Rembrandt van Rijn, more commonly known simply as Rembrandt, was one of the most famous and prolific artists in history. He left behind over two thousand known works of art using a variety of media – ninety of which are self-portraits. His life is a rags-to-riches-to-rags story, with more than its share of misfortune.
Rembrandt was a Dutch painter active during the Baroque period. Known as the Dutch "Golden Age," this was an affluent time for the Dutch people, whose ships sailed around the world, bringing exotic trade goods back to their ports. Citizens throughout the Netherlands enjoyed their new, middle-class affluence and spent a good deal of money on art in a market quite similar to our own.
In Protestant northern Europe, artists were unable to depend on the Catholic church for commissions, as their counterparts did in Italy and Spain. As a result, they were dependent on private patrons who demanded portraiture and other works depicting commonplace scenes from contemporary Dutch life, known as genre paintings. Always a stubborn man, Rembrandt decided early that he wanted to be known as a history painter, illustrating scenes from the Old and New Testament and from classical mythology. At the time, this was considered to be the most noble and important form of painting, though its market was necessarily limited due to the greater sums of money required for the production of these larger-than-life paintings. Rembrandt’s “insensitivity” to trends in the art market probably contributed to his eventual financial ruin, but it also gave him the freedom to produce some of the most profoundly timeless images in the history of art.