Rembrandt van Rijn, light, shadow and the honest self-portrait
A miller’s son from Leiden who conquered Amsterdam, lost nearly everything and kept painting his own face with unflinching honesty, from confident youth to old age.
Rembrandt van Rijn1606 to 1669 · LeidenDutch Golden Age
Few painters have looked at themselves as often, or as honestly, as Rembrandt van Rijn. Over some forty years he painted, etched and drew his own face again and again, from a curious young man with unruly hair to an old man who no longer pretends to be anything else. Those faces, and his mastery of light and darkness, are why he still feels so close to us.
From Leiden to Amsterdam
Rembrandt was born in Leiden in 1606, the son of a miller. He briefly enrolled at the university, then trained as a painter, first in Leiden and then for a few months in Amsterdam with the history painter Pieter Lastman. By his early twenties he had his own studio in Leiden and was taking pupils.
At the end of 1631 he moved to Amsterdam, the booming commercial capital of the Dutch Republic. Success came quickly. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp of 1632, a group portrait of surgeons gathered around a dissection, made his name. In 1634 he married Saskia van Uylenburgh, and in 1639 the couple moved into a large house in the Jodenbreestraat, bought on credit.
The Night Watch and the art of chiaroscuro
In 1642, the year Saskia died, Rembrandt completed his largest and most famous painting. Commissioned by a company of Amsterdam’s , the citizen guard of the city, it shows Captain Frans Banninck Cocq giving his men the order to march. The title The Night Watch came much later, when darkened varnish made the daytime scene look like a night. The canvas is enormous, about 3.8 by 4.5 metres (12 by 15 feet), even though strips were cut from its edges in 1715 so that it would fit a wall in Amsterdam’s town hall.
Instead of lining the guardsmen up in neat rows, as group portraits usually did, Rembrandt set them in motion and lit them unevenly. This is , Italian for “light-dark”: strong contrasts that pull some figures into a pool of light and let others sink into shadow. Look for the small girl in gold, lit almost as brightly as the captain.
Since 2019 the painting has been the subject of Operation Night Watch, a research and conservation project carried out in full view of visitors at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Removal of the old varnish began in late 2024 inside a glass chamber in the gallery. The museum has not named an end date, so check the Rijksmuseum’s own website for the current state of the work.
A lifetime of self-portraits and etchings
Scholars today count more than forty painted self-portraits, around thirty etched ones and a few drawings. Some show Rembrandt in costume, as an officer, a beggar or a gentleman in velvet. Others are plain records of a face changing over time. In the late ones, the paint is thick and built up in ridges, a technique called that makes skin and gold chains seem almost sculpted.
Those faces, and his mastery of light and darkness, are why he still feels so close to us.
was Rembrandt’s second art, and in it he was just as inventive. He drew with a needle through a waxy ground on a copper plate, let acid bite the exposed lines, and then varied the inking from one print to the next. His etchings, just under three hundred in number, among them the celebrated Hundred Guilder Print, carried his reputation far beyond Amsterdam. In later plates he often added drypoint, scratching straight into the copper so that the raised metal edge prints as a soft, velvety black.
Debts and the late years
Rembrandt spent freely, on his house and on a large collection of paintings, prints, shells, weapons and curiosities. Debts mounted, and in 1656 he applied for a form of insolvency known as , in which a debtor surrenders his goods to creditors. His possessions were inventoried and sold, and he lost the house.
He moved to a smaller house in the Rozengracht and went on working. His son Titus and his partner Hendrickje Stoffels set up an art business that employed him and protected him from creditors. Late masterpieces such as The Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild and The Jewish Bride date from these years. Rembrandt outlived both Hendrickje and Titus, and died in Amsterdam in 1669.
- 1606Born in Leiden on 15 July.
- 1631Moves to Amsterdam at the end of the year.
- 1632Paints The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp.
- 1634Marries Saskia van Uylenburgh.
- 1639Moves into the house in the Jodenbreestraat.
- 1642Completes The Night Watch; Saskia dies.
- 1656Applies for cessio bonorum after mounting debts.
- 1669Dies in Amsterdam on 4 October.
Where to see Rembrandt
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Night Watch, The Jewish Bride, The Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild and many more paintings, plus a large collection of his prints and drawings.
- Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam: the house in the Jodenbreestraat where he lived and worked for almost twenty years, with reconstructed rooms and studio and a large collection of his etchings.
- Mauritshuis, The Hague: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp and a self-portrait from his final year.
- National Gallery, London: two of his finest self-portraits, painted at the ages of 34 and 63.
Terms in this article
- Chiaroscuro
- Italian for “light-dark”: strong contrasts of light and shadow used to model figures and create drama.
- Impasto
- Paint applied so thickly that brush or knife marks stand up from the surface and catch the light.
- Etching
- A print made from a metal plate whose lines have been drawn through a protective ground and bitten by acid.
- Cessio bonorum
- A Dutch legal arrangement in which an insolvent debtor surrendered his possessions to creditors to avoid prison.
- Civic militia
- The citizen guard of a Dutch town, whose companies commissioned large group portraits for their meeting halls.
Readers ask
Can I see The Night Watch while it is being restored?
Yes. Operation Night Watch has been carried out in public view at the Rijksmuseum since 2019, and the varnish removal that began in late 2024 takes place inside a glass chamber in the gallery, so visitors can watch conservators at work. Because the stages change over time, check the Rijksmuseum’s own website before your visit.
Why is it called The Night Watch?
The name is not Rembrandt’s. The painting shows a militia company setting out in daylight, led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. Over time, layers of varnish and dirt darkened the surface so much that the scene looked like a night, and the popular title stuck. The museum also uses a longer descriptive title naming the company and its officers.
How many self-portraits did Rembrandt make?
Scholars today count more than forty painted self-portraits, around thirty etched ones and a handful of drawings, spread over some forty years. Earlier counts were higher, because some works by pupils were once believed to be his. Together they form one of the most remarkable visual autobiographies in art, from early experiments with expression to the late, searching portraits of old age.
