Rembrandt van Rhyn, one of the most eminent painters and engravers of the Dutch school, was the son of a miller, and was born in 1606, at a small village on the banks of the Rhine, between Leyderdorp and Leyden, whence he was called Rembrandt van Rhyn, though his family name was Gerretz.
It is said that his father, being in easy circumstances, intended him for one of the learned professions, but was induced by Rembrandt’s passion for the art to allow him to follow his inclination.
Rembrandt had already brought both the arts of painting and engraving to very great perfection, when a slight incident led him to fame and fortune. He was induced by a friend to take one of his choicest pictures to a picture-dealer at The Hague, who, being charmed with the performance instantly gave him a hundred florins for it, and treated him with great respect. This occurrence served to convince the public of his merit and contributed to make the artist sensible of his own abilities.Though Rembrandt excelled as a painter of history and portrait, and especially in the latter, he is much better known as an engraver. Some of his prints are deservedly famous for the excellent of the clare obscure, as it seen in a supposed, or accidental light; others are remarkable for the extravagance of that principle. He copied nature with all its defects, as he saw it in his own country; and even this he sometimes debased, but seldom rose above it. There is a vein of good sense running through his works. His print of Christ healing sick, esteemed the most capital of his etchings, sold for thirty guineas: his portrait of the Burgomaster Six, has sold for more.
Rembrandt van Rhyn
