Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Country	Netherlands
Categories	Artist > Painter

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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born July 15, 1606 in Leiden, Netherlands. He was the eighth out of nine children. His dad was a miller, and so the family was well off. He attended Latin school during his younger years, and enrolled at the University of Leiden two months before his fourteenth birthday. There, he learned the classics, such as grammar, roman mythology, and beginning drawing. The university bored him, and he left it. Rembrandt became an apprentice to Jacob van Swanenburgh for three years, and then switched to Pieter Lastman for six months. The earliest surviving painting of Rembrandt’s is The Stoning of Saint Stephen.

In 1624, he opened his own studio in his home town, with his friend Jan Lievens. Three years later, they started accepting students. One of his students, Gerard Dou, went on to be a famous painter in that area. Sometime in 1629, a statesman named Constatijn Huygens procured Rembrandt all the commissions from the court in Hague. His reputation increased steadily.

Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam after his father died in April of 1630. He moved in with an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburgh. He began to practice as a professional artist full time, rather than as a teacher. Four years later, he married Hendrick’s cousin, Saskia van Uylenburgh. They were wed at the local church of St. Annaparochie. That same year, Rembrandt became burgess of Amsterdam.