Rembrandt: References & Edit History

Additional Reading

Rembrandt’s life

J.J. Orlers, Beschrijvinge der stadt Leyden, 2nd ed. (1641), p. 375, is the earliest biography; Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vol. (1753, revised in 1 vol., 1976), vol. 1, pp. 254–273, is a long biography (containing many spurious anecdotes) that became the basis of the image of Rembrandt that prevailed in the 18th and 19th centuries. A publication that examines the view of Rembrandt in this era is Alison McQueen, The Rise of the Cult of Rembrandt: Reinventing an Old Master in Nineteenth-Century France (2003). Texts from Rembrandt’s hand are discussed in Horst Gerson, Seven Letters by Rembrandt, trans. by Yda D. Ovink (1961). Contemporary documents concerning Rembrandt are compiled in C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Urkunden über Rembrandt (1575–1721) (1906); and in Walter L. Strauss and Marion van der Meulen (compilers), The Rembrandt Documents (1979).

Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings (1985, reissued 1991; originally published in Dutch, 1984); and Mariët Westermann, Rembrandt (2000), provide a general introduction. Simon Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes (1999), is a full-length biographical treatment.

Michael Zell, Reframing Rembrandt: Jews and the Christian Image in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam (2002); and Amy Golahny, Rembrandt’s Reading: The Artist’s Bookshelf of Ancient Poetry and History (2003), discuss Rembrandt’s intellectual and religious context.

Useful biographical essays include A.Th. van Deursen, “Rembrandt and His Age: The Life of an Amsterdam Burgher,” pp. 44–49; and S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, “The Changing Portrait of the Artist,” pp. 50–67, both in Sally Salvesen (ed.), Rembrandt: The Master and His Workshop, exhib. cat. (1991). Also noteworthy are M. Blokhuis, “On the Life of Rembrandt van Rijn 1606–1669,” in Albert Blankert (ed.), Rembrandt: A Genius and His Impact (1997), pp. 22–31; S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, “Rembrandt: His Life, His Wife, the Nursemaid, and the Servant,” in Julia Lloyd Williams (ed.), Rembrandt’s Women, exhib. cat. (2001), pp. 19–27; and Ernst van de Wetering and Bernhard Schnackenburg, “Rembrandt’s Beginnings,” in The Mystery of the Young Rembrandt, exhib. cat. (2001), pp. 22–57.

Rembrandt’s art

Early commentaries on Rembrandt’s art can be found in Constantijn Huygens’s autobiography of his youth (c. 1630), as well as in writings by Joachim von Sandrart (1675), Samuel van Hoogstraten (1678), Andries Pels (1681), Filippo Baldinucci (1686), and Gérard de Lairesse (1707), which are reproduced and discussed in Seymour Slive, Rembrandt and His Critics, 1630–1730 (1953).

Rembrandt’s ideas on art and contemporary reflections on these ideas are examined in J.A. Emmens, Rembrandt en de regels van de kunst, vol. 10 in Orbis artium (1968), reissued as vol. 2 of Verzameld werk, 4 vol. (1979), a work that puts into perspective the image of Rembrandt that was created by the 17th-century Classicistic critics and that continued to influence scholarship well into the 20th century, with a summary in English. Sources that discuss Rembrandt and the earlier tradition include Kenneth Clark, Rembrandt and the Italian Renaissance (1966); and B.P.J. Broos, Index in the Formal Sources of Rembrandt’s Art (1997).

Individual works and particular subjects are discussed in E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Rembrandt, the Nightwatch (1982); Cynthia Schneider, Rembrandt’s Landscapes: Drawings and Prints (1990); Ann Jensen Adams (ed.), Rembrandt’s Bathsheba Reading King David’s Letter (1998); Christopher White and Quentin Buvelot (eds.), Rembrandt by Himself, exhib. cat. (1999); and Julia Lloyd Williams (ed.), Rembrandt’s Women, exhib. cat. (2001).

Drawing

Otto Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt: A Critical and Chronological Catalogue, ed. by Eva Benesch, enlarged ed., 6 vol. (1973); Peter Schatborn, Drawings by Rembrandt, His Anonymous Pupils, and Followers (1985), vol. 4 of Catalogue of the Dutch and Flemish Drawings in the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; and Martin Royalton-Kisch, Drawings by Rembrandt and His Circle in the British Museum, exhib. cat. (1992), discuss Rembrandt as a draftsman.

Etching

Writings that discuss Rembrandt’s etchings include Edme-François Gersaint, A Catalogue and Description of the Etchings of Rembrandt Van-Rhyn, with Some Account of His Life; To Which Is Added a List of the Best Pieces of This Master for the Use of Those Who Would Make a Select Collection of His Works (1752); Adam Bartsch, Catalogue raisonné de toutes les estampes qui forment l’oeuvre de Rembrandt, et ceux de ses principaux imitateurs, compose par Gersaint, Helle, Glomy, et P. Hyver, 2 vol. (1797); Karel Boon and Christopher White, Rembrandt’s Etchings: A New Critical Catalogue (1969); George Biörklund, Rembrandt’s Etching, True and False, 2nd ed. rev. and enlarged (1968, reprinted 1988); Holm Bevers, Peter Schatborn, and Barbara Welzel, Rembrandt, The Master & His Workshop: Drawings and Etchings (1991); Erik Hinterding, “The History of Rembrandt’s Copperplates, with a Catalogue of Those That Survive,” Simiolus 22(4):253–315 (1993–94); Gary Schwartz (ed.), Rembrandt: All the Etchings Reproduced in True Size (1977, reissued with corrections as The Complete Etchings of Rembrandt: Reproduced in Original Size, 1994); Christiaan Schuckman, Martin Royalton-Kisch, and Erik Hinterding, Rembrandt & Van Vliet: A Collaboration on Copper, exhib. cat. (1996); Christopher White, Rembrandt as an Etcher: A Study of the Artist at Work (1969, reissued 1999); and Erik Hinterding, Ger Luyten, and Martin Royalton-Kisch, Rembrandt the Printmaker, exhib. cat. (2000).

Painting

Rembrandt’s painting technique is the subject of David Bomford, Christopher Brown, and Ashok Roy, Art in the Making: Rembrandt (1988); Ernst van de Wetering, Rembrandt: The Painter at Work (1997, reissued 2000); and Karin Groen, “An Investigation of the Use of Binding Medium by Rembrandt: Chemical Analyses and Rheology,” Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung 11:207–227 (1997).

The artist in context

Much has been written about Rembrandt’s workshop and his contemporaries. Astrid Tümpel and Peter Schatborn, Pieter Lastman: The Man Who Taught Rembrandt, exhib. cat. (1991), treats one of Rembrandt’s early teachers. The role of Rembrandt’s workshop is considered in Ernst van de Wetering, “Problems of Apprenticeship and Studio Collaboration” and “Studio Practice and Studio Production,” in J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 2 (1986), pp. 45–90, and vol. 3 (1989), pp. 12–50; and Walter Liedtke, “Reconstructing Rembrandt and His Circle: More on the Workshop Hypothesis,” in Roland E. Fleischer and Susan Clare Scott (eds.), Rembrandt, Rubens, and the Art of Their Time: Recent Perspectives (1997), in the series Papers in Art History from the Pennsylvania State University, 11:37–59. Werner Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, ed. and trans. by Walter L. Strauss (1979–92), and Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden, 6 vol. (1983), analyze the drawings and paintings of the Rembrandt school.

Christian Tümpel with Astrid Tümpel, Rembrandt (1986); and Clifford S. Ackley et al., “Rembrandt as Actor and Dramatist: Gesture and Body Language in the Biblical Etchings,” in Rembrandt’s Journey: Painter, Draftsman, Etcher, exhib. cat. (2003), pp. 17–28, discuss Rembrandt as a history painter and narrator.

Authenticity

Sources dealing with the authentication of Rembrandt’s work include J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 1–3 (1982–89); Ernst van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4 (2005); Walter Liedtke et al., Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2 vol. (1995); Ernst van de Wetering, “Thirty Years of the Rembrandt Research Project: The Tension Between Science and Connoisseurship in Authenticating Art,” in IFAR [International Foundation for Art Research] Journal, 2:14–24; Ernst van de Wetering, “Delimiting Rembrandt’s Autograph Œuvre: An Insoluble Problem?,” in The Mystery of the Young Rembrandt, exhib. cat. (2001); and Catherine B. Scallen, Rembrandt, Reputation, and the Practice of Connoisseurship (2004).

Ernst van de Wetering

Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Add new Web site: Artnet - Rembrandt van Rijn. Aug 21, 2024
Anniversary information added. Jul 11, 2024
Add new Web site: The National Gallery - Rembrandt. May 29, 2024
First paragraph modernization. Apr 23, 2024
Add new Web site: The J. Paul Getty Museum - Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India. Nov 08, 2023
Anniversary information added. Sep 30, 2023
Media added. Jun 28, 2023
Add new Web site: Art in Context - Rembrandt van Rijn – Visiting the Influential Rembrandt Time Period. Jun 22, 2023
Add new Web site: Art Encyclopedia - Biography of Rembrandt. Feb 19, 2023
Add new Web site: The Art Story - Rembrandt van Rijn. Dec 09, 2022
Media added. Dec 29, 2020
Top Questions updated. Apr 05, 2019
Add new Web site: Facts about Famous People - Biography of Rembrandt. Jan 28, 2019
Changed title of the "Assessment" section to "Legacy." Nov 15, 2017
Media added. Apr 21, 2017
Add new Web site: The Met - Biography of Rembrandt van Rijn. Dec 16, 2016
Media added. Aug 16, 2016
Added mention of Rembrandt's affiliation with the Baroque movement. Feb 27, 2015
Add new Web site: National Gallery of Art, Washington - Biography of Rembrandt van Rijn. May 09, 2014
Add new Web site: Art UK - Biography of Rembrandt van Rijn. May 09, 2014
Add new Web site: Jewish Virtual Library - Biography of Rembrandt van Rijn. May 09, 2014
Replaced photograph. May 29, 2013
Add new Web site: Olga's Gallery - Biography of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Jan 17, 2013
Add new Web site: The National Gallery, London - Biography of Rembrandt. Jan 17, 2013
Added image of Rembrandt van Rijn's painting Self-Portrait (1660). Oct 05, 2010
handled for the cross-ref removal 1 cluster Aug 20, 2010
Changed "The Netherlands" to "the Netherlands." Jun 16, 2010
Media added. Oct 30, 2009
Date of construction of what is today the Rembrandt House Museum changed from 1606 to 1606-07. Aug 12, 2009
Added new Web site: British Broadcasting Corporation - Biography of Rembrandt.
  • Gaurav Shukla
Apr 26, 2007
Added new Web site: National Gallery of Art, Washington - Biography of Rembrandt van Rijn. Oct 19, 2006
Added new Web site: WebMuseum - Rembrandt. Aug 10, 2006
Article revised. Feb 23, 2006
Article revised. Feb 22, 2002
Article revised. Jun 29, 2000
Article added to new online database. Jul 28, 1999
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