DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62913#0023
REMBRANDT VAN RHYN.
XV
enable the admirers of his works to judge in some measure
of his gradual progress ; commencing from a system of
laborious finishing, and thence gradually attaining a
rich, free, and what may be termed a scientific style,
which at length terminated in a broad and luxuriant
dexterity of handling, the consequence of great practical
experience and acquired knowledge.
The first work of any importance which issued from
his pencil, is a picture of the Presentation in the
Temple, a work replete with expression, as well as
delicacy of finishing and effect. It is dated 1630.
This is perhaps, the picture which, with another not
known to the Writer, but referred to in a letter by the
hand of the painter (of which there is a fac-simile given
in this volume), he charged two thousand florins
for to the Prince of Orange. These, together with
several portraits, and the following etchings :—The
Presentation, two portraits of himself, a Beggar Man
and Woman, a Beggar seated, a Peasant with a pot
belly, and six figures of old men—mark the opening of
his career*. The following year was chiefly occupied
in the painting of a picture for the Surgeons’ Hall (Snei
Kamer), representing the Professor Tulp, father-in-law
of the Burgomaster Jan Six, giving a lecture on a
dead body, to a company of eight members of the
profession; it is finished throughout with the most
elaborate care, and dated 1632. This very beautiful
* Two etchings of aged women, resembling his mother, are
dated 1628, which is the earliest period of this class of his
works.
XV
enable the admirers of his works to judge in some measure
of his gradual progress ; commencing from a system of
laborious finishing, and thence gradually attaining a
rich, free, and what may be termed a scientific style,
which at length terminated in a broad and luxuriant
dexterity of handling, the consequence of great practical
experience and acquired knowledge.
The first work of any importance which issued from
his pencil, is a picture of the Presentation in the
Temple, a work replete with expression, as well as
delicacy of finishing and effect. It is dated 1630.
This is perhaps, the picture which, with another not
known to the Writer, but referred to in a letter by the
hand of the painter (of which there is a fac-simile given
in this volume), he charged two thousand florins
for to the Prince of Orange. These, together with
several portraits, and the following etchings :—The
Presentation, two portraits of himself, a Beggar Man
and Woman, a Beggar seated, a Peasant with a pot
belly, and six figures of old men—mark the opening of
his career*. The following year was chiefly occupied
in the painting of a picture for the Surgeons’ Hall (Snei
Kamer), representing the Professor Tulp, father-in-law
of the Burgomaster Jan Six, giving a lecture on a
dead body, to a company of eight members of the
profession; it is finished throughout with the most
elaborate care, and dated 1632. This very beautiful
* Two etchings of aged women, resembling his mother, are
dated 1628, which is the earliest period of this class of his
works.