Destination: Rembrandt House Museum
Welcome to Destination: History, where we tackle interesting and fascinating places and take a stroll through the history behind them.
Unlike many famous artists the cameo in today’s story was recognised as a wonder while alive but he was horrible with his money. This is the story of his house.
Join me as we take a look at today’s destination: Rembrandt House.
Before Rembrandt
Today’s journey starts in 1606 with the construction of what would become, in time, Rembrandt’s house. And just in case you forgot when the thing was built it’s got the date painted on the front in gold, so you really can’t miss it.
The neighbourhood was pretty diverse at the time, basically full of artists and was known as the Jewish Quarter of the City. The house itself was pretty wide, taking up two lots and was two stories with a stepped gable.
The original owner was a Pieter Belten from Antwerp, he had supposedly bought the house off a Hans van der Voort. And he wasted no time in making improvements. Making it larger out the back and even having a gallery added to the inner courtyard.
Once Belten passed away though his children, who thought quite a fair bit of themselves, decided the house just wasn’t cutting it. And so in 1627 they brought in Jacob van Campen who was a pretty fancy architect himself, going on later to be the architect of the Amsterdam Town Hall which you might know today as the Palace in Dam Square. Van Campen went about modernising the house and updating the façade, adding a triangular corniced pediment which was pretty flash at the time, and added a third storey. This façade is actually what we see today.
Christoffel Thijsz and Pieter Belten de Jonge, known as the
sole heirs of Pieter Belten de oude,
liked to think of themselves as nobility and so really forked out on the renovation, the hilarious thing about this is that while the remodelling was going on everyone who made the area a desirable place to live pretty much all moved to a newer part of the city. It was so quick it was like they all planned it and Belten’s kids didn’t get the memo. So this house that they had basically rebuilt all of a sudden wasn’t really of that much interest to them. Sitting in the, now unpopular, medieval part of the city, the housing market dipped quite dramatically and Belten’s kids were keen to sell.
The house, which had originally sat on Sint Anthonisbreestraat, went on the market in the 1620s and pretty much stayed there for a while.
Just an aside on the street names. ‘Breestraat’ is the Dutch for ‘Broad Street and as is already established was a pretty wealthy neighbourhood with a strong Jewish population. Since Rembrandt’s time the street name has since changed to Jodenbreestraat and today the house can be found at number 4.
So while Belten’s house was still on the market Rembrandt was wandering around looking for a workshop where he could paint. He’d just been commissioned to work on what became known as one of his well-known paintings, The Nightwatch. Naturally he wanted something that reflected his new social standing. He’d gotten married to quite the socialite, in fact she was the daughter of the city’s mayor, and was invited to some pretty flash social circles because of the success he was enjoying from his paintings and engravings. He may have splurged a little too much on the house but we’ll hear more about that a little later.
Rembrandt, the Painter
Rembrandt was born in the right time. He was a gifted artist in the middle of Amsterdam that was enjoying a period of amazing culture. And to top it off, he was appreciated in his own time, able to make a living from his art. So much so that he was able to buy a house that had been sitting on the market for years at an unrealistic price.
At the time the neighbourhood was filled with artist types, you might even go so far as to call it ‘hipster’. Bascially it was filled with A-list artists like Pieter Lastman, who was actually Rembrandt’s teacher, Nicolas Eliasz Pickenoy, Pieter Codde and Nicolas van Bambeeck even had his house across the road.
So in 1639 Rembrandt, aged 33, bought the house for 13 000 guilders which was actually a ridiculous amount of money at the time. But Rembrandt was flying high and decided that only the best would do for himself and his wife, Sasakia van Uylenburgh.
Rembrandt moved in and was initially pretty comfortable. He was getting some commissions from some pretty high up people and was producing quality work. Some of which you can see today in the world famous Rijksmuseum. Including The Nightwatch, The Hundred Guilder Print, The Three Trees and The Three Crosses.
You might know that Amsterdam is quite similar to Venice in that it is a canal city. Basically Amsterdam was built on a swamp. And with their ingenious damming solutions the Dutch were able to build a whole city.
But as it turned out Rembrandt’s house was a bit of a rush job. Before a house is built the marshy soil is squished down and prepared to take the weight of a house for centuries, but Rembrandt’s house was built too soon, the soil hadn’t had time to settle properly. You might have seen examples of the soil moving around with houses moving and leaning.
The cost to get some extra support under the foundations and repair the damage was going to be pretty pricey and Rembrandt just couldn’t afford it on his own. But his neighbour, who was in the same position with a leaning house, decided he was going to pay the costs in 1653 but Rembrandt was standing his ground and was dead set against being apart of anything to do with supporting his home, despite sharing an entire wall with his neighbour. But that still didn’t really help Rembrandt out about not paying the bills. Because he was still asked to pay the bill concerning the common wall.
But the reason Rembrandt didn’t want to shore up the house wasn’t because he loved living in a sinking home, it was because he’d stretched himself too far and actually couldn’t afford it.
He was struggling so much with money that in 1649 he was forced to stop paying the instalments on the house and it was also in 1653 that a bill was sent asking for him to catch up. Unfortunately Rembrandt would never catch up and would eventually have to declare bankruptcy.
Which is really weird because Rembrandt was going great guns with his art. He was producing massive amounts of paintings, drawings and etchings and he had pupils coming round to be taught the art.
But Rembrandt was a passionate collector, pretty much turning the house into a massive cabinet of curiosities. He had all sorts of rarities lying about.
But things started getting hard, tastes surrounding paintings and drawings started to change. Rembrandt had spent big on his house and building his collection and so didn’t have a whole lot left over in the savings account.
Rembrandt also wasn’t having the best time, 3 years after moving in his wife had passed away from tuberculosis and of their 4 kids, only 1 survived to adulthood. But Titus wasn’t that lucky he didn’t get the chance to outlive his father.
So Rembrandt officially declared bankruptcy in 1658. I imagine this wasn’t one of his finest moments but it’s turned out to be pretty handy for those us living in the future, because when he declared bankruptcy the creditors made a detailed inventory of his possessions. Every single thing that Rembrandt owned was put on the list in an effort to cover the massive debt Rembrandt had stacked up, which turned out to be roughly 11 000 guilders basically the cost of a house.
In the same year Rembrandt was forced to move out of his home. He ended up moving to a much smaller house on Rozengracht and didn’t move again until he died.
Rembrandt’s new house was nothing like his old one. It was in a different district of Amsterdam, one without so much history, and this new house was eventually demolished in the 19th century. But this spot wasn’t forgotten, if you wander past you’ll see a commemorative plaque acknowledging the grace of his presence.
After Rembrandt
It was in 1660 to 1662 that the houses foundations were finally supported and the house was actually split into two houses. For the 250 years after Rembrandt there were numerous owners that came and went. Eventually the city council bought the house with the idea of giving it the Rembrandt foundation.
The house ended up being changed a couple times and it sort of looked a bit worse for wear. Although one of the new owners did add the upper storey and replace the roof, giving us the façade that we see today.
It’s pretty amazing that the house is still standing and it could actually be put down to the fact that Rembrandt lived there that the house hasn’t been knocked down. Not like his other house, that really didn’t have all the luck.
It was in 1911 that what was once Rembrandt’s house opened as a museum to the great artist himself.
Rembrandt, the Museum
Earlier in 1906, after the City of Amsterdam had bought the run-down house on Jodenbreestraat, the City actually handed over the house to the foundation set up for remembering the painter.
The foundation initially wanted to restore the house to how Rembrandt had it in the 17th century but things didn’t really go to plan and they ended up just going with cleaning it up and throwing in a couple of things for historical reference.
The interiors were made to look as much like how Rembrandt had it as was financially possible. They were able to do this because when Rembrandt declared bankruptcy there was that inventory of everything he owned so we actually know quite a good deal about how Rembrandt had set up the house and his workshop. And under the supervision of KPC de Bazel, this has been replicated as much as possible. They even managed to add in a collection of his prints.
The restoration was ready in 1911 and it fell to Queen Whilhemina to open the museum on the 10 June. The Rembrandt House Museum or Museum het Rembrandthuis actually has a complete overview of Rembrandt’s work including the largest collection of his etchings, consisting of 260 of the 290. It was actually the painter Jan Veth, one of the board members of the Rembrandt foundation, who led the way to bring the collection together. With donations coming from around the world, including the Rijksmuseum down the road. He thought it would be only fitting for the etchings to be displayed in the house in which they were made.
Even though they’re 30 shy from having a complete collection, the house also includes furniture and objects from the 17th century, including a couple of the rarities he may have kept in the Cabinet Room.
While the German occupied Amsterdam in May 1940 the etchings and drawings that made up the collection were hidden in the cellar. They stayed there until 1944 when floods threatened to destroy them. The collection was then moved to a safer spot above ground. They didn’t move again until the Allies arrived.
Reopening after the war in 1945, getting back into things meant that money was tight and donations and acquisitions pretty much slowed to a stop. But as things started to ramp back up, by 1982 a massive bequeathment arrived with about 40 etchings.
As the collection started to fill out being able to find outstanding pieces of work was starting to become difficult. In 1993 though four original etching plates were offered to the Museum for sale. The plates had been living in the collection of the print-seller Clement de Jonghe, who supposedly got the plates straight from Rembrandt himself.
Even though a majority of the collection at the Rembrandt House Museum is made up of Rembrandt’s work, there is a small collection by his teacher, pupils and even his friends. Some of the most notable pieces of work are by Jan Lievens and Johannes van Vliet, which both worked closely with the main man himself.
But the museum didn’t stop with people who were just associated with Rembrandt, they’ve stretched their wings and have starting collecting pieces by artists who were influenced by Rembrandt, including German and Austrian artists like Christian Wilhelm Dietrich and Georg Friedrich Schmidt who were around during the 18th century.
Moving into more modern times, major developments were carried out in the 1990s. The foundation managed to knab the building next door and set to work with a massive renovation which would result in it becoming an extension to the original museum.
The new, and quite modern-looking, annex was opened on 7 May 1998. With the eye-catching exterior designed by Moshé Zwarts and Rein Jansma and the interior sorted by Peter Sas, the new addition includes 2 exhibition galleries, offices, a library, a secretarial department and, of course, the Rembrandt Information Centre.
With two buildings now making up the museum it meant that all the fluff that make up the Museum’s collection but weren’t actually in Rembrandts house when he was a tenant could be moved over to the new wing, leaving the original house open to being restored to its original Rembrandt condition.
As there always are with these kinds of things, a massive debate raged on about the ethics surrounding historic buildings. But in the end the foundation was allowed to get started on their restoration.
The restoration team was led by building historian, Henk Zantkuijl, who’s very conveniently an expert in 17th century houses. Henk devised a plan that drew heavily on what we know of the 17th century and their buildings.
So in order to get the building and the interior as accurate as possible, our lovely little friend, Rembrandts bankruptcy inventory came in very handy. Basically it laid out the entire floorplan of where each piece of furniture would go and the use of each room. Luckily for the team, Rembrandt helped them out by doing some drawings of spots around the house aiding even more in reconfiguring the restoration.
When it came down to the important drawings, like those of structure, architect Maarten Neerincs came to rescue with the Kneppers and Midreth firms carrying out the heavy work. And the restoration of the house back to its 17th century version was complete in 1999.
The reconstruction that you can see in the Rembrandt House Museum is actually a pretty cool representation of Rembrandt’s everyday, you can wander around and see where he lived and where he worked.
As you walk through the House and then into the newer part of the Museum, you’ll see not only collections of Rembrandt’s work but also some pretty cool exhibitions of other Dutch artists that were around in the ‘Golden Age’.
When in the house you’ll get a pretty good sense of how Rembrandt lived. And how people lived in general in the 17th century. One thing that I found absolutely fascinating is the teeny-tiny beds they had. Supposedly this was due to a fear of blood rushing to your head when lying down so the 17th century population all slept sitting up. They would have loved trying to sleep on a plane in economy.
Naturally the largest room is Rembrandt’s studio, but you can wander through his kitchen, living room and workshop. If you’re around at the right time you can even see some really cool demonstrations of how Rembrandt would have made some of his etchings and how he would have mixed his pigments to make paint. Absolutely fascinating.
The museum doesn’t just limit itself to anything Rembrandt or Rembrandt affiliated, the newer part of the museum even has some extra rooms and spaces for lectures, public workshops, functions and even some educational facilities.
2017 was a pretty exciting year for the Museum. Two paintings were discovered to have been Rembrandt originals and were added to the collection. Initially the paintings, which are Portrait of Petronella Buys and Man with Sword, were thought to have had one of Rembrandts assistants or students as its artist. But after further analysis it was actually found that Rembrandt himself painted them. I can’t tell you exactly how they came to this conclusion,especially when it mustn’t be that obvious because they didn’t even think he’d painted them until recently. It’s thought that these two were more of a ‘rush job’ and that’s why they were mis-attributed.
2019 was the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death, which when you think about it is actually quite a long time. For the house to still be standing and Rembrandt’s etching collection to almost have been reacquired is quite the feat.
If you’re interested in discovering more about Rembrandt and his House Museum head on over to the Rembrandt House website and you’ll see what I mean about how cool it is.
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Originally published at https://destinationhistorypod.com on February 21, 2021.
