Rembrandt House Museum - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Rembrandt House Museum is a house in Jodenbreestraat

Jodenbreestraat

The Jodenbreestraat is a street in the centre of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The street runs from the Sint Antoniesluis sluice gates to the Mr. Visserplein traffic circle...

in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, where Rembrandt lived and painted for a number of years. It is now a museum. Rembrandt purchased the house in 1639 and lived there until he went bankrupt

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

in 1656, when all his belongings went on auction.

History of the house

The house where Rembrandt lived between 1639 and 1658 is a museum: Museum het Rembrandthuis or the Rembrandt House Museum. The building was constructed in 1606 and 1607 for Cornelis van der Voort

Cornelis van der Voort

Cornelis van der Voort or van der Voorde was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter from the early 17th century.-Life:...

in what was then known as the Sint Anthonisbreestraat. The street did not come to be called Jodenbreestraat until later. The house was built on two lots in the eastern part of the city. Many rich merchants and artists settled in this new part of town.

It is a substantial two-story dwelling with a stepped gable. In about 1627-28 the house was drastically remodeled. It was given a new façade, a triangular corniced pediment—the height of modernity at the time—and another story was added. The reconstruction was probably overseen by Jacob van Campen

Jacob van Campen

Jacob van Campen , was a Dutch artist and architect of the Golden Age.-Life:He was born into a wealthy family at Haarlem, and spent his youth in his home town. Being of noble birth and with time on his hands, he took up painting mainly as a pastime...

, who was later to make his name as the architect of Amsterdam Town Hall (now The Dutch Royal Palace in Dam Square

Dam Square

Dam Square, or simply the Dam is a town square in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Its notable buildings and frequent events make it one of the most well-known and important locations in the city.- Location and description :...

1639–1658

In 1639 Rembrandt signed a contract governing the payment for the purchase of the house in Breestraat. The purchase price was 13,000 guilders, a huge sum, which he could not come up with in its entirety. He was, however, allowed to pay it off in installments.

At this time Rembrandt had already established his reputation as an artist. In the same year he bought the house, he was awarded the prestigious commission to paint the Night Watch
Night Watch (painting)
Night Watch or The Night Watch or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq is the common name of one of the most famous works by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn....

. Although he was earning a lot of money, Rembrandt was unable—or unwilling—to pay off the mortgage. This was eventually to bring about his financial downfall. Between 1652 and 1656 Rembrandt made frantic attempts to get his hands on money to pay off his debt. He did not succeed and was forced into bankruptcy.

In 1656 Rembrandt’s property was inventoried for the benefit of his creditors, and his household effects and collection of art and curiosities were sold. The house was auctioned in 1658 and fetched something over eleven thousand guilders. Rembrandt moved to a small rented house on Rozengracht, where he lived until his death in 1669.

1658–1911

In 1660–62 Rembrandt’s former house was shored up and split into two. It was to house several different families up to the end of the nineteenth century. During this period the house was altered several times, and its condition deteriorated over the years. The house might well have been demolished had it not once had such a famous occupant.

Action was taken on the occasion of the Rembrandt exhibition in 1906. The City of Amsterdam

Amsterdam

bought the dilapidated building and shortly afterwards handed it over to the Stichting Rembrandthuis, a foundation set up in 1907. The trustees of the foundation wanted to return Rembrandt’s former home as accurately as possible to the state it was in around the middle of the seventeenth century.

The envisaged reconstruction did not, however, go ahead. The board opted for a contemporary approach without historical references. The Rembrandt House became the setting for a print collection. The drastic restoration was carried out under the supervision of the architect K.P.C. de Bazel. The restoration of the house was completed in 1911, and Queen Wilhelmina

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Wilhelmina was Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948. She ruled the Netherlands for fifty-eight years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World War I and World War II, the economic crisis of 1933, and the decline of the Netherlands as a major colonial...

opened the museum.

1911–the present

In the museum’s early years the collection of etching

Etching

Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...

s grew steadily as a result of gifts and purchases. There were temporary exhibitions at regular intervals, but few changes were made to the interior of the house.

But then, in the 1990s, there were some major developments. The trustees succeeded in acquiring the adjacent premises, enabling them to build an extension to the museum. The façade of the new building was designed by the architects Moshé Zwarts and Rein Jansma, the interior by Peter Sas. The new wing, which was opened on 7 May 1998, houses two exhibition galleries, the secretarial department, offices, and the library, with the Rembrandt Information Centre.

Once the new wing was completed, it was possible to resurrect the old plan to restore Rembrandt’s former home to its original condition. The reconstruction did not progress without a hitch. Champions and opponents of the plan conducted a fundamental debate about the ethics of the restoration of historic buildings.

Once the board of the Rembrandt House was given the go-ahead, the work proceeded very carefully. In order to tackle the restoration plans as meticulously as possible, a restoration team was put together. It was headed by the building historian Henk Zantkuijl, an expert in seventeenth-century houses.

The plan was based on historical knowledge built up over many years. There was also a thorough study of available sources. The inventories of the house were very important—the inventory of 1626 belonging to the first occupant of the house and, in particular, the inventory that was compiled in 1656 because of Rembrandt’s bankruptcy. This latter source enabled the experts to work out how the house was laid out during this period and how Rembrandt had used the different rooms. Some of Rembrandt’s drawings and etchings provided additional information.

The structural drawings for the restoration were made by architect Maarten Neerincx in consultation met Zantkuijl. The work was done by the firms of Kneppers and Midreth. The restoration was completed in 1999.

History of the collection

Queen Wilhelmina

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

officially opened the Rembrandt House Museum on 10 June 1911. At the suggestion of the painter Jan Veth

Jan Veth

Jan Pieter Veth , was a Dutch painter, poet, art critic and university lecturer.Jan Veth was the son of Gerradus Huibert Veth, a Dordrecht iron merchant and liberal politician, and Anna Cornelia Giltay. On his mother's side he descended from the Dordrecht painter family of Van Strij...

, one of the members of the museum’s first board of governors, it had been decided to assemble a collection of Rembrandt’s etchings, which, it was felt, could hardly be better displayed than in the house in which most of them were made. Veth himself laid the foundations for the collection with the temporary loan of the etchings in the Lebret-Veth collection that were of sufficient quality. The first gifts were not long in coming.The first gift of an etching came from Paul Warburg

Paul Warburg

Paul Moritz Warburg was a German-born American banker and early advocate of the U.S. Federal Reserve system.- Early life :...

in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

: a fine early impression of St. Jerome beside a pollard

Pollarding

Pollarding is a pruning system in which the upper branches of a tree are removed, promoting a dense head of foliage and branches. It has been common in Great Britain and Europe since medieval times and is practiced today in urban areas worldwide, primarily to maintain trees at a predetermined...

willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

.

In the same year the artist Jozef Israëls

Jozef Israëls

Jozef Israëls was a Dutch painter, and "the most respected Dutch artist of the second half of the nineteenth century".-Youth:...

gave the new museum six etchings including Abraham

Abraham

Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...

’s sacrifice from the famous English collection of William Esdaile. An honorary member of the board of governors, P. Hartsen, deserves a special mention. His generous donations, having helped make the purchase of the house possible in the first place, then continued to add to the buying fund. The Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or simply Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history. It has a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a substantial collection of Asian art...

donated eleven etchings, duplicates from its print room, which have been in the Rembrandt House ever since.
The collection grew rapidly. In May 1913 thirty-three Rembrandt drawings from the famous English collection of J.P. Heseltine were auctioned in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

. The Rembrandt House succeeded in acquiring four of these: Woman with a child on her arm , The ruins of the Old Town Hall in Amsterdam, View of the Montelbaenstoren in Amsterdam and Seated girl, sleeping. The Rembrandt House bid successfully at other sales too. In 1914 Jan Veth

Jan Veth

returned from Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

with nineteen etchings, including such important pieces as Death appearing to a wedded couple, The large lion hunt and – to bolster the then still poorly represented landscapes – a fine impression of the View of Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

and Bloemendaal

Bloemendaal

Bloemendaal is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. According to the Dutch Central Statistical Bureau, Bloemendaal is the wealthiest place in the Netherlands.-Population centres :...

.

The war years that followed brought a temporary end to the growth of the collection, although in 1915 the Foundation was able to buy sixty-six etchings from Veth’s collection, most of which were already on loan to the museum. They included some beautiful and rare prints, among them The flight into Egypt, etched on a plate by Hercules Segers, and David and Goliath, designed as an illustration for Menasseh ben Israel

Menasseh Ben Israel

Manoel Dias Soeiro , better known by his Hebrew name Menasseh Ben Israel , was a Portuguese rabbi, kabbalist, scholar, writer, diplomat, printer and publisher, founder of the first Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam in...

’s book Piedra Gloriosa (Amsterdam 1655). In 1927 the Rembrandt House was to acquire, as a gift from I. de Bruyn, one of the extremely rare copies of the first edition of this mystical work, including Rembrandt’s four illustrations. Other items to come from the Veth collection were an early, heavily inked impression of the fourth and final state of The three crosses and the beautiful little portrait of Rembrandt’s mother. The museum’s collection of drawings was also growing, albeit slowly. In 1919 two sheets came from the estate of the artist Therèse van Duyl, who had bought them at the famous Heseltine sale: the Portrait of an old woman and the Study of a woman with a child on her arm, now attributed to Nicolaes Maes

Nicolaes Maes

Nicolaes Maes, also known as Nicolaes Maas was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre and portraits.-Biography:...

. Not long afterwards another drawing from the Heseltine sale, the self-portrait of the artist in his painting coat, was purchased. This meant that the museum now had the only drawn full-length self-portrait.

Jan Veth, the museum’s enthusiastic driving force, died in 1925. His successor on the board of governors was the collector I. de Bruyn, who was largely to assume Veth’s role as an adviser. By this time the collection had already become extremely large. But there were gaps, mainly in the early dated prints like the self-portraits and studies of beggars, minority of which were rare. In February 1933 a further six etchings were bought at the Houthakker/Hollstein sale, although the threat of war was already looming large. Directly after the invasion of May 1940 the etchings and drawings were moved into the safe in the cellar. When floods threatened the city in the spring of 1944 the works of art were moved to a safer location in a bank vault above ground, where they remained until after the liberation.
The museum reopened in July 1945. This was followed by a number of lean years. Lack of funds and a shortage of supply meant that few purchases of any note could be made. But in 1950 the museum was able to buy a counterproof of the fourth state of The three crosses: an interesting addition to the states of the print already in the museum’s possession. The most important post-war acquisitions are the forty etchings bequeathed to the Museum by de Bruyn, who died in 1962. These included the very rare first state of the Self-portrait with bushy hair, a fine impression on Japanese paper of Christ and the woman from Samaria from the collection of Pierre Mariette, an early, heavily inked pull of The descent from the cross by torchlight and a beautiful first state of The bathers.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to fill the gaps in the collection. Good impressions came onto the market only sporadically and even then the funds were often lacking – hardly surprising in the view of the way prices have risen. It was occasionally possible to add something – as in 1977, when a drawing by Rembrandt’s pupil Constantijn van Renesse, with corrections by Rembrandt, was purchased with the help of the Vereniging Rembrandt. Other additions have been the etching Man at a desk, wearing a chain with a cross in 1980 and, very recently, the little Bald-headed man in profile and the fourth state of The flight into Egypt.

The collection as it now stands provides an almost complete overview of Rembrandt’s graphic work: 260 of the 290 etchings he made are represented. The acquisition of four original etching plates in 1993 was of great importance. Until then they had formed part of a group of 78 copper plates which had remained together since they were first mentioned in the inventory of the Amsterdam print seller Clement de Jonghe. De Jonghe probably acquired the plates directly from Rembrandt. In January 1993 the collection was offered for sale and the Rembrandt House Museum was granted the first right of refusal. Thanks to gifts from various institutions, the government and many private individuals, the museum was able to purchase four of the finest and best preserved specimens.

In addition to the collection of etchings, drawings and copper plates by the master himself, the Rembrandt House Museum also owns a small number of paintings by Rembrandt’s teacher, his pupils and his contemporaries. In recent years the museum has increasingly concentrated its efforts on collecting the graphic work of his predecessors and followers. Among the most important acquisitions are prints by the Leiden artists Jan Lievens

Jan Lievens

Jan Lievens was a Dutch painter, usually associated with Rembrandt, working in a similar style.-Biography:According to Arnold Houbraken, Jan was the son of Lieven Hendriksze, a tapestry worker , and was trained by Joris Verschoten. He was sent to Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam at about the age of 10...

and Johannes van Vliet, both of whom worked closely with Rembrandt. The collecting policy does not, however, focus solely on artists who were directly influenced by Rembrandt. The museum has spread its net wider to include his later European followers, among them many eighteenth-century German and Austrian artists. The collection now includes etchings by Christian Wilhelm Dietrich, Georg Friedrich Schmidt

Georg Friedrich Schmidt

Georg Friedrich Schmidt was a German engraver and designer.-Biography:He studied art in Berlin under Busch, and under Nicolas Larmessin in Paris...

and others. And finally, there are the specialist areas of copies after Rembrandt and the many reproduction prints after his drawings and paintings.

Today the Rembrandt House Museum attracts a great many visitors with its permanent display of Rembrandt’s etchings and with important exhibitions. The growing numbers of visitors meant that the museum had to expand. The public facilities and exhibition rooms have been moved to a new wing. This transfer has made it possible to restore Rembrandt’s house. Fortunately, the inventory of 1656 provides a detailed picture of the interior as it was in Rembrandt’s day. Drawings by the artist also reveal the character of the rooms. Experts have undertaken lengthy and detailed studies to ensure that the restoration is historically accurate. The Rembrandt House is now refurbishing the rooms in an attempt to get as close as possible to the situation in Rembrandt’s time.

External links

Rembrandt House Museum website
Amsterdam Tourist Attractions

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