ART EDUCATION AND EARLY WORKS
The exact date of this first step on the road to fame is also still
somewhat uncertain. Vosmaer believes it was in 1619, but the assertion
of Orlers that when his parents allowed him to abandon the unloved
Latin, they apprenticed him to a painter, is so precise, that it is
unreasonable to suppose that his father should have returned to the
attack. We may consequently assume that the final desertion of the Muses
and enlistment in the cause of the Arts came after, not before, that
enrolment at the University--that is to say, late in 1620 or perhaps
early in 1621. Further facts go to prove this point. His first
apprenticeship, in accordance with the rules of the Guilds of Saint
Luke, lasted three years, and came to an end therefore in 1623 or early
in 1624. He then went to a second master in Amsterdam, but remained with
him only six months; so that in either case the date of his leaving
Amsterdam and returning to Leyden would have been some time in 1624. Now
there is no doubt that it was in 1624 that this took place, and the only
obvious conclusion is that his first apprenticeship did not commence
before 1620.
The painter who was then chosen for the honour of first guiding the hand
of the young Rembrandt, by which honour he is nowadays almost alone
distinguished, was Jacob van Swanenburch. A man of good position, the
son of one painter, the brother of another, and of an engraver, he was
not, judging by his only known picture, "A Papal Procession in the
Piazza of St Peter," artistically speaking, of much account, and it was
probably more for personal reasons, and because of his propinquity, than
for his conspicuous talents that he was selected. He was able only to
impart "the first elements and the principles" of his art to his young
pupil, as Orlers tells us; but indeed these were all that were needed by
one with such an overmastering personality, with so powerful an artistic
inspiration and energy. So successful was the process that Orlers
describes his advance in craftsmanship as so swift and steady that his
fellow-citizens were completely astounded by it, and could already
foresee the brilliant career to which he was destined. We must, however,
remember in weighing this statement that it was written when that career
was at its most brilliant stage, and is to some extent the proverbial
safe prophecy of one who knows.
That Rembrandt did make considerable progress during the following three
years is, of course, certain; and when his apprenticeship drew to an end
the question arose as to what was to come next. The experience of a
young fellow-artist probably suggested the answer. About the time
Rembrandt entered Swanenburch's studio Jan Lievensz, a fellow-citizen, a
year younger than Rembrandt, who had, however, entered upon his artistic
studies while Rembrandt was still struggling with, or against, the
detested Latin, returned from completing his studies in the studio of
Pieter Lastman at Amsterdam. The father of Jan was a farmer, a man in
the same rank of life as Hermann the miller, and probably had business
connections with him, so that the acquaintanceship between the two sons,
destined to ripen into warm friendship, doubtless began in early
boyhood.
Certain it is, at any rate, that when Jan returned from Lastman's studio
to astound his townsmen with his precocity, the intimacy between him and
Rembrandt became close; in a few years their names seem to have become
as inseparable as those of Damon and Pythias, and it was no doubt from
the enthusiasm of Lievensz that the impulse arose which, in 1624, sent
Rembrandt also to study under Lastman. The experiment, however, was not
a success. Lievensz had remained with him two years; Rembrandt wearied
of it in six months. And, truly, though he enjoyed at that time an
incomprehensibly large measure of popularity and success, Lastman,
though a far better artist than Swanenburch, was not one of those whose
names we nowadays inscribe on the roll of great painters. He had been,
moreover, one of the large group who had trudged to far-away Rome, and
come under the influence of Elsheimer there, and the exotic and
ill-adapted traditions and conventions of the school were not calculated
to appeal to so ardent and eager a seeker after truth as Rembrandt. He
wanted to find nature, and was not to be put off by a diluted
semi-Italian imitation of it; and so, after a few months' trial, he
packed up his paints and canvases, and returned to his family in Leyden
"to study and practise painting alone and in his own way," to quote
again the garrulous Orlers.
That so indefatigable and untiring a worker as Rembrandt did not waste
time, when once he was safely established in his father's house, is
certain, for Orlers says that he worked incessantly as long as the light
lasted; but we know of nothing that he produced until three years later,
when he painted two still existing pictures, signing and dating both.
From this time his reputation and that of Lievensz ripened rapidly.
Arent van Buchel, in his "Res Pictori[ae]," mentions him in 1628; and
Constantin Huygens, in a manuscript autobiography, discovered in 1891 by
Dr Worp of Groningen, and written probably between 1629 and 1631, was
enthusiastic concerning both, "still beardless yet already famous"--an
appreciation that was not to be without its favourable influence on
Rembrandt's future. Nor was this growing fame productive of mere empty
praise. In February 1628, when he was only one-and-twenty, Gerard Dou,
his first pupil, came to him and remained until he left Leyden for
Amsterdam three years later.
Many causes probably combined to promote this change of residence. On
the twenty-seventh of April 1630 the first break in the united family
circle was brought about by the death of his father. The blow must have
been a heavy one, for he must have been a kindly and sympathetic
companion to his children, if we may judge by the refined and sensitive
face which looks out at us from the portraits believed to be his, and a
merry one to boot, with a pretty humour of his own, if M. Michel be
justified in his conclusion that the etching of the bald man with a
chain (B. 292) is also a portrait of him. The loss further brought
changes into the family arrangements. The eldest brother, as far back
as 1621, had been crippled by an accident, and on March 16th of that
year a life-interest in the estate to the amount of 125 florins per
annum had been formally established for his maintenance, so that the
superintendence of the affairs of the mill fell to the second son
Adriaen, who abandoned his trade of shoe-making to undertake it, and
made nothing, or worse, of it.
The young artist's reputation as a portrait painter had, moreover,
spread to Amsterdam some time before, and many commissions came to him
thence. For a while he merely went over, stayed long enough to do the
work, and returned again to Leyden, but as the demands upon his time
increased this must have proved a wasteful, inconvenient, and finally
impossible proceeding. Leyden, again, was a University town, where
religion and philosophy were more thought of and more sought after than
such a trifle as art, as indeed is still the case in some University
towns that could be mentioned; while Amsterdam was a city of prosperous
traders making more money than they knew how to spend or employ, and
ready enough to devote some of their superfluity to portraits of
themselves and wives, or pictures of incidents and places, and it was
clearly desirable that one able and willing to satisfy their wishes in
this respect should be upon the spot.
[Illustration: [_Cassel Gallery_
PORTRAIT OF REMBRANDT'S FATHER
(ABOUT 1631)]
The little coterie of artists, too, was on the verge of dispersal in any
case, by the loss of Rembrandt's closest tie with it, Jan Lievensz. He
had sold a picture of a man reading by a turf fire to the Prince of
Orange, who had presented it to the English Ambassador, and he in turn
had passed it on to that king of picture lovers, Charles the First,
who had been so well pleased with it that a pressing invitation to visit
England had been sent to the painter, and accepted. Nor, probably, was
it only the chance of obtaining more employment that attracted
Rembrandt. The famous "Anatomy Lesson" bears the date 1632, and, even if
the commission for it had not actually been offered during the preceding
year, it may very well have been suggested in the course of conversation
by the doctor who had added to his name, Cl[ae]s Pietersz, that of Tulp,
taking it from a tulip which was carved on the front of his house, who
figures so conspicuously in it. If this were so, it must have been
evident to Rembrandt that to undertake so large and important a picture
while living in another city would mean either risking the uniformity
and continuity of his work, or settling down for a prolonged period in
lodgings in Amsterdam, and this may well have confirmed his decision to
at once establish himself there permanently.
Finally, I like to fancy, though it certainly cannot be proved, that
Rembrandt had already, in one of his flying visits to that city, met the
girl upon whom, while she lived, the larger part of his life's happiness
was to depend. The evidence is, it must be owned, slight, but is not
altogether wanting. Among the pictures of the year 1630, and, according
to M. Michel, even of 1628 and onwards, we find a series of portraits of
a fair-haired girl with a round, full forehead, and rather small eyes
and mouth, which Dr Bode believes to be portraits of the painter's
sister Lysbeth, while M. Michel considers that some of the later ones
are really portraits of Saskia, urging the objection that many of them
were undoubtedly painted after his removal to Amsterdam, whither there
is not the slightest reason to suppose that Lysbeth accompanied him,
what evidence there is pointing directly to the contrary. On the other
hand, M. Michel admits that the type which is known to be Saskia blends
almost indistinguishably with that supposed to be Lysbeth, and offers
the distinctly dubious explanation that Rembrandt was, so to speak, so
imbued with the features of his sister that he unconsciously transferred
them to a large extent to the girl he loved. If, however, as we may
quite reasonably suppose, Rembrandt had met and admired Saskia during
his first stay in Amsterdam, and continued to do so during his
after-visits, the occurrence of her features in his work would be what
we ought to expect.
There was, on the other hand, but a single objection to the scheme--the
parting with his mother; and to such an affectionate and home-loving
nature as Rembrandt's the difficulty can have been no small one. Still,
a man has to do a man's work in this life. Adriaen, his brother, and
Lysbeth, his sister, were there to minister to her comfort, while
Amsterdam was no great distance away; and though, doubtless, it was not
altogether without tears that the widowed Neeltje consented to the
departure of her youngest son, the decision was taken, and the consent
yielded at last.
Indeed, it was inevitable that so great and, at one time, so popular an
artist should, sooner or later, gravitate to the capital of his country;
for, since the decay of Antwerp, Amsterdam was without a rival in the
world for prosperity--the head-centre of commerce, the hub of the
trade-universe. Sir Thomas Overbury, in 1609, describes it as surpassing
"Seville, Lisbon, or any other mart town in Christendom." Evelyn,
writing in 1641, says in his diary, "that it is certainly the most busie
concourse of mortalls now upon the whole earth and the most addicted to
com'erce."
Neither tempest nor battle could check her energy; and throughout the
long desultory war from 1621 to 1648 between Spain and Holland, her
traders hurried to and from the enemy's ports, supplying her even with
the very munitions of war to carry on the contest; while for all this
accumulated wealth there was but a limited outlet. Necessities being
superabundant, it must be either hoarded or expended on luxuries, and
among these pictures held high place. Quoting once more from Evelyn, we
find him writing on August 13th, 1641: "We arrived late at Roterdam,
where was their annual marte or faire, so furnished with pictures
(especially Landskips and Drolleries, as they call those clounish
representations), that I was amaz'd. Some I bought and sent into
England. The reson of this store of pictures and their cheapness
proceedes from their want of land to employ their stock, so that it is
an ordinary thing to find a common Farmer lay out two or three thousand
pounds in this comodity. Their houses are full of them, and they vend
them at their faires to very great gaines." So, for a time, the Dutch
painters drove a thriving trade; and as Amsterdam was by far the richest
city, to Amsterdam the successful painter must needs repair.