Rembrandt House Museum - Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam

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Museum Het Rembrandthuis is the only place in the World where you can truly experience how Rembrandt lived and worked. In this building is where Rembrandt lived, raised his son Titus, instructed young artist and created his most famous works.

Museo Het Rembrandthuis es el único lugar en el mundo donde se puede realmente experimentar cómo Rembrandt vivió y trabajó. En este edificio es donde Rembrandt vivió, crió a su hijo Tito, instruido joven artista y creó sus obras más famosas.

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At the corner of Waterlooplein (flea market) you find Rembrandts house where he lived for nearly years.
I would have loved to visit however because of reorganising an exhibition it was closed just the 4 days we where in Amsterdam!
\Rembrandt bought the house in 1639, when he was at the height of his fame. In 1656 he went bankrupt because he could not pay his debts.
Everything of value in his house was sold at auction, including a large collection of art and rare objects. A notary drew up a list of his possessions. This is why they know how the house was furnished in Rembrandt’s time.
The historic interior was recently restored to its former glory and furnished with items and works of art from the master’s time. Wandering through the seventeenth century rooms, you can imagine yourself back in his days.

The house wns an almost complete collection of Rembrandt’s world famous etchings. A changing selection is on permanent display in the museum. There are also regular special exhibitions devoted to Rembrandt and to past and present artists who have been inspired by him.

At the workroom are demonstrations of how etchings are printed. Demonstrations of how paint was made in the seventeenth century are staged in his studio.
There are special activities for children, including a quiz quest through Rembrandt’s house

Rembrandt van Rijn lived and worked in this 400+ year old house from 1639 to 1658. It is a typical Amsterdam house – narrow with small staircases and lots of floors. The rooms included in the tour are the Entrance Hall, the Anteroom (where he carried on his art dealing business), the room behind the anteroom (where his fantastic etchings were done), the Salon (his living room and bedroom), a Large Studio (where he painted his masterpieces), and the Kitchen.

I especially loved the box beds. The beds were inside beautiful wooden armoire (wardrobe) type furniture. But my favorite things in the house were Rembrandt’s etchings. Some of the pictures were so small and the detail was amazing. One of my favorite Amserdam sights!

Paint-Making and Etching demonstrations. Tickets available online. I highly recommend a visit here!!

Open 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Admission: All prices include the museum's audio-guide.

Adults: € 12,00

Children age 6 to 15: € 1,50

Children under age 6: free

All visitor information was correct as of this writing.

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Probably the smallest number of Remembrandt’s works were “from nature”, that is, still-lifes, landscapes and townscapes. When he did them, they were often atypical. His depictions of the human body were often unlike any treatments that had been seen before. We have also assembled what other attempts we have made with the etchings we photographed as a Travelog.

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Rembrandt is the first Protestant artist to illustrate from the Bible. Catholic artists created what had been dictated to them by patrons (clergy) and may never have read a bible themselves. Rembrandt, however, read his own bible and made his own interpretations (often consulting others, including Jews; incidentally his interpretations are never challenged). Only some subjects attracted him, especially the “interface of the human with the divine” (K. Clark), and deeds of forgiveness. Experience him in depth at the Museum.

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Rembrandt was obsessed with illustrating emotion. He did more self-portraits than any other great artist in all sorts of media. He used a great variety of facial expressions, attitudes and garments, especially hats. No other artist has left a life time visual history of himself. His etchings were a prominent part of this catalog. Of course this proficiency, present from the beginning of his career, led to many portrait etching commissions from patrons who were writers or to whom books were dedicated. Later his religious etchings developed some demand.. Everything was grist for his etching mill. In the begiinning he sketched his family; in Amsterdam he lived next to the Jewish community and they provided numerous and varied models.

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The Jodenbreestraat runs SE from the South Church to and over a low bridge at the end of the Oude Schanz. On the right after this is the second house (#4-6) is the Rembrandt House Museum. Rembrandt bought this house in 1639 as he became affluent and relinquished it during his bankruptcy in 1660. Next year it will celebrate its 100th anniversary as a museum. It is 3 stories high and contains about 250 etchings of his as well as drawings by him and his masters and many students, and some of their paintings. A few of his greatest etchings are on the lower entrance floor where there is also an exposition of how an etching is created. Most of the holdings are upstairs. He lived on the second floor and more etchings are here. One does not get to see many of his etchings in one place except in Art books but this Museum is a banquet of this medium. Unfortunately it is hard to exhibit etchings. They are often small and shown behind glass and the lighting causes a myriad of reflections that test the eye (and the tourist's camera). Nevertheless you cannot really appreciate Rembrandt unless you savor his etchings and you cannot find the equal of this exhibit anywhere else. In subsequent Tips we will (as best we can) try to illustrate some of what we enjoyed. (As of this writing we can find only one picture of an etching under Rembrandthuis in VT).

It's nice to be able to see where the Great Master lived when things were going well for him! But there's a story behind the bourgeois facade of prosperity.

Interesting that Rembrandt did well in the great Dutch city of Amsterdam - and for a while he was "painter of the day" - in demand for big civic commissions (i.e. working on the new Town Hall) and society portraits of the rich and famous. But Rembrandt never forgot that he was Rembrandt, and by many accounts he was somewhat difficult to get along with. He also spent money freely on his house and his furniture and his servants, and eventually his finances got out of control. The big commissions began to dry up, some of his wealthy patrons began to turn against, and in general, Amsterdammers began to turn their attention (and their pocketbooks) to the new and younger generation of painters. Fashions turn.

Eventually Rembrandt and family faced the public humiliation of bankruptcy. The tut-tutting must have been impossible to avoid. This large and confortable house had to be given up. And Rembrandt's furniture and possessions were sold at public auction. As is well known, Rembrandt died impoverished, and was buried at public expense in an unmarked grave. C'est la vie.

It's good preparation for a trip to Amsterdam to read a good biography of Rembrandt - and his times. I can recommend the work of Simon Schama, particularly "Rembrandt's Eyes." (There's also some interesting bits about Rembrandt in Zadie Smith's recent novel "On Beauty" - but that's more of a London novel than an Amsterdam novel!)