It is not for nothing that Rembrandt is called "the master of triumphant light." He skillfully used the most expressive effects of chiaroscuro. Thanks to this, his paintings seem voluminous.
early years
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in 1606 in the Dutch town of Leiden. He was the son of a miller. He learned the basics of painting from Italian masters. At the age of 19, Rembrandt opened his own workshop. For several years, the young artist has become an eminent portrait painter. He soon moved to Amsterdam and opened a workshop there.
Rembrandt had many orders, all of them paid well. To individual and group portraits, which were in demand among traders or artisans, paintings on mythological and biblical subjects were soon added. The artist led the life of a wealthy nobleman and collected valuable things.
Creation
Renaissance artists began to work on the creation of three-dimensional figures on the canvas and the effect of space with the help of light and shadow. In Rembrandt's paintings, a bright flash of light is opposed to a dark background, which snatches out of the darkness and emphasizes the most important thing.
In the portraits, the artist strove to achieve not only external similarity, but also to convey the character, mood, and features of a person's nature. For this, he uses light in a new way: in his paintings, the hands and faces of the characters, as the most expressive parts, are brightly illuminated. In group portraits, the artist depicts people not statically, but in action. For example, in the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulpa, doctors are shown at the anatomy of a corpse, which at that time was as new and unusual as the portraits painted by Rembrandt.
Self-portraits occupied a special place in the artist's work. He wrote over 70 pieces. It is in self-portraits that did not depend on the taste of the client that Rembrandt is most frank and perceptive. Without self-admiration, he fixes the traces of time on his face and changes in his soul - in his eyes. Following his example 250 years later, another Dutch artist, Van Gogh, tirelessly created his own portraits.
Thanks to Rembrandt, engravings began to turn into independent forms of art. In them, he also tried to convey the same effect of bright light. On his account there are about 350 engravings.
Famous paintings
One of the famous works of the artist is "Danae". The painting, kept in the Hermitage, was almost irretrievably lost in 1985 due to a vandal who doused it with acid and then cut it up. After that, the canvas was restored for more than 10 years.
"Night Watch" is a huge canvas, almost four meters long. You can look at it for hours: all the characters are drawn in such detail.
Other famous paintings by Rembrandt include:
- The Prodigal Son in a Tavern;
- "Saskia as Flora";
- The Return of the Prodigal Son.
