Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on the 15th of July 1606 in the Dutch city of Leiden. Between 1620 and 1625 he trained as an artist under the painters Jacob van Swanenburgh and Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. His education over, Rembrandt returned to Leiden where his artistic career began and by 1628 he had students of his own.
In 1631 Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, where he began painting large biblical and mythological scenes and an abundance of portraits. In 1634 he married Saskia van Uylenburgh who sadly died eight years later, after which Rembrandt's work-rate slowed and he painted no more portraits other than of himself.
[readmore]To avoid bankruptcy Rembrandt had to sell his house and he was banned from trading by the Amsterdam painters' guild. Because of this Rembrandt's son Titus sold his works. Titus died in 1665 and his father followed on the 4th of October 1669 at the age of 63.
One of the most admired artists of all time, Rembrandt's works were the epitome of the Dutch Golden Age.
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This was probably the first painting Rembrandt created following his training under Pieter Lastman who specialised in biblical scenes. Rembrandt has included himself in the painting. The artist's face can be seen behind the stoners and directly above Stephen's head, looking on in horror
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Andromeda was the daughter of an Ethiopian king who was chained to a rock to be sacrificed to the sea monster Cetus as a punishment for her mother's boastful vanity.
Unlike most other artists of the time, Rembrandt painted more realistically and included women's imperfections rather than idealising them |
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On the four occasions the painting was stolen it was found again; once on the back of a bicycle, once underneath a bench in a graveyard, once in a taxi, and once in a luggage rack at a train station!
The painting is only 30cm x 25cm (12 x 10 inches) making it very easily portable. This may be one of the reasons it has been stolen so often |
The scene is the Christian story of Jesus calming the waters, which is related in Mark's Gospel.
The painting was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the American city of Boston in 1990, and has yet to be recovered |
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Rembrandt is thought to have gotten the Hebrew letters in the painting from his friend, the Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel, although he miswrote one of them.
The writing on the wall says Mene, Mene, Teqel, Upharsin which translates into English as numbered, weighed, divided |
The painting could be interpreted as science deferring to art, or as the rich man envying the life of the poor.
It was bought by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art for $2.3 million (£1,343,000) in 1961, making it the most expensive painting in the world at the time |
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Far from being a monk, Titus was in fact an art dealer, specialising in his father's works. Rembrandt often used his son, the only one of his offspring to survive into adulthood, as a model. Titus died in 1668 - one year before his father
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Painted as a commission for the burgomasters of Amsterdam, the work was originally 550 cm (18ft) in both hight and width. It was returned to Rembrandt, who was never paid for the work. He cut it down to its present size (196 cm x 309 cm ((77 in x 122 in)) in order to sell it. Before then it was the largest and most prestigious painting of Rembrandt's career
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The men, who are shown comparing some fabric to exemples in a swatch book, are (from left to right): Jacob van Loon, Volckert Jansz, Willem van Doeyenburg, Frans Hendricksz Bel, Aernout van der Mye, and Jochem de Neve
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This parable in particular made an impression on Rembrandt and he created several drawings, paintings and etchings of the subject.
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