DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49256#0083
REMBRANDT.
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crown, or of the little Joseph with a whito face, and the same with a black face, or of the woman
with a white bonnet, and with a little foal, and the sanie without a bonnet.”
Rembrandt had already amassed a considérable fortune. His studio, full of pupils, who were
sent to him by the principal citizens of Amsterdam, brought him in enormous sums. Sandrart,
his contemporary, informs us that each of the pupils of this great but avancions painter paid
him no less than a hundred florins annually ; * to which must be added the produce of a
great number of copies of his works by his pupils, retouched by the master, and sold by
him as originals of his own: these were paintings by Fictoor, Govaert Flink, and Van Eeckhout;
this lucrative business brought Rembrandt as much as 2,500 florins, without reckoning the
sums which he acquired by his own labour with the pencil, the graver, or the peu ; for his
designs, which exhibited great spirit and talent, were also valued at very high prices. In the
midst of so much wealth, the painter of the Night Patrol lived in the same primitive simplicity
as when he was only the son of the miller Gerretsz. Chary of his gold, he was only lavish of if
in his pictures, where his warm lights roscmbled the colour and richness of his coin. But, in
fact, even his engravings were coloured with that harmonious tint, the colour of the India paper.
which Rembrandt likcd to hâve them printed on, and which almost resembled thin sheets of
gold. His pupils were so well acquainted with his weakness, that they often umused themselves
by painting pièces of gold upon scraps of paper, and placing them on the floor in sonie corner,
where the painter never failed to pick them up, though his goodnature would nevcr allow him
to punish those who had so cleverly deceived an eye like his. But, if Rembrandt loved gold.
it was only for the sake of the enjoyment which the thought of it afforded him. His mode of
living was parsimonious ; his meals consistcd, says Houbraken, of a sait herring or a piece of
cheese. His manners and tastes kept him amongst the lower classes ; and when he was one
day reproached with this, he replied, “ When I wish to amuse myself after my labours, I do
not seek grandeur, which is only troublesome to me, but liberty.”
The stern humorist,f however, had sonie friends among the superior classes. Professer Tulp.
Renier Ansloo, an anabaptist minister, J Ilaaring the elder, the great amateur of engravings
Abraham France, the fanions goldsmith Janus Lutma, and lastly, Rembrandt’s most intimate
friend, the burgomaster Six, would ail hâve been glad to introduce into their society an artist
whose person would hâve excited at least as much interest as his engravings ; but he declined
it. His eccentricity, however, never lost him a friend : he knew how to attach them by his
goodhumour, and to immortalise them with his graver. John Six, when he was only secretary
of the city of Amsterdam, composed a tragedy of Medea. In honour of his friend, and as
if to illustrate this tragedy, Rembrandt engraved the admirable print of The Marriage of Jason,
which seems as if crcated by the wand of an enchanter.
The Portrait of Burgomaster Six is well known to ail amateurs, artists, or patrons of the
arts; he is represented standing, leaning against a window, by which the scene is lighted;
he is occupicd in reading a book, the reflcction from which lights up his countenance. This
portrait is so finely engraved, that the work of the graver resembles more a vigorous drawing
in Indian ink than an etching on copper.
It was on the excursions which Rembrandt made from the city of Amsterdam to the country-
* Sandrart, edit. in folio, 1683 : “Qui singuli annuatim centenos ipsi numerabant florenos præter emolumentum
aliud, quod è venditis tyronum suorum, picturis et figuris calcographicis obtinebat.”—Academia Artis Pictoriœ, lib. iii.
cap. xxii.
f It is thus Robert Graham speaks of bim in his Lives of Painter» appended to the édition of the poem of Dufresnoy,
translated into English by Dryden. London, 1716.
+ According to the historian Baldinucci, Rembrandt belonged to a sect of anabaptists, then very numerous in Holland.
41
.9
crown, or of the little Joseph with a whito face, and the same with a black face, or of the woman
with a white bonnet, and with a little foal, and the sanie without a bonnet.”
Rembrandt had already amassed a considérable fortune. His studio, full of pupils, who were
sent to him by the principal citizens of Amsterdam, brought him in enormous sums. Sandrart,
his contemporary, informs us that each of the pupils of this great but avancions painter paid
him no less than a hundred florins annually ; * to which must be added the produce of a
great number of copies of his works by his pupils, retouched by the master, and sold by
him as originals of his own: these were paintings by Fictoor, Govaert Flink, and Van Eeckhout;
this lucrative business brought Rembrandt as much as 2,500 florins, without reckoning the
sums which he acquired by his own labour with the pencil, the graver, or the peu ; for his
designs, which exhibited great spirit and talent, were also valued at very high prices. In the
midst of so much wealth, the painter of the Night Patrol lived in the same primitive simplicity
as when he was only the son of the miller Gerretsz. Chary of his gold, he was only lavish of if
in his pictures, where his warm lights roscmbled the colour and richness of his coin. But, in
fact, even his engravings were coloured with that harmonious tint, the colour of the India paper.
which Rembrandt likcd to hâve them printed on, and which almost resembled thin sheets of
gold. His pupils were so well acquainted with his weakness, that they often umused themselves
by painting pièces of gold upon scraps of paper, and placing them on the floor in sonie corner,
where the painter never failed to pick them up, though his goodnature would nevcr allow him
to punish those who had so cleverly deceived an eye like his. But, if Rembrandt loved gold.
it was only for the sake of the enjoyment which the thought of it afforded him. His mode of
living was parsimonious ; his meals consistcd, says Houbraken, of a sait herring or a piece of
cheese. His manners and tastes kept him amongst the lower classes ; and when he was one
day reproached with this, he replied, “ When I wish to amuse myself after my labours, I do
not seek grandeur, which is only troublesome to me, but liberty.”
The stern humorist,f however, had sonie friends among the superior classes. Professer Tulp.
Renier Ansloo, an anabaptist minister, J Ilaaring the elder, the great amateur of engravings
Abraham France, the fanions goldsmith Janus Lutma, and lastly, Rembrandt’s most intimate
friend, the burgomaster Six, would ail hâve been glad to introduce into their society an artist
whose person would hâve excited at least as much interest as his engravings ; but he declined
it. His eccentricity, however, never lost him a friend : he knew how to attach them by his
goodhumour, and to immortalise them with his graver. John Six, when he was only secretary
of the city of Amsterdam, composed a tragedy of Medea. In honour of his friend, and as
if to illustrate this tragedy, Rembrandt engraved the admirable print of The Marriage of Jason,
which seems as if crcated by the wand of an enchanter.
The Portrait of Burgomaster Six is well known to ail amateurs, artists, or patrons of the
arts; he is represented standing, leaning against a window, by which the scene is lighted;
he is occupicd in reading a book, the reflcction from which lights up his countenance. This
portrait is so finely engraved, that the work of the graver resembles more a vigorous drawing
in Indian ink than an etching on copper.
It was on the excursions which Rembrandt made from the city of Amsterdam to the country-
* Sandrart, edit. in folio, 1683 : “Qui singuli annuatim centenos ipsi numerabant florenos præter emolumentum
aliud, quod è venditis tyronum suorum, picturis et figuris calcographicis obtinebat.”—Academia Artis Pictoriœ, lib. iii.
cap. xxii.
f It is thus Robert Graham speaks of bim in his Lives of Painter» appended to the édition of the poem of Dufresnoy,
translated into English by Dryden. London, 1716.
+ According to the historian Baldinucci, Rembrandt belonged to a sect of anabaptists, then very numerous in Holland.
41