewer dressed in fancy oriental outfits, shining with jewelry, which creates an atmosphere of pomp, pomp, and festivity (“Allegory of Music,” 1626; “David before Saul,” 1627).

The final works of the period - “Tobit and Anna”, “Balaam and the Donkey” - reflect not only the artist’s rich imagination, but also his desire to convey the dramatic experiences of his characters as expressively as possible. Like other Baroque masters, he begins to grasp the value of sharply sculpted chiaroscuro to convey emotion. His teachers in terms of working with light were the Utrecht Caravaggists, but to an even greater extent he was guided by the works of Adam Elsheimer, a German who worked in Italy. The most Caravaggist paintings by Rembrandt are “The Parable of the Foolish Rich Man” (1627), “Simeon and Anna in the Temple” (1628), “Christ at Emmaus” (1629).

Adjacent to this group is the painting “The Artist in His Studio” (1628; perhaps a self-portrait), in which the artist captured himself in the studio at the moment of contemplating his own creation. The canvas being worked on is brought to the forefront of the painting; in comparison with him the author himself seems like a dwarf.

One of the unresolved issues in Rembrandt’s creative biography is his artistic overlap with Lievens. Working side by side, they took on the same plot more than once, such as “Samson and Delilah” (1628/1629) or “The Raising of Lazarus” (1631). In part, both were drawn to Rubens, who was then known as the best artist in all of Europe; sometimes Rembrandt borrowed Lievens’s artistic discoveries, sometimes it was exactly the opposite. For this reason, distinguishing between the works of Rembrandt and Lievens of 1628-1632 presents certain difficulties for art historians. Among his other famous works is “Balaam’s Donkey” (1626).

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What made Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn famous? His name should be known to every educated person. This is a gifted Dutch artist, engraver, unsurpassed master of chiaroscuro, one of the largest representatives of the Golden Age - an outstanding era of Dutch painting, which occurred in the 17th century. The article will tell about the life and work of this gifted person.

The beginning of the journey

Rembrandt van Rijn came into this world in July 1606. He was born into the family of a wealthy miller. He was the ninth child, the youngest in the family. His parents were enlightened people. They noticed early on that the boy was naturally gifted with intelligence and talent, and instead of craft work, they decided to send him “to science.” So Rembrandt ended up in a Latin school, where he studied writing, reading, and studied the Bible. At the age of 14, he successfully completed school and became a student at the University of Leiden, which at that time was famous throughout Europe. The young man was best at painting, and again his parents showed wisdom and foresight. They took their son from the university and apprenticed him to the artist Jacob Isaac Svanenbuerch. Three years later, Rembrandt van Rijn became so successful in drawing and painting that Peter Lastman himself, who headed the Amsterdam school of painting, began developing his talent.

Influence of authorities

The early work of Rembrandt van Rijn was formed under the influence of such authorities as the Dutch master of painting Pieter Lastman, the German artist Adam Elsheimer, and the Dutch artist Jan Lievens.

Lastman's variegation, color and attention to detail are clearly visible in such works by Rembrandt as “The Stoning of St. Stephen”, “The Baptism of a Eunuch”, “A Scene from Ancient History”, “David before Saul”, “Allegory of Music”.

Jan Lievens, a friend of Rembrandt, worked with him side by side in a shared studio from 1626 to 1631. Their works overlap in many ways, and their styles are so similar that even experienced art critics often confuse the hands of the masters.

The hero of our article was guided by Adam Elsheimer, comprehending the importance of chiaroscuro for conveying mood and emotions on canvas. The influence of the German painter can be clearly seen in the works “The Parable of the Foolish Rich Man”, “Christ at Emmaus”, “Simeon and Anna in the Temple”.

Manifestation of individuality. Success

In 1630, Harmen van Rijn died, his property was divided among Rembrandt's older brothers. The young artist worked for some time in the workshop in his father’s house, but in 1631 he left to seek his fortune in Amsterdam.

In the capital of the kingdom, he organized a workshop and began to specialize in portrait art. The skillful use of light and shade, the characteristic facial expressions, the originality of each model - all this characterized the formation of the artist’s special style. Rembrandt van Rijn began to receive massive orders and achieved commercial success.

In 1632 he received an order for a group portrait. As a result, the creation “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp” saw the light of day. The brilliant work, for which Rembrandt received a large fee, not only glorified him, but also finally confirmed the artist’s creative maturity.

Muse

During a social visit, the fashionable young artist is introduced to the daughter of the mayor of the city, Saskia. It was not so much the girl’s external characteristics (she was not considered a beauty, although she was pretty and cheerful), but rather her substantial dowry that attracted Rembrandt, and six months after they met, the young people became engaged, and a year later they were legally married. Marriage allowed the hero of our article to enter the highest circles of society.

The newlyweds lived well. Rembrandt van Rijn painted many portraits of his wife, including her posing for him when creating the masterpiece "Danae". His income at that time was colossal. He bought a mansion in the most prestigious area of Amsterdam, furnished it with luxurious furniture, and created an impressive collection of works of art.

The marriage produced four children, but only the youngest son, Titus, born in 1641, survived. In 1642, Saskia died of illness. She, it seems, took the master’s luck with her.

Fading glory. Life's troubles

Since 1642, the artist has been haunted by evil fate. Rembrandt van Rijn reaches the peak of his talent. His canvases, however, are becoming less and less popular, and he is gradually losing customers and students. Biographers partly explain this by the master’s willfulness: he categorically refuses to follow the lead of his customers and creates as his heart tells him. The second reason for the fading of the great painter’s fame is, oddly enough, his skill and virtuosity, which ordinary people could not understand and appreciate.

Rembrandt's life changes: he gradually becomes poor, moves from a luxurious mansion to a modest house on the outskirts of the city. But he continues to spend huge sums on works of art, which leads to his complete bankruptcy. The grown-up son Titus and Hendrikje, Rembrandt’s mistress, from whose relationship he had a daughter, Cornelia, take financial affairs into their own hands.

“The Company of Captain Frans Baning Kok” - a 4-meter canvas, the master’s largest painting, “Bathing Woman”, “Flora”, “Titus in a Red Beret”, “Adoration of the Shepherds” - these are the works of the master, painted by him during a difficult period of his life .

Later creations

In the last years of his life, Rembrandt van Rijn, whose biography is presented in the article, reached the heights of his creativity. He was two centuries ahead of his contemporaries and predicted the lines of development of 19th century art in the era of realism and impressionism. A distinctive feature of his later works is monumentalism, large-scale compositions and clarity of images. The paintings "Aristotle with a Bust of Homer" and "The Conspiracy of Julius Civilis" are especially characteristic in this regard. The canvases “The Return of the Prodigal Son”, “Artaxerxes, Haman and Esther” and “The Jewish Bride” are permeated with deep drama. The master painted many self-portraits in the last years of his life.

Rembrandt van Rijn, whose paintings are true masterpieces of art, died in poverty in 1969. He was buried quietly in the Westerkerk church in Amsterdam. It was only appreciated several centuries later.

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn: paintings of a genius

During his short journey on Earth, Rembrandt painted about 600 paintings, created approximately 300 etchings (engravings on metal) and almost 1,500 drawings. Most of his works are kept in the Rijksmuseum - the Art Museum of Amsterdam. His most famous paintings:

"Anatomy Lesson" (1632).
"Self-portrait with Saskia" (1635).
"Danae" (1636).
"Night Watch" (1642).
"The Return of the Prodigal Son (166(7?)).

Rembrandt is one of the greatest artists in history. No one has yet been able to replicate his characteristic style. The gifted and talented son of a miller left behind an invaluable legacy - masterpieces of world art.

The great Dutchman Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn was born in 1606 in the city of Leiden. After studying as an apprentice, at the age of 19 he began to work as an independent artist.

In his first biblical compositions, the influence of the Italian Baroque is noticeable: in the sharp contrasts of chiaroscuro and the dynamics of the composition. But Rembrandt soon found his own style in the use of chiaroscuro to express emotions in portraits.

In 1632, the painter moved to Amsterdam and married a rich patrician. During this period he was especially successful, famous and happy. And his works are saturated with rich colors and breathe joy. He paints large religious compositions, many portraits and self-portraits with his beloved wife.

Rembrandt became especially famous as a portrait painter, painting more than a hundred portraits and dozens of self-portraits during his career. It was in depicting himself that the artist boldly experimented in search of special expressiveness of the face.

Rembrandt was the first to solve the problem of boring group portraits by uniting the people depicted in a common action, which gave the faces and figures a natural ease.

The artist was glorified by a group portrait called “The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp” (1632), which depicts not even rows of pompous faces, but heroes of a fascinating story, as if caught by the artist in the midst of the action.

Researchers consider the crowning achievement of Rembrandt’s talent as a portrait painter to be “The Night Watch” (1642), a commissioned portrait of a rifle society. However, the customers did not accept the picture, rejecting the innovative idea, where instead of lined up shooters, a heroic composition on the theme of the liberation struggle was depicted. To the shooters, among whom were nobles, these images seemed alien and politically untimely.

This rejection became the first tragic chord in the artist’s life. And when his beloved wife died, Rembrandt’s work lost its joyful notes. The 1640s became a period of calm biblical motifs, where the artist more and more subtly revealed the shades of the emotional experiences of the heroes. In his graphics, chiaroscuro plays even more gracefully, creating a dramatic atmosphere.

In Danaë (1647), the artist revealed his aesthetic views on female beauty, challenging the Renaissance. His nude Danae is emphatically far from classical ideals, but sensual and warm, like a living woman.

The period of Rembrandt's creative maturity occurred in the 1650s - a time of difficult life trials. His property was sold at auction for debts, but the painter practically did not fulfill orders. He painted portraits of loved ones, ordinary people and old people. Using spots of diffused light, the artist’s special attention was focused on faces with rich, but subtle emotions, and worn-out hands.

Rembrandt interpreted biblical images in his own way, clearly “down-to-earth” religious legends, depriving them of the otherworldly. He often gave the faces of saints the features of specific people who posed for him for paintings.

By the mid-1650s, the painter had become a true master, skillfully conquering light and color for the sake of emotional expressiveness of images. But he lived out his life in poverty and loneliness, having buried his second wife and son. The artist’s latest works are devoted to reflection on the clash of evil with good in the human soul. The final chord was the master’s main masterpiece, “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” written in 1669, the year of the artist’s death. The repentant son, kneeling, expressed the entire tragedy of a person’s life path, and in the image of his father one can see love itself and endless forgiveness.

The attribution of Rembrandt's paintings is made according to the latest research by a group of reputable scientists on his work and is updated in the course of research currently underway. The "Rembrandt Research Project" was founded in 1968 and set itself the goal of verifying the authenticity and ownership of the master's paintings based on a detailed study of each, using the latest art historical and technical advances in this field.

Album layout and translation - Konstantin (koschey)

Rembrandt Harmens Van Rijn- one of the most famous artists in the world. Born July 15, 1606 in Leiden (Netherlands, South Holland). He apprenticed for several years with a Leiden painter, and then studied the intricacies of painting with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, who in turn studied in Italy. It was Lastman who first introduced Rembrandt to the art of chiaroscuro, the effects of conveying volume, depth, and the drama of the plot.

Rembrandt is a true and unsurpassed master of biblical and mythological themes, portraiture and rendering. After he moved to Amsterdam in 1631 (1632), he soon gained real fame as a talented artist. The painting “The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulpe” brought him fame and recognition among artists and art connoisseurs. At that time he was a fashionable and successful painter who had many orders. His business took off sharply, and he became a fairly wealthy man.

However, despite his prosperity as an artist, Rembrandt suffered many troubles in his personal life. Three of his children died in infancy. The fourth son, Titus, survived, but his wife Saskia died a year after his birth. In these difficult and critical years for any person, Rembrandt painted the painting “The Night Watch,” which brought him real fame and is still one of the most striking paintings of his entire work. The Night's Watch is a group portrait of members of the archery guild. Then he abandoned the classical way of arranging faces in a group portrait, and created a picture in which there is dynamics and movement. In addition, the unusual contrast, the way of applying light and shadow, gave a special exciting flavor to the work. The customers, admittedly, did not understand Rembrandt’s idea, since they wanted to get something similar to the works of other classical artists of that time, those who were recognized as the standard in painting.

Over the years, realistic art Rembrandt Van Rijn everything is improving and developing. He goes deeper into his creativity, becoming more and more different from his contemporaries. Depth and emotionality reach the peak of tension. The artistic images on his canvases seem to live their own life, and are not at all a copy of the original or a simple image of a person. It was the novelty of artistic research that allowed him to become one of the most notable artists of all times. He never tired of surprising people throughout his life. Even when Rembrandt went out of fashion and continued to paint ordinary portraits to order, unexpectedly for everyone he painted the grandiose painting “The Return of the Prodigal Son.” And yet, despite his skill and merit, the world and society were cruel even in those times. Rembrandt van Rijn died on October 4, 1669 in poverty and misery. His grave was lost, but a great legacy remained in his memory for many centuries.

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