Rembrandt And His Pupils The Leiden Years

Rembrandt And His Pupils: The Leiden Years Essay, Research Paper

Of the many Dutch painters during the scope of time, the seventeenth century was an exceptional era for detail and baroque painters to flourish. Leiden itself was a cultural centre for these styles, especially if one considers the influence s of Rembrandt van Rijn and several of his Leiden pupils. In the following sections, I will focus on Rembrandt and the contributions he made to seventeenth century Dutch art, as well as the influences he passed on to several of his pupils, more specifically Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout, Gerrit Dou, Isack Jouderville and Jan Jorisz van Vliet.

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn was born on 15 July 1606 in Leiden to the proud parents Harmen Gerritsz van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsdr van Zuytbrouck. The parents owned a malt mill just outside the city s gates on a bank of the Old Rhine called de Rijn ; the family name van [de] Rijn was derived from it. On his mother s death, 10 years after his father, an inventory was taken of her estate at 10,000 guilders: quite substantial for that time. While Rembrandt was ninth of at least ten children, only four were alive at this time: Adriaen, a shoemaker, Willem, a baker, Rembrandt and his sister Elysabeth. The facts of Rembrandt s origin are of much relevance to his painting style. The harsh colours and portrayals, most obvious in his early works, and his inexhaustible stamina may have something to do with his background. They should also be considered in connection with the remarkable scope of his development. Rembrandt progressed, with extraordinary lan, and with an intensity then uncommon.

According to Jan Jansz Orlers, Rembrandt s first biographer, the boy s parents destined their gifted son for a learned profession, apparently with the ambition of guiding his future towards a higher social sphere. He first attended the Leiden Latin school, and on 20 May 1620 was enrolled as a student at Leiden University. It is not known how long Rembrandt studied there. It is certain only that his parents soon recognized their son s natural inclination towards art as too strong to be denied, and that the boy was allowed to leave the university. He was then sent to Jacob Isaacsz van Swanenburgh (c.1571-1638), a Leiden painter who had travelled to Italy. He was a history painter who specialised in scenes of hell and also made architectural views. Rembrandt spent three years with Swanenburgh, but not a trace of his style can be seen in his work. It is also noteworthy that, as far as we know, Rembrandt, who depicted almost every subject at least once during the course of his career, never painted a view of hell or an architectural piece. Orlers tells us that Rembrandt s work with van Swanenburgh showed such great promise that his father, in order to ensure his son s best advantage, sent him to study for six months with the famous Pieter Lastman. The eighteen or nineteen-year-old youth returned to Leiden about 1624-5 and set himself up as an independent master. The earliest works attributed to him are dateable to these years.

The Stoning of St Stephen, Rembrandt, 1625

Rembrandt s earliest existing dated work , the Stoning of St Stephen of 1625 at Lyon, shows how impressed he was by Lastman s bold style which was based upon lively gestures and a vivid chiaroscuro. For his painting of the death of the first Christian martyr the young Leiden artist used the same kind of fanciful Italiniate setting that his teacher employed, and depended on similar strong contrasts of light and shade to give his work a dramatic character. In his colouring Rembrandt also follows the example of Lastman in giving hard brilliance to the illuminated figures. However, Rembrandt s immaturity is evident here in the overcrowding and confused spatial relationships; nevertheless, the young artist already surpassed his famous teacher by achieving a greater concentration in his composition.

(The Presentation in the Temple by Rembrandt, 1631)insert photo

During his last years in Leiden Rembrandt s style became more and more intimate. I use the word intimate to include his subtleties, yet a dramatic chiaroscuro develops, and cool, delicate colours predominate. In some cases this unique style continues into his early years in Amsterdam. For example, the dimly lit interior of colossal dimensions, the majestic columns, and deep shadows intensify the mysterious atmosphere of the Presentation in the Temple of 1631 (at the Mauritshuis), but the small figures of the main group gain distinctness by means of the sparkling sunlight which strikes them. The golden halo of the Christ child who will be a light to lighten the Gentiles makes a source of light within the beam. Rembrandt s literal translation of the Christ child s halo as this light also provides a unique light source, and thus provides the shadows which encircle the child, therefore making him the focal point of the photo.

One of the heads in the Lyon picture – the one looking at the scene in pained horror just below the arm of the man holding the rock with both hands high above his head – shows that Rembrandt was already making studies of his own physiognomy at this early date. It is a self-portrait, the earliest existing one of the artist, who represented himself more frequently by far than any other Renaissance or Baroque master. More than seventy-five painted, etched, and drawn self-por