Rembrandt and his Pupils: the Leiden Years

A detailed Summary of Rembrandt and his Pupils: the Leiden Years

Of the many Dutch painters during the scope of time, the seventeenth century was an exceptional era for detail and baroque painters to flourish. Leiden itself was a cultural centre for these styles, especially if one considers the influence's of Rembrandt van Rijn and several of his Leiden pupils. In the following sections, I will focus on Rembrandt and the contributions he made to seventeenth century Dutch art, as well as the influences he passed on to several of his pupils, more specifically Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout, Gerrit Dou, Isack Jouderville and Jan Jorisz van Vliet.

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn was born on 15 July 1606 in Leiden to the proud parents Harmen Gerritsz van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsdr van Zuytbrouck. The parents owned a malt mill just outside the city's gates on a bank of the Old Rhine called 'de Rijn'; the family name 'van [de] Rijn' was derived from it. On his mother's death, 10 years after his father, an inventory was taken of her estate at 10,000 guilders: quite substantial for that time. While Rembrandt was ninth of at least ten children, only four were alive at this time: Adriaen, a shoemaker, Willem, a baker, Rembrandt and his sister Elysabeth. The facts of Rembrandt's origin are of much rele

During his last years in Leiden Rembrandt's style became more and more intimate. I use the word 'intimate' to include his subtleties, yet a dramatic chiaroscuro develops, and cool, delicate colours predominate. In some cases this unique style continues into his early years in Amsterdam. For example, the dimly lit interior of colossal dimensions, the majestic columns, and deep shadows intensify the mysterious atmosphere of the Presentation in the Temple of 1631 (at the Mauritshuis), but the small figures of the main group gain distinctness by means of the sparkling sunlight which strikes them. The golden halo of the Christ child who will be 'a light to lighten the Gentiles' makes a source of light within the beam. Rembrandt's literal translation of the Christ child's halo as this light also provides a unique light source, and thus provides the shadows which encircle the child, therefore making him the focal point of the photo.

One of the heads in the Lyon picture - the one looking at the scene in pained horror just below the arm of the man holding the rock with both hands high above his head - shows that Rembrandt was already making studies of his own physiognomy at this early date. It is a self-portrait, the earliest existing one of the artist, who represented himself more frequently by far than any other Renaissance or Baroque master. More than seventy-five painted, etched, and drawn self-portraits by Rembrandt are known. This unique record includes Rembrandt's conception of himself from the beginning to the end of career: as a handsome young man, a proper bourgeois, a majestic high-society man, and finally, as the aged sage. His unprecedented series of self-portraits is frequently called an autobiography, but perhaps it is better to characterise it as a journal, since an autobiography is usually written at a single stage in a person's life. Rembrandt's series of self-portraits cover a span of more than forty years, and thus provide insight into the methods he often experimented with, as well as his own physical lifetime progression.

(The Presentation in the Temple by Rembrandt, 1631)insert photo

Honour, Hugh and John Fleming. A World History of Art 4th ed. London: Laurence King Pub, 1995.

An artist whose activity is associated with Rembrandt's final years in Leiden and first years in Amsterdam is Isack Jouderville. Though only a moderately talented, he gains distinction as one of Rembrandt's pupils whose apprenticeship is solidly documented. Records state that his guardian paid Rembrandt an annual fee of 100 guilders in 1630 and again in 1631 for his apprenticeship, documentary evidence that substantiates Sandrart's report that Rembrandt received 100 guilders per year for tuition of his students. Jouderville's only signed work, A Bust of a Young Man at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, shows close familiarity with his master's portraits of about 1630, but falls far below them in

Some common words found in the essay are:
Gerrit Dou, Presentation Temple, St Stephen, Renaissance Baroque, Jacob Isaacsz, Neeltgen Willemsdr, Rembrandt Leiden, Woman Reading, Isack Jouderville, Jan Jorisz, gerrit dou, van vliet, van rijn, woman reading, stoning st stephen, van den, den eeckhout, isack jouderville, van swanenburgh, jorisz van vliet, leiden pupils, entered rembrandt's studio, dou entered, jan jorisz van, woman reading bible,

Approximate Word count = 1981
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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