Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606 - 1669), Portrait of a Man in a Tall Hat, 1663, oil on canvas
Of what Rembrandt really was we can know but little except through his paintings, his etchings, his drawings. His extreme absorption in work, which during his good days was a happiness and during his bad days a relief, separated him as a great worker, little known to the men of his day, in such a way at least as we might have fairly expected. Now, at length, we know all the ordinary facts of his life, the legends have melted away, and we can follow year by year the quiet accomplishment of his enormous tasks. Whatever of make- believe romance has faded, the real Rembrandt is still a poetic character from the very simplicity of his life, and the feeling we have of an interior one that fills his work and is only known thereby. His fame has increased year by year to such an extent that he represents in the story of the world a great part of the value of that native land which did not understand him. No one has been to Holland but has felt the importance of his name, and his memory pervades the cities in which he what obscurely worked. Rembrandt was born at Leyden, by a branch of the Rhine, whose name his father had taken, and from which he gets his full name of Rembrandt van Rijn. His father's name was Harmen. Hence his other name of Harmensz.
