Rembrandt Timeline

Rembrandt 39

1606 Rembrandt born in Leiden Ninth child of a miller Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on 15 July 1606. His father owned a malt mill on the Rhine — the van Rijn name comes from the river.
1620 Enrolls at Leiden University And leaves almost at once Registered as a student of letters at fourteen, Rembrandt abandoned the university within months to be apprenticed as a painter.
1621 – 1624 Apprenticed to Jacob van Swanenburg Three years in a Leiden workshop His first master had worked in Italy and specialised in scenes of hell and the underworld — an early exposure to dramatic firelight.
1624 – 1625 Six months with Pieter Lastman Amsterdam — history painting Lastman taught him to build a narrative from gesture and expression. It was a short apprenticeship that shaped everything Rembrandt did afterwards.
1625 – 1631 The Leiden studio with Jan Lievens Two young rivals sharing a workspace Rembrandt and Lievens worked side by side on the same subjects, close enough in style that attributions between them are still argued over.
1628 Gerrit Dou becomes his first pupil Aged fourteen The first of roughly fifty students who passed through Rembrandt's studio over forty years — a workshop whose output still complicates his catalogue.
1628 – 1669 The self-portraits Around eighty over four decades No painter before him examined his own face so persistently. The sequence runs from a shadowed, uncertain youth to the swollen, unflinching old man of the final years.
1629 Constantijn Huygens takes notice The route to court patronage The secretary to the Prince of Orange visited the Leiden studio and wrote that this miller's son already surpassed the famous painters of antiquity.
1629 Judas Repentant The picture that made his name Huygens singled it out for the figure of Judas — a body twisted in remorse, praised as beyond anything in classical art.
1631 – 1635 Hendrick Uylenburgh's workshop Portraits on an industrial scale Working for the dealer Uylenburgh, Rembrandt turned out commissioned portraits at high speed — and met the dealer's cousin Saskia.
1631 Moves to Amsterdam From provincial town to the richest city in Europe Rembrandt left Leiden for a city of merchants who wanted their portraits painted, and within a year he was the most sought-after portraitist in it.
1632 The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp Rembrandt's first major commission Rembrandt painted The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp in 1632, his first major group portrait. The painting shows a public dissection and transformed the genre of group portraiture with its dramatic lighting and psychological intensity.
1633 – 1639 The Passion series Painted for the Prince of Orange Five scenes from the Passion for Frederik Hendrik, delivered slowly over six years amid a long correspondence about money.
1634 Rembrandt marries Saskia van Uylenburgh Marriage to his beloved wife Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh on June 22, 1634. She was his muse and the model for many of his works. Her death in 1642 at age 29 profoundly affected him.
1635 Belshazzar's Feast The writing on the wall A king recoiling as letters blaze out of the darkness. Rembrandt got the Hebrew inscription from a scholar in his neighbourhood — and it reads down in columns rather than across.
1635 First son born and dies Rumbartus lived two months The first of three children by Saskia who died in infancy. Only Titus, born in 1641, survived to adulthood.
1636 – 1643 Danaë Repainted years later Rembrandt returned to the canvas long after finishing it and reworked the figure, apparently changing her face after Saskia's death.
1639 Buys the house on Jodenbreestraat Thirteen thousand guilders he did not have A grand house bought on credit, filled with the art, armour, shells and curiosities he collected compulsively. The debt was never cleared — it eventually broke him.
1641 Titus is born The only child to survive Named after Saskia's sister Titia. He appears in his father's paintings from childhood to his twenties, and became his business partner.
1642 – 1649 Geertje Dircx in the household Nurse to Titus, then Rembrandt's companion A widow hired to care for the infant Titus after Saskia's death. The relationship ended in open conflict.
1642 Saskia dies Rembrandt's wife dies at 29 Rembrandt's wife Saskia van Uylenburgh died in 1642, the same year he completed The Night Watch. Her death marked a turning point in his life and career, and he entered a long period of financial and personal decline.
1642 The Night Watch completed His greatest painting — now in the Rijksmuseum Rembrandt completed The Night Watch in 1642 — a revolutionary group portrait of a militia company that transformed the static genre into a dynamic theatrical event. At 3.6 × 4.4 metres it is the largest painting in the Rijksmuseum.
1647 – 1649 The Hundred Guilder Print His most celebrated etching Christ healing the sick, worked and reworked through many states. The nickname comes from the extraordinary price a copy fetched in his own lifetime.
1649 – 1663 Hendrickje Stoffels Companion for the rest of her life Entered the house as a servant and stayed as Rembrandt's partner. He never married her — Saskia's will would have cost him his inheritance.
1649 The Geertje Dircx case A breach of promise suit — and a confinement Geertje sued Rembrandt for promising marriage. He countered, and had her committed to a house of correction in Gouda, where she was held for five years.
1653 Aristotle with a Bust of Homer Commissioned from Sicily A philosopher's hand resting on the blind poet's head, gold chain catching the light. It travelled to Messina for a collector who had never met the painter.
1654 Hendrickje summoned by the church council Cornelia is born Called before the Reformed consistory and barred from communion for living with Rembrandt unmarried. Their daughter Cornelia was born the same year.
1656 Rembrandt declared insolvent His house and art collection auctioned Rembrandt was declared insolvent in 1656 and his house and vast art collection were auctioned off. His extravagant lifestyle and costly art collecting had left him deeply in debt despite his enormous success.
1656 The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Deijman Later destroyed by fire A second anatomy piece, radically foreshortened with the corpse feet-first to the viewer. Only a charred fragment survives.
1657 – 1658 The house and collection auctioned Everything sold to satisfy creditors The inventory drawn up for the sale runs to hundreds of items — paintings, prints, weapons, coral, casts. It is the fullest record we have of what he owned and looked at.
1658 Moves to the Rozengracht A rented house in a poorer quarter Rembrandt spent his last eleven years as a tenant in the Jordaan, painting some of his greatest work with almost no commissions coming in.
1660 Titus and Hendrickje set up as dealers A way around the bankruptcy Because Rembrandt could not legally trade, his son and partner formed a company that employed him — his output belonged to them, not his creditors.
1661 – 1662 The Conspiracy of the Batavians Hung in the town hall — then returned A vast canvas for Amsterdam's new city hall, showing a one-eyed chieftain in harsh light. It was taken down within a year and Rembrandt cut it up.
1662 The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild His last great group portrait The Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild, painted in 1662, is considered Rembrandt's last great group portrait. The five cloth inspectors are painted with extraordinary psychological presence and seem to address the viewer directly.
1663 Hendrickje dies Probably of plague Buried in a rented grave in the Westerkerk during an epidemic that killed a tenth of Amsterdam.
1665 – 1669 The Jewish Bride Paint laid on like a relief A couple in a gesture of extraordinary tenderness, the sleeve built up in thick trowelled gold. Van Gogh said he would give ten years of his life to sit before it for a fortnight.
1668 Titus dies Months after marrying Rembrandt's last surviving son died at twenty-seven, leaving a pregnant widow. His father outlived him by little more than a year.
1669 The Return of the Prodigal Son Left in the studio at his death The father's two hands on the kneeling son's back are painted differently from each other. It was among the works still in the house when he died.
1669 Rembrandt dies Buried in an unmarked grave Rembrandt died on October 4, 1669, aged 63, poor and largely forgotten by the fashionable art world. He was buried in an unmarked rented grave in the Westerkerk, Amsterdam. His son Titus had died the previous year.