REMBRANDT, VAN RYN, a celebrated Dutch pain ter, was born at a village near Leyden, in the year 1605. His veal name was Gerretzs; but he took the name of Ryan from a village on the Rhine, in which he resided in early life.
Rembrandt received his first instructions in painting from Zwanenbu•g, and afterwards studied under Peter Lastman and Jacob Pinas, from the last of whom he is thought to have derived his passion for powerful con trasts of lights and shadows.
The talents of Rembrandt were first noticed by a connoisseur at the Hague, to whom he had brought a, picture for sale. Convinced of the merit of the picture, he gave him a hundred florins for it, and treated him with much kindness. This incident immediately ex tended his reputation, and he soon found himself in the possession of full employment. The pupils whom he received into his school, paid him a hundred florins a year ; and he often sold as originals, their copies of his pictures, after having given them a few touches of his own pencil. In this way, and by the sale of his etchings, which he executed with great facility, he accumulated considerable wealth ; and he is said, after his removal to Amsterdam, to have been in the receipt of at least 2500 florins annually.
The execution of his picture of the Woman Taken in Adultery, in the collection made by Mr. Angerstein, is characterized by great minuteness and patience of touch; but he afterwards used his pencil with more freedom, and even used the stick, the pallet, the knife, or his finger, to produce effects, which though unable to bear a near examination, were every way admirable at the proper distance.
Rembrandt was distinguished by many singularities, and latterly by a great degree of avarice, which he dis played in e ays by no means creditable.
When he was one day painting a whole family in a single picture, he received notice of the death of his monkey ; affected by the loss of that animal, he forgot hits customers, and painted the monkey along with them on the same canvass. He is said to have tried various schemes for obtaining a high price for his etchings. Sometimes he made his son sell them, as if he had stolen them from his father. At other times he exposed them to sale, and went iu disguise to bid for them. Sometimes he threw off and sold unfinished proofs, and when they were afterwards finished, they appeared as fresh pl4tes ; and sometimes he created a temporary demand for them, by announcing his intention of leaving Holland. His scholars, to whom his love of money was well known, once painted some pieces of money on cards, which tempted Rembrandt to take them up.
Among his scholars, Bohl and Eckhoud seem to have approached nearer than any other to the delicacy of his finished works.
The pictures of Rembrandt are in great request, and always bring high prices. He died in the year 1766, in the 68th year of his age. See our article PAINTING.