The Mentor Rembrandt 1

The Mentor Rembrandt 1

The Mentor Rembrandt, Vol. 4, Num. 20, Serial No. 120, December 1, 1916

 

Author: John C. van Dyke

 

Christmas Giving

The old question--What shall we give? Too often answered by giving the

easiest thing. “There, that’s off my mind for another year!” Yes, off

your mind--but how does your heart feel when your friend sends _you_

something that shows that he has cherished a little special thought of

you?

Christmas giving may be a blessing or a blight--according to the spirit

of the giver. It is a blessing when it carries with it a thought that

honors the one that gives and benefits the one that receives.

 

 

“Benefit is the end of Nature,” says Emerson, “and he is great who

confers the most benefits. Beware of good staying in your hand. Pay it

away quickly to someone.”

 

 

Thousands of you tell me in the daily mail how The Mentor benefits you.

Can you give a better gift to your friend than this same benefit? If

we benefit you, we can also benefit him. With whole heart we pledge

full service to him as to you. Give, then, this Christmas, The Mentor

and all its service to your friend. Your message of friendship will be

repeated to him twice a month throughout the year.

 

THE EDITOR.

 

 

 

 

[Illustration: IN THE HERMITAGE, PETROGRAD

 

SOBIESKI--PORTRAIT BY REMBRANDT]

 

 

 

 

_REMBRANDT_

 

_Early Years_

 

ONE

 

 

Sometimes it is difficult to learn the truth about a great man. This

is particularly so in the case of one who lived three centuries ago;

for in those days people were not as careful to keep records as they

are today. For years the great painter Rembrandt was regarded as having

been ignorant, boorish, and avaricious. Fables making him out to be

such a character sprang up without any foundation. It is only within

the last fifty years that we have come to know the true Rembrandt, and

to realize that he had profound sympathy, a powerful imagination, and

originality of mind, and that he was a poet as well as a painter, an

idealist and also a realist. He has justly been called “the Shakespeare

of Holland.”

 

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn--for that is his full name--was born at

Leyden, a town near Amsterdam, in Holland, on July 15, 1605. Leyden is

famous in history as the birthplace of many great artists and other men

of renown. Rembrandt’s home overlooked the river Rhine. He was the son

of a well-to-do miller, and his parents were ambitious that Rembrandt

enter the law, for his older brothers had been sent into trade.

 

At that time Holland was entering upon her great career of national

enterprise. Science and literature flourished, poetry and the stage

were cultivated by her people, and art was made welcome in every town,

large and small. So Rembrandt, after he had been sent to the high

school at Leyden, decided to become a painter. For already within him

he felt the first urgings of genius.

 

Accordingly, when Rembrandt was only twelve or thirteen years old,

his father allowed him to become a pupil of Jacob van Swanenburch, a

painter of no great ability, who, however, enjoyed some reputation

because he had studied in Italy. Three years later the boy was placed

under Pieter Lastman, of Amsterdam, who was a much better artist and

teacher. Authorities differ as to how long Rembrandt remained with

Lastman. One says that he was his pupil until he was nineteen years

old; another believes that he studied with him for only six months. At

any rate, sometime after 1623 Rembrandt returned to the home of his

parents at Leyden.

 

During these first years of his artistic life, Rembrandt worked hard.

He painted pictures of almost everyone he saw--beggars, cripples, and

in short every picturesque face and form of which he could get hold.

Life, character, and special lighting effects were his principal

concern. Frequently he used his mother for a model, and from these

portraits we can trace his strong resemblance to her. The young

artist also liked to paint his father and sisters; and by the number

of portraits he painted of himself, we can see that from the very

beginning he worked hard to master every form of __EXPRESSION__, learning

to draw the human face as it appeared not only to the casual observer,

but also to one who read the character within. It is said that during

his lifetime Rembrandt painted nearly sixty portraits of himself.

 

Time went by, and the young artist of Leyden was attracting the

attention of art lovers in the great metropolis of Amsterdam. Some of

them urged him to move there; and feeling that he was now strong enough

to stand alone, Rembrandt rented a large house in Amsterdam and removed

there in 1631. He divided the upper part of his house into small

studios, and there he worked and taught. His pupils were many and from

wealthy families. From this teaching Rembrandt derived a large income.

 

Fortune smiled upon him. At one bound he leaped into the position of

the leading portrait painter of Amsterdam. Numerous commissions for

portraits flowed in upon him, and during the first few years of his

residence there he painted at least forty. When he was only twenty-six

years old, in 1632, he painted the “Anatomy Lesson,” a picture that

made an enormous sensation, and holds its place today as one of

Rembrandt’s masterpieces.

 

The year 1634 was one of the happiest in Rembrandt’s life. He was then

at the beginning of a successful artistic career, and it was at that

time that he married Saskia van Ulenburg, a beautiful Frisian maiden.

Saskia brought him love and wealth. Eight years of prosperity and

sunshine followed their union.

 

Rembrandt and his wife were a joyous pair. They had four children, a

boy and two girls who died in infancy--and a son, Titus, who grew to

man’s estate.

 

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION

ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 20, SERIAL No. 120

COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

 

 

 

 

[Illustration: DETAIL OF THE ANATOMY LESSON

 

BY REMBRANDT

 

IN THE HAGUE MUSEUM]

 

 

 

 

_REMBRANDT_

 

_The Master Painter_

 

TWO

 

 

The year 1640 marks the beginning of what may be termed the second

period of Rembrandt’s life and work. It was during these years that

success and happiness were his. From then until 1654 Rembrandt worked

in what has been called his “second manner.” His art grew in power,

and the coldness of his “first manner” had disappeared. He had passed

through a period of exaggerated __EXPRESSION__ and had come to a truer,

calmer form of painting. It is interesting to compare his own portrait

painted in 1640 with the earlier portraits of himself. This painting

portrays a man strong and robust, with powerful head, determined chin,

and keen, penetrating eyes. This was the Rembrandt of that period, the

man confidently independent and careless as to his popularity as an

artist.

 

Rembrandt had now many pupils. He had bought a house in Amsterdam, and

had placed in it a great collection of paintings and engravings. At

that time the artist was living a life of simple domesticity, happy

with his wife and children. His friends were many, and his interests

were large.

 

Rembrandt’s mother died in 1640, and two years later the great

sorrow of his life came upon him. His wife Saskia died. This changed

everything for him. The events of his latter days are clouded in

obscurity.

 

The terms of Saskia’s will are interesting, in that they may throw

some light upon a later action of the artist’s, which will be related

further on. She left her money to their son Titus, with Rembrandt as

sole trustee, and with full use of the money until he should marry

again or until the marriage of Titus.

 

It was in 1642 also that Rembrandt painted his most famous picture--the

“Night Watch.” This is one of the landmarks of Rembrandt’s career.

However, it is not a night watch at all, but a call to arms by day, and

more properly should be named the “Day Watch.”