An Artist of the Dutch Baroque period, Rembrandt Van Rijn was born on July 15th, 1606. His father, Herman Gerritszoon who was a miller, his mother Neeltje or Cornelia Willemsdochter van Zuytbrouck, and his brothers lived in the town of Leiden next to the northern branch of the Rhine River and about 25 miles south of Amsterdam. Rembrandt was the 8th of 9 children born. His family was somewhat poor until his mother's death in 1640 left them well off with a 10,000 florins estate.
From the time of his birth, Rembrandt's parents had directed him towards the study of law, which is unlike his brothers who were directed towards the manual trades. He spent seven years at Latin School where he learned a great deal about religion that later influenced his paintings and portraits.
He enrolled at the University of Leiden. After a few months he discovered that it did not interest him and then decided to leave to pursue art.
The Night Watch by Rembrandt, c.1642 (or The Milit...
Rembrandt's son Titus, as a monk, 1660
Saskia by Rembrandt. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)At the workshop of Jacob Isaacxszoon van Swanenburch he acquired the basic technical knowledge of art such as perspective. Because Rembrandt had shown such dedication, his father sent him to Amsterdam to apprentice under a very well known painter of that time, Peiter Lastmann. There he learned to love dramatic effects such as facial expressions, hands, and learned to pay close attention to painting all the little details. He mastered the chiaroscuro effect of using light, as well as the bold impasto, and with those effects, he surpassed many artists of that time. Lastmann inspired him to paint historical events, which was not a very fashionable thing to do at that time, and he was also inspired to use bright, glossy, colors to paint pictures on a small scale. He was only in Lastmann's studio for six months...