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Chapter V}
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Title:       Rembrandt
Author:      Sharp, Elizabeth A.

Chapter V

Chapter V - Sacred Subjects - Etchings - Portraits

1632-1642

     Commissions from Prince of Orange - Rembrandt's letters - Price of
pictures - Method of work - Biblical subjects - Chiaroscuro - Etching - Method
of study - Rembrandt's predecessors - His originality - Earliest plates -
"Ecce Homo" - His pupils - "Raising of Lazarus" - "The Angel Appearing to the
Shepherds" - "Death of the Virgin" - Rembrandt, the fashionable portrait
painter - Millais's criticism - Notable portraits - "The Standard-Bearer" -
Portraits of old women.

     Prince Frederick Henry of Orange became Stadtholder in 1629; he was a man
of taste and culture who filled his various palaces and country-houses with
statuary and pictures by the best artists of his day: Honthorst, Rubens, de
Grebber, van Goyen, and others.  These he acquired mainly through the
mediumship of his secretary, Constantine Huijgens, the poet.  The portraits of
Huijgens' brother Maurice, and of his brother-in-law, Admiral van Dorp, had
been painted by Rembrandt; and doubtless it was Huijgens who drew the Prince's
attention to him as a promising painter of portraits and of religious
subjects.  Rembrandt's most recently finished biblical subjects had been the
"Good Samaritan," now in the Wallace Collection, a subject which he treated
repeatedly in his various mediums, and the exquisite little "Christ Appearing
to Mary Magdalene as a Gardener." About 1632 he received commissions from the
Prince for several scriptural paintings, and by the year 1639 he had executed
six, now to be seen in the Munich Pinacothek. Concerning some of these
pictures, Rembrandt wrote several letters to Huijgens; they are of special
interest, as they are the only documentary remains from Rembrandt's hand.
Though an educated man, of wide receptive mind, impressionable and thoughtful,
he was no scholar, and lacked culture. What we know of his teaching, and we
know little, is reported by his pupils.  These letters, therefore, are of
extreme value and interest.  The following, now in the British Museum, refers
probably to one of two panels finished in 1633, representing "The Erection of
the Cross," and "The Descent from the Cross."

     "Sir, - After my friendly greetings, I would take it as kind if you will
come soon to see if the piece accords well with the other; and as concerns the
price of the piece, I have well earned 200 pounds (pondt), but I will content
myself with what your Excellence sends me.  You will, Sir, forgive my
frankness, and I will not fail to make recompense therefor.

     "Your devoted and obedient servant,

"Rembrandt.

     "Your Excellency's picture will show best placed in a strong light."

     A letter dated February, 1636, states that the painter is at work on his
commissions, three Passion-pictures, "An Entombment," "A Resurrection," and
"An Ascension," the latter then finished.  The two first were finished in
1639, and Rembrandt wrote of them as follows.  The letter is in the collection
of the Queen of the Netherlands.

     "Sir, - As I have had great pleasure in working well upon the two
pictures that your Highness ordered, one being the laying of the dead body of
Christ in the grave, and the other the Christ rising from the dead to the
great fear of the watchers; these two pieces are now finished with much study
and zeal, so that I am disposed to deliver them to do pleasure to your
Highness; for in these two I have taken care to express the most natural
movement, and this is the chief reason why I have been occupied so long with
the same.

     "I beg you therefore, Sir, to acquaint his Highness, and to tell me, Sir,
if the two pieces shall be first sent to you, as happened before; to this I
first await a letter in answer.

     "And as you, Sir, have twice occupied yourself in this matter, I add as
an acknowledgment a piece of ten feet long and eight feet high to do honour,
Sir, in your house, whereupon I wish you all happiness and welfare to all
eternity.  Amen.

     "Sir, your devoted and affectionate servant,

"Rembrandt."

     At one side is written: "Sir, I live on the inner Binnen Amstel, the
house is named the Suijkerbackerij."

     Upon the 14th January, 1639, he wrote acknowledging a friendly and
favourable letter, wherein evidently Huijgens had hesitated to accept the gift
of the picture.  The painter now presses acceptance, and states that the
Receiver Uijtenboogaerd asked to see the pictures before they were packed, and
offered, with the Prince's consent, to pay Rembrandt from his office in
Amsterdam.  The painter begs that he may be paid as soon as possible, "which
will be extremely useful to me in this moment." He adds, as postscript,
concerning his gift to Constantine Huijgens: "Hang the piece, Sir, in a bright
light, so that it can be looked at from a distance, thus will it show best."
It was possibly in return for the good offices of Uijtenboogaerd that
Rembrandt executed the etching of "The Goldweigher," signed and dated 1639.
In despatching the pictures, Rembrandt wrote that he hoped the Prince would
not give him less than 1,000 florins each, but that if his Highness thinks
they deserve less, to give less as it seems good to him; and adds as
postscript that he had paid upon the frames and the case forty-four florins.

     The Prince found the price too high, and offered the lesser price paid
for the first pictures; and the painter had to consent to a similar
remuneration of 600 florins for each picture, though in answering he points
out that the later pictures obviously are worth more.  A fact of interest as
to Rembrandt's acquaintances at the Hague is revealed in the final sentence,
"my hearty greetings to you, Sir, and to your nearest (most intimate)
friends." The last letter is a respectful but urgent request for no further
delay in the payment of the 1,244 florins, which were finally paid to him on
February 17th, 1639.  The chief interest of the letters, beyond their
testimony to the friendly relationship with Huijgens, is the information as to
the monetary value Rembrandt put upon his work, and as to his aim to represent
the scenes realistically, with the utmost truth to natural movement.  For this
he needed time, study, observation, and it was his practice to make many
sketches of his subject before beginning a picture; several of these
preparatory essays in pencil - work or with the needle still exist in private
and public collections.  Moreover, his instructions concerning the hanging of
the pictures confirms what is obvious from a careful study of his work - that
he gave his small pictures an elaborate finish, though the labour is concealed
by the fine handling; that he wished them placed in the strong daylight, so
that the delicate transparencies of his shadow and harmonious play of tones
should not be lost.  It was then customary to hang pictures very high on the
walls, hence the necessity for the advice.  His larger canvases were treated
with greater breadth, with fuller brush; these he wished well lighted, so as
to be looked at from a distance.  Houbraken relates that Rembrandt made people
draw back who wanted to stand close to the pictures, telling them that they
would find the smell of the paint unpleasant.

     During the years 1632-42 Rembrandt devoted much time and loving thought
to the depicting of biblical themes.  In addition to the six commissioned
compositions on "The Passion of Our Lord," he executed nineteen pictures,
about thirty-five etchings, and sundry drawings.  He did not always seek new
subjects, but returned with fresh zest to experimentation with such stories as
those of Tobias, Samson, Abraham, and others from the life and parables of
Christ, especially of Christ as Healer and Consoler.

     With the advantage of a willing and excellent model in his wife, he
painted several studies of Susannah in order to work from the nude.  He
delighted in the play of light on the satin surfaces of the skin, in the
contrasts of soft flesh tones with the warm purples and gold of rich robes,
and the cool of white draperies with the strong deep tones of background
foliage and sky.  The finest of these studies is in the Hague Museum; another
belongs to Prince Youssoupoff; and a third, of later date, to Baron
Steengracht, showing stronger treatment of chiaroscuro.  The painter made use,
in his composition, of marble steps, colonnaded temples, gorgeous draperies,
and vegetation of rich greens and yellows, in order to suggest the natural
opulence of the East; and this intention is still more obvious in the
beautiful "Susannah and the Elders" of 1647, in the Berlin Gallery, with its
gorgeous colour, harmonious finished detail, and masterly chiaroscuro; for
which, however, Hendrijcke Stoffels is the obvious model.  Another nude study
of Saskia called "Danae," in the Hermitage, or, according to Dr. Bode, "The
Wife of Tobias," was evidently painted for the artist's own gratification, for
it was hanging in his own room when the inventory of his possessions was made
in 1656.

     About 1634-5 he painted "Belshazzar's Feast," with its glittering array
of plates - suggested, perhaps, by his own marriage festivities - and the
deftly handled luminous writing on the wall.  In this painting, as also in the
coarsely handled "Samson Overcome by the Philistines," in the Schonborn
Collection at Vienna, Rembrandt's limitation in his power to express horror,
terror, and fury is shown in the exaggerated grotesque contortions of the
faces.  "Samson's Marriage Feast," 1638, at Dresden, is important because of
the technical development it displays.  It is broader, freer in handling; the
play of light is more defined and focussed sharply on the central figure;
passages of dark shadow are richer.  His palette has become more varied, more
rhythmic in gradations, warmer and bolder in harmonies.  His russets and cool
grey-greens are more positive; blues and silver, reds and gold, and various
greens are happily balanced; there is a finer play of broken tones.
Thenceforth Rembrandt devoted himself untiringly to experimentation with
chiaroscuro to discover to what degree and in what manner he might therewith
symbolise subtle phases of human emotion; might produce a fascinating yet
baffling penumbra that should transmute crude colour to chromatic harmonies,
wherewith to suggest the underlying mysteries of human life.  He strove to
create for himself a potent language wherewith to describe pictorially the
stress of life, with its conflicting currents of joy and sorrow.  His
acceptance of life's lessons, his steadfast adherence to a high ideal of work,
were to be the keys that should unlock to him the secrets of many hearts,
learned and simple alike.

     To the stories of Abraham and of Tobias he returned again and again, as
well as to those of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan.  To 1635 belongs
the very fine painting, "The Sacrifice of Abraham," in the Hermitage.  The
moment chosen is that in which the angel stays the patriarch's upraised hand;
the other hand pathetically covers the boy's beseeching eyes.  Very beautiful
are the delicate half-tones of the painting of the flesh, on whose surfaces
the play of light follows the movement of the muscles.  In colour-scheme this
picture belongs to the mature second period with its greys and cool greens,
its pearly tones, soft blues and quiet yellows, which graduate to the deeper
harmonies of the low - toned horizon and the dark brown of the rocks.  The
details are attentively studied, especially the peacock feathers of the
angel's wings.  In the following year a replica, touched by the master, was
made by a pupil - it is now at Munich; and in the British Museum is a drawing
for this picture showing slight difference of arrangement.

     For rapid personal expression Rembrandt preferred the etching-needle to
the brush.  Etching was to him a rest and change from the painting of his
numerous portrait commissions, and an occupation for the evening hours beside
his wife.  He etched direct from life whatever came under his notice
expressive of natural movement or emotion.  With a few powerful suggestive
strokes on the copperplate - his shorthand notes - he jotted down for future
use impressions of travelling peasants, skaters, itinerant musicians, a
mountebank, a rat-killer, the Pancake woman familiar to frequenters of every
kermesse, and beggars in many guises, limping and tattered.  He copied
oriental heads from miniatures, studied wild animals in menageries and in the
zoological gardens; and sketched his wife again and again at her domestic
duties, asleep, suckling her child, and ill in bed with the doctor feeling her
pulse.  These rapid incisive sketches gave him extraordinary facility when
composing and executing his larger plates.  A close observer, he knew by heart
the movements and poses of the human figure, especially of the poor and
untutored, and he could rely on his strong unerring hand to reproduce his
mental picture.

     Rembrandt, the supreme master etcher, had few illustrious precursors.
Etching proper was practised in northern and southern Europe during two-thirds
of the sixteenth century.  Dry-point, however, had been practised by two
artists only - the so-called master of the Amsterdam Cabinet about 1470-80 and
Albrecht Durer.  The possibilities of dry-point were unrealised by intervening
artists such as De Goudt, Jan van de Velde, etc., and was ignored till
Rembrandt, towards the middle of his career, revived the method in order to
emphasise and make richer the lines of his bitten plate. Finally, he used
dry-point alone for several plates, in preference to the acid bath.  From the
beginning of the seventeenth century etching became one of the most popular
methods of artistic expression throughout Europe.  In Holland during
Rembrandt's youth a large amount of etching had been produced by his elder
contemporaries, such as Elsheimer and Uijtenbrouck, who had introduced
Biblical subjects into landscapes, Esaias van de Velde, Adrian van der Venne,
and Roghman, who devoted himself to landscape.  These painter-etchers advanced
their art to a considerable degree.  They were personal and inventive in their
effort to translate colour, in their handling of chiaroscuro, and in general
richness of tone.  Rembrandt, even in his own day, was readily acknowledged as
the master etcher for originality, inventiveness, for his marvellous technical
perfection; and to-day his position remains the same, his influence on the
modern school of etchers is potent and continuous.  Much has been written upon
Rembrandt's special methods of etching, but Hamerton's comment is probably
nearest the mark, that Rembrandt's success was "due to no peculiarity of
method, but to a surpassing excellence of skill." Elsewhere the same writer
says that the artist's "supremacy in etching is not founded on unapproachable
supremacy.  It is mental, and manual so far as it proves the possession of
great technical power - but for many technical qualities certain of to-day's
professors are superior.  His greatness is incomparable, his originality
markedly sterling, and his modernity conspicuous." The development of
Rembrandt the etcher is as well defined as that of Rembrandt the painter.  The
earliest plates are either elaborately finished, delicately and carefully
handled, or else are hasty sketches slightly worked.  Then the technique
broadens, grows bolder, more decided, contemporaneously with the use of the
fuller brush in painting.  Later, dry-point is introduced into the work to
enrich and finish.  Finally, in the third period, there is the fulness of
invention, personal freedom of expression, dependent on astonishing mastery of
materials: the more frequent employment of dry-point, with full knowledge of
the effect of burr.  These periods are marked by the three great etchings,
"The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds," the "Hundred Guilder" plate, and the
fine "St. Francis."

     Much has been written and discussed concerning the authenticity of
certain of the etchings attributed to Rembrandt, even of a few of those which
bear his signature.  This question has been seriously studied by Seymour Haden
and by Middleton - Wake in England, by Charles Blanc and M. Dutuit in France,
by Dr. Bode and W. Seidlitz in Germany.  In the present pages reference will
be made only to those of unquestioned authority, which may or may not have
been worked in parts by his pupils.  For it is known that not only did his
pupils re-work, with his knowledge, some of the earlier plates, but it is
generally held that he entrusted portions of certain plates to his pupils or
assistants.  For instance, the famous "Ecce Homo" of 1636, so admirable in
composition and yet so unequal in execution, affords opportunities for an
examination of his methods.  The master was so fully occupied, so overpowered
with commissions, that he, after the manner of all contemporary great
painters, made use of assistant pupils in preparing and even executing work;
and the various states in the British Museum of this particular etching give
insight into his methods, especially when compared with a beautiful design for
the subject in grisaille in the National Gallery.  The composition in the
grisaille is in reverse, and differs in minor details from the etching; but
the building of the design, the grouping, the distribution and focussing of
lights, the suggested movement of the surging crowd, are similar in both.
Great interest attaches to these prints in the British Museum because they
show various corrections and alterations, probably by Rembrandt, for the
assistants' guidance.  In an impression of the first state part of the canopy
over Pilate's head is blotted out, shadows are defined and lights lowered,
corrections made in bistre with a brush, which are washed out in the second
state.  Again, by a comparison of the second and third states another marked
error is corrected.  But it is generally assumed that the central pyramidal
group formed by Christ, Pilate, and his nearest surroundings, are from
Rembrandt's hand, that the coarse handling of the outer figures is by another
hand.  Seymour Haden has suggested Lievens, Middleton suggests Bol or van
Vliet.  With regard to the question of pupils there is the testimony of his
contemporary, Joachim Sandrart, who thus wrote of Rembrandt's entourage: "His
house at Amsterdam was frequented by numerous pupils of good family, each of
whom paid him as much as a hundred florins yearly, exclusive of his profits
from their pictures and engravings, which, in addition to his personal gains,
brought him in some 2,000 to 2,500 florins." Unfortunately, Sandrart supplies
neither names nor dates, though we know his own residence in Amsterdam was
from 1631-41.  One of Rembrandt's earliest pupils in Amsterdam was Govert
Flinck, but he was not an engraver.  Ferdinand Bol was pupil and assistant,
entered the studio about 1632, but was then too young to do much good work.
Lievens, who had been Rembrandt's fellow-student and, possibly, at times his
collaborator, but never his pupil, left for England in 1631; so there remains
for this period only Joris van Vliet, and we know from the inventory of 1656
that Rembrandt possessed a portfolio of engravings from his own pictures,
drawings and etchings, by this artist.  Previous to the "Ecce Homo" Rembrandt
had produced several fine etchings from religious subjects, and two of
outstanding excellence.  Among the former were the little "Flight into Egypt";
the first version of "The Good Samaritan"; the simply composed,
sympathetically handled "Jacob Lamenting the Death of Joseph" (1633); the
little "Disciples at Emmaus"; "The Woman of Samaria"; and "Christ Driving Out
the Money-Changers"; a subject much affected in Holland for the opportunity it
gave of representing the various vegetables, fruit, and fowls for sale in the
Temple, but in this instance remarkable for the energy of the reforming Christ
and the tumult and scattering of the offenders.  The large "Resurrection of
Lazarus" is assumed to have been completed in 1632, owing to the affix of van
Rijn to the monogram.  Vosmaer and Michel believe the print to be wholly from
the hand of Rembrandt; Middleton-Wake attributes to him the design and the
execution only of the central figure and that of Lazarus.  Whether or not
minor details were worked by a lesser hand, the whole composition is informed
by the master's spirit in his use of the highly-focussed light bathing the
dead man and drawing him back to life through the power of the guiding hand.
The figure of Christ is dignified and imposing.  The dominance of His
powerfully magnetic personality is keenly felt, as also the psychic force
flowing from Him to Lazarus.  At this stage of Rembrandt's career he was
profoundly attracted by the aspect of Christ's divinity as displayed by his
supernatural and miraculous power; he sought to indicate the quality of seer
and wonder-worker by the suggestion of an impelling, outgoing magnetism which
impressed itself strongly on those around.  Later, Rembrandt, through study
and experience, grew into sympathy with another side of Christ's nature, less
immediately obvious, more subtle; as shown in the small plate of the "Raising
of Lazarus," where the miracle is wrought by the deeper, penetrating,
all-environing power of divine love.

     In 1634 Rembrandt produced an etching, carefully elaborated, which shows
new aims destined later to bear rich fruit.  "The Angel Appearing to the
Shepherds" is one of his night pieces.  In it the Dove, surrounded by
rejoicing cherubs, broods in a glory of light in whose rays appears the
announcing angel, a brilliance that makes the dark night darker.  The rich
velvety darkness contrasts vividly with the high white light; in the
half-light are seen water and trees and a distant city.  The awakened
shepherds are camping in a rocky landscape.  The suddenness of the apparition
is admirably suggested by the hurried, pell-mell rush of startled animals that
scurry away towards protecting shadow.  In spite of certain ungainliness in
the proportion of the figures the effect is very fine; the great interest lies
in the care bestowed on the landscape, no longer conventional and Italianised,
but treated with considerable realism.

     The third important etching of this period dates to 1639, the large, very
fine "Death of the Virgin," one of Rembrandt's most masterly etchings both in
technique and in originality of treatment, in the remarkable pictorial quality
of the light, in the beauty of arrangement.  Hamerton wrote concerning it,
"Every lover of Art comes in time to have private predilections which he
cannot always readily account for and explain.  Thus, of all the plates of
Rembrandt, the 'Death of the Virgin' is the one that fascinates and moves me
most." Despite the great richness of detail, of vivid contrasts, the plate is
enthralling from the unity of informing idea, from the downpouring of heavenly
light that encompasses the death-bed, from the interest of the various degrees
of emotion felt by the surrounding mourners, who are rapidly drawn with
powerful characterisation.  In its grandeur, in its suggestion of the power of
an unseen presence, it is unrivalled.

     Between 1634 and 1642 Rembrandt's career as fashionable portrait-painter
was at its acme, his output great.  Houbraken testifies to his popularity,
relates how his work was sought after, so that sitters were compelled to await
their turn, that indeed "he had not only to be paid but to be prayed." His
preoccupation with his work was such that, as another pupil writes, "When he
was painting he would have refused to receive the greatest sovereign on earth,
and would have compelled him to wait or call again when he was willing to see
him." Such conduct did not tend to increase Rembrandt's popularity socially;
therefore, he was not courted for himself.  When the popularity of his work
waned he - the man - was soon overlooked.  His work engrossed him rather than
his sitter; he is known to have made experimental sketches of his subject in
his effort to find the one suitable expression in pose and in technique.
Hence the seemingly puzzling differences in handling of pictures belonging to
the same period.  In one canvas the brushwork is full and free, the impasto
thick, each stroke spontaneous, though definite; there is no elaboration, and
the details are occasionally worked with the butt-end of the brush.  In
another the handling is more sought, more elaborated, perhaps more nervous,
and shows greater finish.  In no case is the end confused with the means; the
idea dominates.  Occasionally there is evidence of patient reworking.  Millais
wrote of Rembrandt (Magazine of Art, 1888): "It will be remembered that
Rembrandt, in his first period, was very careful and minute in detail, and
there is evidence of stippling in his flesh painting; but when he grew older,
and in the fulness of his power, all appearance of such manipulation and
minuteness vanished in the breadth and facility of his brush, though the
advantage of his early manner remained. The latter manner is, of course, much
the finer and really more finished of the two.  I have closely examined his
pictures at the National Gallery, and have actually seen, beneath that grand
veil of breadth, the early work that his art conceals from untrained eyes -
the whole science of painting.  And herein lies his superiority to Velasquez,
who with all his mighty power and magnificent execution, never rose to the
perfection which above all with painters consists in ars celare artem."

     That the great strength of Rembrandt the painter lay in his single -
hearted devotion to his art is proved by the fact that popularity could not
divert him from his passionate quest after perfection, after a keener insight
into, and deeper knowledge of, human nature.  Although his constant effort was
to suggest personality, he succeeded in his earlier portraits, of young women
especially, in producing a fair semblance only of his sitter, always in an
admirable setting painted with the realistic explicitness of the day.  He does
not exaggerate nor permit emphasis of eccentricity.  Indeed, these portraits
of young women of fashion, such as that belonging to the van Weede family at
Utrecht, suffice to show that the painter was not what is termed a man of the
world who could ingratiate himself with his lady sitters and compel them to
reveal their personalities to him.  Comparison of such portraits with those of
Saskia shows that the former are approached timidly.  Beautiful as the picture
may be the subject has remained remote from his ken; the face remains a gentle
decorous mask. Later, as his powers matured, his knowledge of human nature
deepened, his own experiences of life multiplied, his power to suggest the
inner life of man or woman developed proportionately, to depict the
psychological moment of an incident, to indicate the story of this or that
character (especially of old men and women), written from within upon the fair
parchment of flesh, hieroglyphs of time unmistakable to the seer's eye.

     There is extraordinary power in the etched portrait of Jacob Cats, with
his wrinkled face and large expressive eyes - the poet and statesman known in
Holland as Father Cats; of Jan Uijtenboogaerd, the Remonstrant preacher; of
Johan Antonides van der Linden, renowned doctor and professor at Leyden.  To
the same period belong the etching and the painting of Manasseh Ben - Israel,
the many-sided Portuguese Rabbi of Amsterdam, physician, teacher of languages,
author of certain theological works, and of a drama for which Rembrandt etched
four illustrations.

     Fine, too, are the painted portraits of the "Young Man" in the National
Gallery, and of himself with velvet cap and earring in the Louvre; and the
fine picture of the "Standard - bearer" (belonging to Baron Rothschild, at
Paris), dressed in brown, with mezzetin cap and plumes, a proud figure
outlined against the brilliant light tones of the standard pointed above his
head and draped over his left arm - probably a portrait of himself in the
guise of a standard-bearer to one of the gaily dressed companies of archers.
Critics are equally sceptical concerning the nationality of the so-called
portrait of Sobiesky in the Hermitage, in which is represented a solid-looking
man with the coarse fleshy features, clear, piercing eyes of the painter, with
fierce moustache, and wearing a high fur jewelled hat, a velvet cloak trimmed
with fur, and a jewelled chain round his neck.  Very different to either, both
so rich in harmonious colour and glow of light, is the masterly portrait of
Rembrandt's frame-maker, belonging to Mr. Schaus, of New York, formerly in the
Duc de Morny's collection.  It is painted with extraordinary reserve and
dignity, in tones of grey, black, and white, against a black background,
relieved only by the warm flesh tones of health.  To this period also belong a
series of beautiful portraits of old women, such as those belonging to Baron
A. Rothschild, and one of the painter's mother in the Hermitage; appealing
figures, old heads shaded in soft velvet hoods, wrinkled faces and pathetic
eyes painted lovingly and reverently by this singular man, of coarse exterior,
with the vision of the seer, and the heart of a child.