Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt von Rijn is considered one of the greatest artists of all time. Born in Leiden in the Netherlands as the son of a prosperous miller, he apprenticed with a local painter and an artist in Amsterdam as a teenager and eventually set up his own studio in Amsterdam. He pioneered a new way of using light and shadow. Rembrandt soon became the city’s most sought-after portrait artist, but despite his fame, he experienced financial difficulties and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1656. Near the end of his life, he increasingly painted self-portraits. In addition to portraits, Rembrandt’s more than three hundred known paintings include historical and biblical scenes and landscapes.