 | Museum Het Rembrandthuis Jodenbreestraat 4 1011 NK Amsterdam The Netherlands T +31 20 520 0400 E museum@ museumrembrandthuis.nl Press Inquiries: press-office@museumrembrandthuis.nl |
Museum Het Rembrandthuis
Jodenbreestraat 4
1011 NK Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T +31 20 520 0400
E museum@ museumrembrandthuis.nl
Press Inquiries: press-office@museumrembrandthuis.nl
Rembrandt's pupils
We do not know exactly how many pupils Rembrandt had, but there must
have been more than forty of them. On the one hand they profited from
their master’s rapidly growing fame, on the other they themselves
contributed to broadcasting Rembrandt’s reputation.
Rembrandt had several pupils while he was still in Leiden. Once he came
to Amsterdam the number rose sharply, particularly between 1640 and
1650. Initially, when he had just arrived in the city, Rembrandt taught
in the house of the art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh in the
Breestraat. Later, when he had bought the house next door (now the
museum), the lessons were given here. The pupils had their own
workplaces in the ‘Cleyne Schildercaemer’ (the Small Studio), which
could accommodate about five pupils at a time.
There were three types of pupil in Rembrandt’s studio. Firstly there
were the boys aged between 12 and 14, who wanted to become painters in
their own right. When one of these boys came to Rembrandt, he had
usually already studied for some time with another master. Secondly
there were the assistants, who remained in the studio after their
apprenticeship with Rembrandt and helped with the teaching (among them
Ferdinand Bol and Samuel van Hoogstraeten). And finally there were the
‘amateurs’, who took lessons in drawing and painting as part of a good
education and did not have to make a living from their painting (for
instance Leendert van Beyeren and Karel van der Pluym).
Every pupil later used what he had learned from Rembrandt in a
different way. Rembrandt’s first pupil, Gerrit (Gerard) Dou, developed
an extremely precise painting style, whereas Aert de Gelder always
remained faithful to Rembrandt’s expressive paint handling technique.
Rembrandt received around 100 guilders a year in tuition fees for each
pupil.
Before pupils were allowed to work from life, they had to copy
drawings, prints and paintings. Rembrandt also got them to copy his own
paintings. It was only at a later stage that pupils were permitted to
make their own works (composing and painting them), and these were
sometimes corrected by the master. Rembrandt sold the copies after his
own works and the paintings created by the pupils themselves in his art
dealing business.
Rembrandt’s expressive and daring compositions attracted people from all over the country and even from abroad.
| Artists who were (or may have been) Rembrandt’s pupils: |
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Gerrit (Gerard) Dou
An Artist in his Studio, c. 1628
Panel, 53 x 64.5 cm Private collection
Dou was Rembrandt’s pupil in 1628. This painting, which was previously known as "Rembrandt in his Studio", shows the sort of objects that an artist might collect in his workroom, all in the service of his art. It should be seen as the ideal of a studio.
Unknown Rembrandt pupil
Drawing from life in Rembrandt’s Studio, c. 1650
Pen and brush in brown, black chalk, heightened with white, 18 x 26.6 cm
Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt
This studio interior shows us that Rembrandt was accustomed to get his pupils to draw from life in small groups. In the last phase of their training they had to learn how to depict the human figure in all sorts of poses. A shelf on the wall holds plaster casts of statues, which were used as teaching aids.
