Born 1606, Died 1669.One of the great Dutch painters and printmakers of the 17th century, Rembrandt van Rijn is best known for his expressive use of light and shadow (also called chiaroscuro) in his many portraits. Raised in Leiden, he studied with Pieter Lastman (1583-1633) in Amsterdam, then returned to Leiden around 1625 and set up shop as a teacher and portrait artist. Sometime between 1630 and 1632 Rembrandt relocated to Amsterdam, where he spent the rest of his career. Though he had his detractors (some of whom considered him coarse and "low born"), Rembrandt was successful and famous during his lifetime, though he fell on financial hard times in his later years. He was a master printer and produced hundreds of group portraits and historical paintings, including The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp (1632), The Military Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq (1642) and Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (1653). His portraits -- including a lifelong trail of intriguing and rather frank self-portraits -- reveal his interest in psychological study and continue to be admired as landmarks in Western art. The Military Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq is also known as "The Night Watch" because it was thought the painting depicted a nighttime scene. When the painting was cleaned in the 1940s it became obvious that it depicted a daytime scene... He married Saskia van Ulenburgh (also Uylenburgh) in 1634.   Related Paintings of REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn :. | Still Life | Old Soldier | Musical company (mk33) | Details of The Sampling Officials of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild (mk33) | The Staughtered Ox |
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Andrea Lilio
Andrea Lilio (1555/1570 - after 1639) was an Italian painter born in Fano, not far from Ancona, hence he also is known as L'Anconitano. Die Geschichte des Hl. NikolausHe painted mainly in his native city, as well as in Rome, where he was active from the beginning of the 17th century until around 1640. He was employed by Pope Sixtus V in the decoration of the library of the Vatican and in the decoration of the Scala Santa in San Giovanni Laterano. In the latter, he painted, Moses striking the Rock and Moses with the Brazen Serpent. Said to have been a pupil of Federico Barocci, he painted in a Mannerist style, already outdated in Baroque Rome at the time. Nevertheless, Lilio created a popular niche for himself by painting allegories for aristocratic audiences. In fact, it is altogether possible that Lilio collaborated for the illustrations of Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, which was a popular source for such motifs for a very long time. He died at Ascoli Piceno. In a chapel of the Chiesa Nuova, he painted The Archangel Michael driving fallen angels from Heaven. He continued to ornament churches and convents of Rome during the reign of Pope Clement VIII. One of his masterpieces, the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, was painted for Santa Caterina in Ancona. He painted the Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples for the nave of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. He also was part of the team active in the painting of the Sistine chapel (chapel of Nativity) in Santa Maria Maggiore. For the cathedral of Fano, he painted a picture of All Saints.
Jan van Goyen
Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1596-1656 Jan van Goyen was born in Leiden on Jan. 13, 1596. Apprenticed from the age of 10, he had several masters. About 1617 he went to Haarlem to study with Esaias van de Velde, an important innovator in the Haarlem movement of realistic landscape painting. Van Goyen's works between 1621 and 1625 are sometimes hard to distinguish from those of his teacher. They are colorful, detailed views of villages and roads, usually busy with people, as in Winter (1621). It was Van Goyen's usual practice to sign or monogram and date his paintings. He traveled extensively through the Netherlands and beyond, recording his impressions in sketchbooks, occasionally with dates and often depicting recognizable scenes. Thus the chronology of his development is clear. His paintings of the late 1620s show a steady advance from the strong colors and scattered organization of his early works toward tonality and greater simplicity and unity of composition. By 1630 he was painting monochromes in golden brown or pale green; he played a leading part in the tonal phase of Dutch landscape painting. In 1631 Van Goyen settled in The Hague, where he became a citizen in 1634. The simplicity, airiness, and unification of his compositions continued to increase in his abundant production of dune landscapes, river views, seascapes, town views, and winter landscapes. The River View (1636) displays a river so open and extensive as to suggest the sea, with reflections that prolong the vast and luminous sky. In its monumentalization of humble structures and its composition built on a firm scaffolding of horizontal and vertical forces, it forecast at this early date developments that dominated landscape painting in the 1650s and later. In the Village and Dunes (1647) the traditional double-diagonal composition still exists, but it is dominated by horizontal and vertical accents. Stronger contrasts of light and dark replace the earlier tonality. In the last year of his life Van Goyen produced an eloquent new style, in which powerful forms stand out against the radiant sky and water in an exquisitely balanced composition (Evening Calm; 1656). The commission in 1651 to paint a panoramic view of The Hague for the Burgomaster's Room shows the high regard in which Van Goyen was held. He was enormously productive; well over 1,000 of his paintings still exist, and almost as many drawings.
Samuel Walters
British Painter, 1811-1882