Fourth Amsterdam period (1658–69) of Rembrandt

Having sold his house in 1658, Rembrandt rented a house on the Rozengracht. In 1660 a contract was drawn up between Rembrandt, his son, Titus, and Hendrickje Stoffels. This was designed to protect Rembrandt from his creditors and to enable him to continue working. The agreement entailed that Rembrandt should “give aid and assistance” to the other two parties, and then it stipulated that “[Rembrandt] would live with them, receive free board, and be exempt from housekeeping expenses and rent on condition that he will aid the partners in every respect to the extent possible, and promote the business.” In reality, Rembrandt now worked in the service of his son and his common-law wife, as the agreement continued: “Having been granted some time ago cessio bonorum [conveyance of goods], the reason why he has given up everything and has to be supported.”

This does not mean, however, that the painter had been pushed to the margins of society, not even after both Titus and Stoffels had died. Emmens’s conclusion, mentioned above, that the old Rembrandt was still considered a “towering” figure in his time is supported by several interesting documents. For instance, on December 29, 1667, Rembrandt was visited by Prince Cosimo de’ Medici, the future grand duke of Tuscany. In the prince’s travel journal, Rembrandt was referred to as “pittore famoso” (“famous painter”). Only two of the other artists Cosimo visited were referred to as “famoso,” Gerrit Dou and Frans van Mieris. Cosimo probably bought one of Rembrandt’s late self-portraits in the summer of 1669 on a second visit he is thought to have paid to Rembrandt. These visits surely indicate that Rembrandt was esteemed highly until his death. This is confirmed by the discovery among the papers of the southern German art lover Gabriel Bucelinus of a list with the “Names of the Most Distinguished European Painters” in which Rembrandt was mentioned. It is striking not only that Bucelinus recorded his name as a distinguished painter but that Rembrandt is the sole painter in this list of 166 names to whose name was appended the note “nostrae aetatis miraculum” (“miracle of our age”).

Nevertheless, there is a puzzling discrepancy between such evidence of Rembrandt’s fame and the fact that he was never chosen as the first candidate for a prestigious commission. An outstanding example is the case of the mausoleum in Palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, to be erected in the Central Hall, known as the Oranjezaal. Planned for this octagonal hall was a grand ensemble of paintings depicting the life and triumphs of stadholder Prince Frederik Hendrik, who had died in 1647. The extremely ambitious plans for this hall were developed by Amalia van Solms, his widow; Huygens, his secretary; and the painter and architect Jacob van Campen. Those considered to be the best painters of that moment from the northern as well as from the southern Netherlands were invited to contribute one or more works to add to this ensemble. Rembrandt was not among these painters; in the extremely well-preserved Oranjezaal there is no work from his hand, although Lievens, the friend of his youth, did contribute a work.

A similar example is the new Amsterdam Town Hall, now the Royal Palace, which had an extensive decoration program. This would contain a great number of large history pieces painted by different masters. Rembrandt was not invited, but his former pupil Flinck received the most prestigious of these commissions: he was commissioned to paint a series of monumental history pieces in the lunettes of the Central Hall. However, Flinck died before he could finish the first painting of this series. It was only then that Rembrandt was invited, as a stand-in for Flinck, to paint one of these works, the Conspiracy of the Batavians. It seems that the painting ultimately was not accepted.

The fact that both these projects, the Oranjezaal and the Amsterdam Town Hall, can be termed Classicist in style may explain the absence of Rembrandt’s works. Rembrandt did not fit the new fashion and apparently was not willing to adapt his style to these projects. It is true that his huge Conspiracy of the Batavians was mounted for a short time in its place in the Town Hall, but then it was removed. Surviving documents mention that Rembrandt expected payment for changes he was to carry out. However, the painting did not return to its place. At some unknown point, it was cut down, possibly by Rembrandt himself, to a manageable size.

This may have been one of the situations in which Rembrandt proved to be a headstrong, self-willed man. He may well have gained the reputation of a man not malleable to his patrons’ wishes. Baldinucci, on the authority of Rembrandt’s Danish pupil Eberhard Keil, makes mention of “Rembrandt’s lack of conformity” and points out that “his singularity in his way of painting corresponded to his way of life.” Baldinucci continues, “He was an umorista [capricious man] of the first order and disdained everybody. When he worked he would not receive the greatest monarch in the world; a king would have to return again and again until he finished his work.” These statements may be exaggerated, but other documents confirm that they must contain some truth. Baldinucci further remarks that “Rembrandt associated with people below his station; the artist’s ugly and plebeian face was accompanied by dirty and untidy clothes because it was his habit to wipe his brushes on himself while he worked and to do other things of a similar nature.” But one should temper Baldinucci’s characterization with the testimonies of Rembrandt’s contemporaries, such as Huygens and von Sandrart, from which Rembrandt emerges as a person who was so intensely devoted to his work that he neglected everything that would interfere with it, including many social niceties.

Nevertheless, the old Rembrandt still received commissions, mainly for portraits, among which a group portrait of the sampling officials of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild (The Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild, 1662), an anonymous family group (mid-1660s), and an anonymous portrait historié of Isaac and Rebecca (1667), better known as The Jewish Bride (portrait historié is a phrase used to indicate a portrait in which the sitter is—or in this case the sitters are—rendered in a historic role with historicizing costumes). Shortly before his death Rembrandt was preparing a number of copperplates for an etched Passion, commissioned by the Amsterdam art lover Dirck Cattenburgh. He did not finish this project.

Rembrandt died at age 63 and was buried in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. The cause of his death is not known.