[Imperial Museum, Vienna
PORTRAIT OF A MAN
(1630-1632)
[Imperial Museum, Vienna
PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN
(1630-1632)
We find also, at the same time, a vast increase in the number of signed pictures, yet still note a surprising variety in the form the signature takes. No less than thirty are signed, and all but two of these are also dated. Nine of them bear the monogram, R.H.L., and ten others have the same, with, for the first time, the addition van Rijn, while one has the plain initial R. with van Rijn added. One, forming a sort of transition with the other group, is signed Rembrandt H.L. van Rijn, and nine are signed with the full name, in three of which the d is missing. Thirty-four of the pictures are portraits, and six of them form pairs representing husband and wife—namely, "Burgomaster Jan Pellicorne, with his son Caspar," and "Suzanna van Collen, his Wife, and her Daughter," in the Wallace collection; an unknown Man and his Wife, in the Imperial Museum, Vienna, though these four are only believed to belong to that year; the portraits of "Christian Paul van Beersteyn," and "Volkera Nicolai Knobbert," his wife, in the possession of Mr Havemeyer of New York, alone bearing the date. There is also a portrait at Brunswick [No. 232], fantastically called "Grotius," the companion of which was painted next year; another, believed, with good reason, to represent "Dr Tulp," formerly in the collection of the Princess de Sagan, which is also one of a pair, though the picture of the wife was not painted until two years later; and a third, in the collection of M. Pereire, Paris, of a man, whose wife was also not painted till the following year. Twelve others represent actually or conjecturally known individuals, but two of these, if, as is probable, they represent the painter's father, must have been painted earlier, as would also be the case with four others more doubtfully described, two as his mother, two as his sister. One at Cassel [No. 212] almost certainly represents "Coppenol, the Caligraphist," and an admirable picture in Captain Holford's collection, is undoubtedly "Martin Looten," a merchant of Amsterdam; while, even in that busy year, he found time once to paint his own portrait. The other four include the two of "Saskia," already mentioned in the Life, and two men, one said to be "Matthys Kalkoen," and one, a certain "Joris de Caulery."
So engaged was he on portraiture, that he only found time for three small figure subjects, if, indeed, they were painted that year, for none is dated. One, in the Wallace collection, is "The Good Samaritan"; the second at Berlin [No. 823], represents "Pluto in his Chariot carrying off Proserpine," quite the most successful of Rembrandt's rare appeals to classical mythology for inspiration; while the third at Frankfort [No. 183], is a somewhat indifferent rendering of "David playing the Harp before Saul."
I have left to the last, the great work of that year, the famous "Anatomy Lesson," at the Hague. In producing this, the largest and most ambitious work he had yet attempted, one, moreover, the success or failure of which could scarcely help having a marked influence on his future career, Rembrandt, we cannot but perceive, was not altogether at his ease. There are obvious signs that the hand that could already move with such courage and freedom, when the mere satisfying of himself was in question, was hampered by a return, partial at least, to his earlier timidity, when so much was at stake. He was so anxious to do his best that the spontaneity, conspicuous in most of his work, escaped in the process. The result is a little stiff in consequence, and the work somewhat dry and frigid; but the life and expression in the various heads is, nevertheless, so excellent, that it is impossible to regard it without delight and admiration.
Portraits again took up much of his time in 1633, among them the two companions to the portraits of the year before, and another pair, "Willem Burchgraeff," at Dresden [No. 1557], and "Margaretha van Bilderbeecq," his wife, in Frankfort [No. 182]. The painter's masterpiece, however, in matrimonial groups, is the "Shipbuilder and his Wife," at Buckingham Palace.
