Fortunately for Rembrandt, he also enjoyed and excelled at portrait painting whilst others have traditionally had to revert to it against the preferences because of it's ability to finance an artist's career.Ī key moment in Rembrandt's career was when he lodged with Hendrick van Uylenburgh who played an important role in his life for two very different reasons. This reputation led to considerable numbers of commissions of significant people of that time, which helped him to finance his career and take financial concerns away for good. The artist achieved the reputation as the finest artist in Holland, which was a major accolade at such an exceptional time for it's arts. The paintings serve as examples of his great skills but also serve as a guide to his mood at the point of each painting. As well as commissioned portraits, Rembrandt is known to have completed around 50 to 60 self-portraits which have also attracted great study. Rembrandt started to teach others of his skills once he became confortable with his own skills and would continue to teach others for the rest of his career as he shifted his location around the Netherlands, which was to always be his prefered country. His time in a prosperous Amersterdam gave him everything he needed to further develop his skills and ideas. Whilst studying the Italian masters that had gone before, Rembradt was always a little more respectful to his fellow native Dutchmen and preferred to study what had gone before in his native Netherlands rather than looking too much abroad. Alternatively, check out Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
For those interested in discovering more about these, you can find Caravaggio here for example, and Caravaggio was one of the biggest influences of all.
Rembrandt is known to have been inspired by Italian artists who had dominated the art world in the eras leading up to the time of Rembrandt. It is Rembrandt's painting which best underline his exceptional brushwork and bold colours that helped develop art onwards from the 17th century. Rembrandt specialised in oil painting but was also a specialised draftsman and etcher, with many of his simple sketches also attracting considerable attention ever since the end of his career.