Rembrandt

Author: (Dutch) Rembrandt
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: Rembrandt (1606-1669) was born into a middle-class family of a miller in Leiden. He attended university for a short time before dropping out to become a painter and pursuing the popular profession of portrait painting, eventually marrying a wealthy young woman. His wife's affluent family laid a solid foundation for Rembrandt's success. Until his wife's death in 1642, Rembrandt was a portrait painter for the upper class. After that, his career began to decline, and Rembrandt fell into debt. When Rembrandt died in 1669, he left behind nothing but a few old clothes and painting tools. The vicissitudes of life and the fickleness of human emotions left a strong imprint on Rembrandt's paintings. Rembrandt's use of light left a deeper impression. Just as he used bright colors with caution, he also masterfully employed chiaroscuro. He freely and dramatically handled the light and shadow in complex paintings, using light to enhance the main elements and allowing the dark areas to weaken and dissolve the secondary ones. This magical treatment of light and shadow created a strong dramatic quality in his narrative paintings and became an important feature of Rembrandt's art.