Rembrandt Van Rijn -- 1

Many of you would be familiar with Dava Sobel's book 'Galileo's Daughter'. It is based on letters exchanged between Galileo and his illegitimate daughter, Nun Suor Maria Celeste. We all know about Galileo's encounter with the Church when he accepted Copernicus' idea that the sun was the centre of the solar system. There are many romantic tales one hears about Galileo's bravery when facing the inquisition. In this book, you learn that there was hardly any truth in this. With the prospect of terrifying physical torture looming large before him, the old, broken man had yielded, though science prospered eventually.


One comes across many such books on great creators, Lust for Life, The Moon and Six Pence, Moulin Rouge, Agony and the Ecstasy and so on. However, these are mostly novels, not historical accounts, though they contain elements of history and are built around them. By comparison, the Dava Sobel book is closer to the truth concerning the man it deals with.


I have long been searching for a similar book I had heard of. It deals with the great seventeenth century painter Rembrandt Van Rijn. The author was Hendrik Van Loon and the book is dated 1930. It's no longer easy to lay one's hands on, but thanks to one of my students who is now completing her graduate studies in the US, I was able to procure a second hand copy. Hendrik Van Loon's report on Rembrandt and his times is based on an account left for posterity by the latter's surgeon-physician cum close friend Joannis Van Loon. The book does not talk merely about Rembrandt. It describes in great detail what was happening in Europe around the time, the conflicts between the Church and Science, the colonization of America and so on.


I am so thrilled by the book that I cannot resist the temptation of sharing parts of it with you. I am totally untrained in the history or techniques of painting. But the book forced me to ruminate on the subject. How did the painter, who was revolutionizing art, just as Galileo was revolutionizing physics, actually think? It is best that I quote from the book itself. This is a conversation between Rembrandt and the doctor.


' "You always impressed me as an intelligent person, Doctor," he said, "and yet, here you are, forty years old, or even more, and you have never yet discovered what all truly intelligent people have known since the beginning of time."


"And that is?" I asked him.


"That nothing counts in this world except the inner spirit of things."


"Meaning the immortal soul of man?"


"Meaning the immortal soul of everything that was ever created."


"The immortal soul of tables and chairs and cats and dogs and houses and ships? Of books and scissors and flowers and clouds?"


"Exactly."


I looked at this strange man with the tired eyes. "How many people in all the world will be able to understand that?"

He answered me slowly: "Well, perhaps three or four in every hundred. At the most, four. In very exceptional cases, five."


"And the others?"


"They will let us starve to death." '


Rembrandt did reach an unenviable end, but before I move on to the gory details, here is an instance of one of his works. It's been called Philosopher in Meditation and is dated 1632.

Larger picture


I know nothing about painting as I admitted, yet it appears to be speaking to me. I think the staircase has a soul. The light and shade and the mysterious darkness to which the staircase ascends appears to constitute the very soul of the painting.

As I kept reading the book, I realized that the cause of Rembrandt's problems lay in himself. He was hopelessly unpractical and totally oblivious of everything that was happening around him. He was preoccupied with painting even when his first wife Saskia was dying of pthisis around the year 1642. The conversation I posted above took place during that year, when the doctor was attending to his wife.

Rembrandt started out as a successful portrait painter and had a reasonable income. He spent all of it in buying antiques, including paintings my Michelangelo. He bought a house using his wife's property as collateral. He did not realize that this property was disputed and that he would never get a penny out of it. What this led to ultimately, I will tell you later. But you can very well guess that he ran into bankcruptcy. What you cannot guess though is that he was painting away with supreme concentration when his creditors were knocking on his door.

Was he irresponsible? Perhaps so. But there are people on this earth who are not ordinary mortals. They are endowed with visions of immortality and often fail to fulfil the standards of morality that hold society together. Galileo had three children, all illegitimate. Why he never married their mother is anybody's guess. However, he left for humanity a legacy that will keep us all eternally indebted to him.

Going back to Rembrandt, the following quote offers us some insight into the mind of the genius. It's lifted once again from the doctor's journal. This was long after Saskia's death.

'Rembrandt never lost his temper and I admired his patience until I discovered one evening that he did not even listen. He just went on painting and let me talk. Only the week before he had complained to me that his heart caused him trouble ...

' "I have not had many orders for portraits of late ... But people will buy etchings. They are good investments and I had orders for several hundred. So in the evening ... I used to strike off a few copies myself."

' "At what time did you begin?"

' "About seven."

' "And when did you stop?"

' "Oh, sometimes quite early. Other evenings I worked until four or five."

' "Without stopping?"

' "Yes. Sometimes I sotpped for a quarter of an hour or so and had a glass of beer. One gets thirsty. It is hard work."

' Seven until four or five -- that meant nine hours of standing on his feet in a small room that was suffocatingly hot, ...

' "Man alive!" I answered him ... "But of course," I said, "when you do that you don't paint?"

' "Yes, I paint the greater part of the day in my studio, as long as there is any light. Then I take the candles ..."

' "How many candles?"

' "One as a rule. ... (A)fter five of six hours, I find myself weeping big tears ... I got funny pains. ... As if someone were sticking a pin into my eye-balls. ..."

' "Has it ever dawned on you," I asked him, "that ... you may lose your eyesight completely? A fine painter you will be with your eyes gone!"

' "Don't be angry with me, Doctor," he begged me, "... but I can't stop. I have to go on. ... I am really a little crazy. ... I know that I am not an ordinary, well-balanced and respectable member of society and I know that no matter how hard I try, I never shall be. So far I have kept out of the poor-house. But only because I happen to have inherited all that money from Saskia. The inheritance is a little slow in collecting, but anyway it gives me credit, which is almost as good as having money. ... if I did not have that money, I don't know what would have happened to me .. My work doesn't sell.

' "It isn't that I am too proud or too haughty. I just can't do differently ... And so I stick to my own line and I suppose I shall stick to it until I go to the poor-house or the cemetery and you may have to put a stone on my grave, saying: "Here lies a fool' and you will never have been so right in all your life."

Of course, Rembrandt was wrong in believeing he had an inheritance from his wife.

How did the world treat this hopelessly unwise man?

Ojaantrik,

Rembrandt! That was what drew me to this thread. I admire his paintings a lot! And yes, they really seem to convey something.......speak to us. And you have really kindled my curiosity with excerpts from the book. I wish I could read the good doctor's accounts too! Thank you for sharing some details with us. Will you be posting more excerpts from the book? If so, I will look forward to them.

Regards,
Anitha

Originally Posted by AnithaA

Ojaantrik,

Rembrandt! That was what drew me to this thread. I admire his paintings a lot! And yes, they really seem to convey something.......speak to us. And you have really kindled my curiosity with excerpts from the book. I wish I could read the good doctor's accounts too! Thank you for sharing some details with us. Will you be posting more excerpts from the book? If so, I will look forward to them.

Regards,
Anitha

Yes Anitha, I intend to put up more excerpts from this fascinating book.

dear oj,

though not very knowledgeable about art who has not heard of the great artist rembrandt.......many famous people are known for being hopelessly impractical and irresponsible with their filial duties..loved the part of him being patient because he did not listen to half the things that were said...hey that is a very wise lesson learnt to control the temper....good post..thanks for sharing...

Mindi

Dear Ojaantrik,

Shall give detaliled comments later. But thrilled to see a post which is a class by itself. I feel elated to see such threads. Normally we stick to matters which are very light in nature. Your thread needs a serious reading before it is commented uopn. kanaka

Originally Posted by Mindian

dear oj,

though not very knowledgeable about art who has not heard of the great artist rembrandt.......many famous people are known for being hopelessly impractical and irresponsible with their filial duties..loved the part of him being patient because he did not listen to half the things that were said...hey that is a very wise lesson learnt to control the temper....good post..thanks for sharing...

Mindi

Thanks Mindi:

Let's see how the story unfolds. I am still fascinated by the events that were occurring around the time. Religion and science too had a role to play as you will see.

oj

Originally Posted by kanaka

Dear Ojaantrik,

Shall give detaliled comments later. But thrilled to see a post which is a class by itself. I feel elated to see such threads. Normally we stick to matters which are very light in nature. Your thread needs a serious reading before it is commented uopn. kanaka

Thank you so much. Will look forward to your views.

oj

Dear OJ,

Thank you very much for this excellent critique of Rembrandt's life and work. As you have rightly said, great artists were totally immersed in their art and shut out wordly happenings.

Man's ability to think creatively is the very feature that distinguishes him from animal - after all, what do animals do except eat, sleep, fight and procreate?
And it is this gift that could lead to ruin if it isn't solidly in touch with the mechanics of daily living.
One cannot agree more with the saying 'There is a fine line between genius and madness'!

Mozart was another of those impractical geniuses...he too mismanaged his money and had to die in relative poverty...

I look forward to more of your writings,

Regards,
Sowmya

Originally Posted by sowmyapbhat

Dear OJ,

Thank you very much for this excellent critique of Rembrandt's life and work. As you have rightly said, great artists were totally immersed in their art and shut out wordly happenings.

Man's ability to think creatively is the very feature that distinguishes him from animal - after all, what do animals do except eat, sleep, fight and procreate?
And it is this gift that could lead to ruin if it isn't solidly in touch with the mechanics of daily living.
One cannot agree more with the saying 'There is a fine line between genius and madness'!

Mozart was another of those impractical geniuses...he too mismanaged his money and had to die in relative poverty...

I look forward to more of your writings,

Regards,
Sowmya

Dear Sowmya:

You were very right in bringing up Mozart. Another genius who was ruined because he lacked worldly wisdom. In the Rembrandt story, we come across other problems too. In the next post, I will try to bring these up. For example, why was this doctor, who was so close to Rembrandt, who did not lack material resources, not able to help Rembrandt when he was in serious trouble. I will talk about this and Rembrandt's vision of art. But should I go on?

Dear OJ,

Of course you should continue! We do not get to see topics of such intellectual value everyday. And the loose ends in the above narrative need to be tied, too, such as the reasons behind the doctor's apparent detachment from his patient!

Waiting for the next installment in this series,

Regards,
Sowmya