Rembrandt:  Early Years

Rembrandt van Rijn was born on July 15th, 1606, in Leiden, the Netherlands. He was the ninth child born to Harmen Gerritsz van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsd van Zuytbroeck. His family was moderately wealthy, having a father as a miller, and a mother as a baker’s daughter. Rembrandt’s father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and learn a profession, but Rembrandt had different plans for his future.

Rembrandt spent 7 years as a student in the Latin school and was then enrolled at the University of Leiden. Rembrandt had a greater inclination towards painting and dropped out after only a few months. Not much later, Rembrandt was apprenticed to a Leiden painter for three years, Jacob Isaacsz van Swanenburgh, who had studied in Italy.

In 1624 Rembrandt traveled to Amsterdam and was apprenticed to Pieter Lastman. Lastman was one of the most respected historical and Biblical painters of his day. He was able to tell a story with pictures and images in his paintings in a way that impressed young Rembrandt. His study under Lastman is probably the most valuable training the young artist received.

By 1625 Rembrandt returned to Leiden and opened a studio and worked closely in a partnership with friend and colleague, Jan Lievens, another student of Lastman’s. Along with his Biblical and Historical paintings he experimented with drawings, etchings, and emotional expressions on facial expressions. He also began a series of self-portraits that would continue throughout his life until just months before his death. Throughout his lifetime Rembrandt created an extraordinary number of self-portraits in painted, etched, and drawn media. He is also known to have painted his face into some of his history paintings. Some 80 self-portraits are known to survive today.

Rembrandt van Rijn started teaching his methods of painting to apprentice painters in 1627. One of his students was Gerrit Dou who went on to be quite the successful painter himself. In 1629, Rembrandt was introduced to Constantijn Huygens, who then introduced him to several important people. Of them, the most important was Prince Frederik Hendrik, who commissioned a number of paintings from Rembrandt until 1646.

Continue to Rembrandt Biography Middle Years.