Looking with fresh eyes: Historians find new takes on Rembrandt's personality

~ Some of the myths surrounding the famous artist are being demolished.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Rembrandt's earliest self portraits show a curly haired, full-cheeked young man of 23, full of confidence, clad in dress above his station, literally wearing his ambition on his sleeve.

By the time we see his haggard face 40 years later -- with dozens of portraits in between -- we feel as though we know him like an uncle.

Despite the sense of familiarity, Rembrandt has remained a historical mystery.

For centuries, his personal story was shrouded by the romanticism of admirers who preferred to perpetuate the legend of an artist toiling away in obscurity in an all-consuming quest to unravel the secrets of the soul.

But as the Dutch celebrate his 400th birthday on Saturday, some of those myths are being demolished. Compared with contemporaries such as Vermeer, his life is surprisingly well documented -- with his bankruptcy and court cases providing a treasure trove of detail.

"What emerges is an unpleasant character, a cantankerous man who, at least on one occasion, showed extraordinary cruelty," said Rembrandt historian Gary Schwartz, referring to the artist's mistreatment of his mistress, Geertje Dircx.

Rembrandt self portrait, 1642, oil on panel. (The Royal Collection, London)

Series of exhibitions

Rembrandt's work and his life are open to the public as never before during the yearlong festival "Rembrandt 400." Nearly 100 oils have been loaned to Dutch museums, adding to the 49 permanently housed in the Netherlands.

A series of spectacular exhibitions highlight different aspects of his work. "Rembrandt: Quest for Genius" probed his use of light and motion. "Rembrandt and Caravaggio" paired him with the Italian Renaissance master whom he studied early in his career. "Rembrandt's Mother" sought to unscramble the various elderly women he and his students portrayed. "The Jewish Rembrandt," opening later this year, looks at his relationships with his Jewish neighbors and patrons and his biblical themes.

His birthday also is being celebrated with commercial silliness -- Rembrandt spaghetti, Rembrandt chocolate, Rembrandt wine. Tourists photograph themselves standing amid life-size bronze re-creations of Rembrandt's most famous painting, "The Night Watch," in Amsterdam's Rembrandt Square.

There are recorded Rembrandt walking tours, an internationally broadcast radio drama and a host of new books to add to the tens of thousands of publications about him.

"My hope for the Rembrandt year would be that somehow we would become free of images, that we look with fresh eyes," said Ernst van de Wetering, head of the Rembrandt Research Project and widely considered the world's foremost Rembrandt scholar. "So much research has been done, and so little of this research has come to the knowledge of the general public."

Not a stereotype

Van de Wetering dismisses the notion of Rembrandt as the impoverished artist driven to heights of creativity by his fiery emotions. Rather, he conceptualized his craft dispassionately, in a constant search for greatness. His inventiveness and originality did not come without hard work. He made small studies of light and shadow, of facial expressions -- often his own -- before incorporating them into historical works or biblical allegories.

Schwartz, an American who has lived in Holland more than 50 years, said the vicious side of Rembrandt's character was long overlooked by art historians.

Schwartz said he identified 25 conflicts the artist had with his family, creditors, patrons and even sitters who claimed he cheated them.

Not only was Rembrandt's character in doubt, but so was his inventory. Even now, uncertainty remains about dozens of paintings that may or may not be his. Recent analyses of paints, grounding, canvases, wood panels have led to a re-evaluation of what came from his own brush and what was painted by students or imitators.

A 1935 inventory listed 611 Rembrandt oils, but the Rembrandt Research Project has whittled that down by about half. Yet even van de Wetering changes his mind sometimes. The project was created in 1968 to settle questions of attribution.

New works are still being discovered. Two, borrowed from Warsaw Castle for exhibit, were long attributed to "Rembrandt's studio." Cleaned of grime, X-rayed and chemically tested while still in Poland, van de Wetering announced earlier this year that they came from the master's own brush.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was never the poor struggling artist. He won fame from an early age and commissions kept flowing. But he was a miserable money manager and profligate spender.

He went bankrupt and was evicted from his home in 1658. Four years later, he even sold his wife's grave site to pay off debts.

He painted self-portraits throughout his life, not to satisfy his ego or to explore his soul, but because he was a name brand and the works sold well.

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Highlights from Rembrandt's life:

• July 15, 1606, born in Leiden.
• 1624, sets up his own studio in Leiden.
• 1631, moves to Amsterdam, meets art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh.
• 1632, paints his first group portrait, "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp," establishing his reputation.
• 1634, marries van Uylenburgh's niece, Saskia, and he uses her often as a model.
• 1639, buys a house on Breestraat in Amsterdam's Jewish Quarter, now the Rembrandt House Museum.
• 1642, completes "The Night Watch," his most famous painting; Saskia dies at age 29; Geertje Dircx moves in as nursemaid to infant son Titus.
• 1647, Hendrickje Stoffels moves in as a maid. Rembrandt ends his relationship with Dircx and takes Stoffels as his mistress.
• 1650, has Dircx committed to a spin house, or correctional institute, after she sues him for breach of a promise to marry her.
• 1656, declares bankruptcy; an inventory of his possessions is drawn up, providing key clues to later scholars about his life.
• 1658, his house and possessions are sold in a series of auctions; Rembrandt and Stoffels move to small house on Rosengracht.
• 1663, Stoffels dies of the plague.
• 1668, son Titus, the only one of Saskia's four children to survive infancy, dies at age 27.
• 1669, paints two more self-portraits; dies on Oct. 4 -- survived by Cornelia, 15, daughter of Stoffels.

-- AP