1 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,480 NEWS: Two thieves dressed as Boston policemen broke into 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:10,120 the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum early Sunday morning... 3 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:13,080 ..Two men wore police uniforms and fooled security guards... 4 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:15,640 ..Officials said it was the largest art heist in history. 5 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:40,720 The thieves went directly for Storm On The Sea Of Galilee by Rembrandt. 6 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:46,040 And it makes sense. Rembrandt is the target of all major art thieves. 7 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:47,960 When you talk about people who are stealing art 8 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:50,520 because they think they're going to make a lot of money with it, 9 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:52,840 Rembrandt's the first name that comes to mind. 10 00:00:55,240 --> 00:00:57,600 This is one people think about all the time. 11 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:00,480 It's Rembrandt's only seascape, his only known seascape. 12 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:04,960 So you can imagine what the value of this incredibly large... 13 00:01:04,960 --> 00:01:08,560 ..unique and moving painting would be. 14 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:14,400 At the centre of the picture, 15 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:16,400 but beneath dead centre, 16 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:17,640 you see one figure 17 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:19,200 just holding a rope 18 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:21,880 and holding his hat on his head. And it's Rembrandt. 19 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:26,400 I was so young when I painted this. 20 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:30,120 I really had no idea how true it was going to be. 21 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:34,560 Life is a storm. One minute the sea is flat calm 22 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:39,120 and then the next it's not and the doubters shout, "Abandon ship." 23 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:40,800 I never listened. 24 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:46,160 It's the art that matters, not the mess and loss and sorrow. 25 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:47,480 Here I am. 26 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:50,480 One of the great ironies, of course, 27 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:52,880 is that his works of art are so highly sought after, 28 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:56,400 not just by thieves, but by collectors of course, 29 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:58,920 and the values are astronomical. 30 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:01,160 But he died in obscurity. 31 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:07,120 When he passed away, his friends had to gather money together to bury him 32 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:08,720 and he was buried in a rented grave, 33 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:12,480 which means after a period of time his remains would be moved, 34 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:15,480 and it's a mystery as to where those remains are today. 35 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:17,440 So we don't know where these works are 36 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:20,480 and we don't know where Rembrandt's remains are either. 37 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,120 So it's sort of a parallel mystery. 38 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:45,640 This is Rembrandt's last self-portrait, 39 00:02:45,640 --> 00:02:48,520 painted in 1669 - the year he died. 40 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:52,400 He's looking at you, of course, 41 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:57,120 and it's a picture full of the artist and of his life... 42 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:01,680 ..and of his achievements and his failures... 43 00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:05,120 ..and of his art. 44 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:10,080 You see a certain kind of hardship that he's been through. 45 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:12,800 A certain kind of struggle. 46 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:14,760 And, of course, at the end of his life 47 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:17,640 he is financially not doing well. 48 00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:22,360 But I think you still see the beauty and power and dignity of a man 49 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:25,760 who's worked his whole life on a great project, 50 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:27,760 which is to be Rembrandt. 51 00:03:28,920 --> 00:03:29,960 Big nose. 52 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,360 He's asking us to look at him. 53 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:41,280 It's almost as if he's asking us not to forget him. 54 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:52,720 This is Rembrandt... 55 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:55,280 ..shortly after he moved to Amsterdam. 56 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:57,400 He is establishing himself. 57 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:01,640 And so there's a sense of an identity still forming. 58 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:04,520 Ambitious and trying and hopeful and open. 59 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:07,120 And... 60 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:09,880 ..he's trying to be someone. 61 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:16,600 Rembrandt is consumed with self-portraiture 62 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:18,720 throughout his entire career. 63 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:23,840 And we get a sense of him as a man, as an artist, 64 00:04:23,840 --> 00:04:26,160 in all of these different ways. 65 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:31,520 And this is a Rembrandt who is playing with costume, 66 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:36,560 who is dressed here in something that a scholar would have worn 67 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:38,280 in the 16th century - 68 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:42,920 Wearing a beret, which is unfashionable at this point in time. 69 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:49,440 There's, for Rembrandt, this quality, too, of marketing himself, 70 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:52,960 having a business and selling yourself. 71 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,880 And that's also something Rembrandt was very conscious of. 72 00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:59,760 Amsterdam is mine. 73 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:01,960 There's no better place for me. 74 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:04,080 It's awash with new money. 75 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,360 Profits from trade with every country on Earth. 76 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:09,600 It's my promised land. 77 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:12,120 There are people here who've been rich five minutes 78 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:14,160 and want to live like princes. 79 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:15,480 They want good art. 80 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:17,160 And I'm here to paint it. 81 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:20,480 My door's the only door they should knock. 82 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:24,840 Amsterdam was, at that moment, the most important art market in Europe. 83 00:05:24,840 --> 00:05:28,160 I mean, if you want to buy a painting or print, 84 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:29,760 you go to Amsterdam. 85 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:32,320 Artists started to specialise as well, 86 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:35,240 to find their own niche within this market. 87 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:39,680 And people could become a specialist in portrait painting, for example, 88 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:44,240 or landscape painting, or landscapes with winter scenes, 89 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:47,080 or landscapes with winter scenes and a windmill 90 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:49,280 at the right-hand side of the composition. 91 00:05:49,280 --> 00:05:52,920 I mean, it was this very...well... 92 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:56,240 ..unbelievable specialisation going on. 93 00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:59,080 And then it's interesting to see what Rembrandt's doing, 94 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:01,040 since he didn't specialise. 95 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:03,720 So we went to all these different genres 96 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:06,560 while he became one of the greatest masters 97 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,040 in every genre he touched on. 98 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:12,480 I'll paint your portrait, 99 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:14,200 if you're rich enough. 100 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,640 I'll paint group portraits too. 50 guilders a face. 101 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:19,480 The more, the merrier. 102 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:22,280 I'll paint Christ on the cross... 103 00:06:22,280 --> 00:06:23,760 ..and off it. 104 00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:26,080 I'll paint scenes from the Old Testament. 105 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:28,520 I'll paint scenes from Greek mythology. 106 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:31,560 I'll paint anything, as long as someone pays. 107 00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:37,480 And if you can't afford a painting, I'm not just a painter. 108 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:48,960 For most people, Rembrandt is a painter 109 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:51,640 but it's only part of the story. 110 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:55,880 Beside his paintings, he made an incredible load of etchings, 111 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:58,400 and the number of etchings that he made 112 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:02,440 is actually as high as his painting, so it's not an inferior sideline. 113 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:05,040 It's in the core of what he did. 114 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:07,680 As a printmaker, he is a genius. 115 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:13,960 Rembrandt had been making self-portraits right from the start, 116 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:16,000 which is also something that... 117 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:19,080 ..you were supposed to do as an artist. 118 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:24,040 If you want to know how to draw and etch and paint a face, 119 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:26,280 start on your own. 120 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:29,440 These are the self-portraits with the faces... 121 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:31,560 ..practising... 122 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:34,880 ..emotions. 123 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:36,200 Laughing. 124 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:37,920 And then we have here... 125 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:40,600 ..the angry face. 126 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:45,880 These are famous, and rightly so. 127 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:48,280 And in this case, where he's surprised 128 00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:50,640 and he looks like he's retreating backwards, 129 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:54,800 this is a beautiful depiction of surprise. 130 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:57,600 And it's very lightly edged. 131 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:01,440 This is just right in every possible way. 132 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:04,840 This is also the period where he just couldn't get enough 133 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:07,160 of what he saw in the streets, 134 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:09,240 whether they were beggars or peddlers 135 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:13,560 or peasants or street musicians. 136 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:16,800 This is another one. 137 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,120 It's a beggar and he is holding out his hand. 138 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:22,000 And, again, that's something that Rembrandt in this period liked. 139 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,040 He is vocal. 140 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:26,480 He is shouting at us or saying something. 141 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:28,720 But the most intriguing part 142 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:30,800 of this etching, beggar, 143 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:34,000 is that the beggar has Rembrandt's face. 144 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:35,920 It's still difficult to interpret, 145 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:38,920 but he really meant something by it other than... 146 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:42,760 .."I can do this and it's fun to do." 147 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:50,080 I can make anything - portraits of the wealthy, 148 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:52,160 etchings of the poor. 149 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:55,800 Everything I see is worth some sort of picture. 150 00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:59,360 I know some people keep diaries and accounts... 151 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,880 ..but that's not what my eyes and fingers are for. 152 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:05,040 Why write things down? 153 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:07,920 I'm not here to explain myself to anyone. 154 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:18,040 Rembrandt, he didn't leave us many documents that he wrote himself. 155 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:21,200 But if you look at these archives here in Amsterdam, 156 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:24,240 we have actually hundreds of documents 157 00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:28,880 where one way or another his name is mentioned... 158 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:33,120 ..in a positive way, in a negative way, financially, 159 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:35,240 about his art. 160 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:39,360 And this building is full with Rembrandt. 161 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,200 So here I have documents... 162 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:48,360 ..dated June 20, 1631. 163 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:50,040 I think it's one of the earliest, 164 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:52,400 maybe the earliest document in Amsterdam 165 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:54,480 where Rembrandt is mentioned. 166 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:59,280 Here is his first contact with Hendrick Uylenburgh, 167 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:00,840 the art dealer. 168 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:05,440 This is the moment that he... 169 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:08,360 ..he comes to Amsterdam and starts his career 170 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:10,840 as a painter in Amsterdam. Yeah, absolutely. 171 00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:20,240 Uylenburgh's studios were on the Breestraat, beside the canal. 172 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:21,880 He knew everybody. 173 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:23,480 He was my introduction. 174 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:26,480 He was like a ladder I could climb. 175 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:31,520 I went in through his doors and the story of my Amsterdam began. 176 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:34,920 The book was actually a commission. 177 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:38,520 It was commissioned by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, 178 00:10:38,520 --> 00:10:40,600 which probably has the biggest collection 179 00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:42,800 in the world of Rembrandt. 180 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:48,320 I based a lot of his experience compared to mine. 181 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:50,720 And even Rembrandt's face - 182 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:54,440 I based it partially on the face of my father. 183 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:57,640 He also had a really big... 184 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:00,920 ..plump nose and that sort of melancholy look. 185 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:05,280 The idea I had of him, 186 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:09,560 he was not a very outgoing person, to say the least, 187 00:11:09,560 --> 00:11:13,520 almost verging on the autistic. 188 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:18,320 And the traditional image of the artist expressing himself 189 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:23,200 through his art better than in his social life... 190 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:24,920 I really embrace that idea. 191 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:27,000 I think that really goes for Rembrandt. 192 00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:33,480 This is the part where he first meets Saskia, 193 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:36,760 which I believe is the love of his life. 194 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,760 It starts off in 1631. 195 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:45,400 Rembrandt's still a young man and not very well known. 196 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:49,120 So he comes to Amsterdam for the very first time. 197 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:53,400 He carries his own luggage through the streets of Amsterdam 198 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:56,480 and he's directed to... 199 00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:59,680 ..the gallery of Mr Uylenburgh. 200 00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:01,000 And then he shows him around. 201 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,440 But Rembrandt isn't really listening 202 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:06,640 and he sees something through the door they pass. 203 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:09,240 And then we see what Rembrandt sees, 204 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:13,840 and it's a young girl doing her hair. 205 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:18,400 And she hears her uncle and Rembrandt talk. 206 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:22,240 Her uncle asks for two glass of chilled wine. "We're celebrating." 207 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:23,680 "Yes, Uncle Hendrick." 208 00:12:23,680 --> 00:12:26,800 And then she comes back and her hair is all done up and pretty 209 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:31,440 and she's made up her face and wearing her best earrings. 210 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:35,480 And her uncle doesn't notice any of this, of course, 211 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:38,680 but Rembrandt only has eyes for her. 212 00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:41,120 Life surprises us. 213 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:44,120 I'd come to Amsterdam to make something of myself 214 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:49,360 and suddenly there she was, my reason, someone to aim for. 215 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:51,720 But she came from a family of burgomasters, 216 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:54,160 far too upper class for me. 217 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:58,320 If I asked for her hand today, her family would laugh, 218 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:00,320 which only makes it all the more urgent 219 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:03,760 that I become the most famous and successful artist 220 00:13:03,760 --> 00:13:05,680 in the entire city. 221 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:12,440 I think he was very passionate, of course, that he loved women. 222 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:14,920 Probably one of these people who walks into a room 223 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:16,960 and you feel their presence. 224 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:22,240 He was probably very demanding and very.... 225 00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:27,320 ..busy. I mean, he must've been working all the time. 226 00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:30,080 Just constantly, constantly, constantly making new things, 227 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,320 thinking about new things. Sketching, drawing, painting. 228 00:13:48,760 --> 00:13:50,840 I think what's brilliant here is the composition. 229 00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:53,040 You know, this sort of triangular 230 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:54,840 composition with these... 231 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,240 ..the figures in very dynamic positions. 232 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:02,280 The prominence of Dr Tulp, here on the right with the hat, 233 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:06,640 and the slightly sort of cool flesh paint of the corpse 234 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:10,600 contrasted against the crisp white of the doctors. 235 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:14,600 He spent a lot of time drawing from nature, 236 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:17,280 observing people, observing emotions. 237 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:20,560 And you can actually, when you look at each of these figures, 238 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,640 you, in a way, recognise their humanity. 239 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:27,360 We see the signature in the background of the painting. 240 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:29,640 He signed it Rembrandt. 241 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:32,280 1632. 242 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:35,080 So it says a lot about his ambition at this point, you know. 243 00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:39,000 You know, whether there are precedents from Italian painters 244 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:40,840 who are using, you know, one name... 245 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:43,400 But, obviously, I think that that's the impression you get - 246 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:46,680 that it's very much to do with his ambition as a young painter. 247 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:54,520 If one name's good enough for Michelangelo and Raphael, 248 00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:56,200 it's good enough for me. 249 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,080 I'm Rembrandt. 250 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:01,600 This work is a masterpiece. 251 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:05,400 It's my first group portrait of one of Amsterdam's guilds. 252 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:09,560 I've captured the ways in which the guildsmen understand 253 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:12,800 or are mystified, bemused, fascinated. 254 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:16,600 Not just their faces, but their minds. 255 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:19,920 It was an opportunity for him 256 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:22,920 to really show off what he had to offer, 257 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:25,560 and not just in a technical skill 258 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:27,600 but also in this sort of grand vision 259 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:29,800 of who he was as a painter as well. 260 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:32,320 In a sense, what's happening right in the centre of the picture 261 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:34,160 is all about hands. 262 00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:37,520 Not only the hand of the... 263 00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:39,120 ..man on the table, 264 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:40,600 the doctor pulling the arm 265 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:42,560 so to show us how the hand moves, 266 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:44,640 and also the hand of the artist. 267 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,840 I'm a hand surgeon here in the Netherlands. 268 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:53,280 And what we are looking at here 269 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:56,880 is a magnificent group portrait, of course. 270 00:15:56,880 --> 00:15:58,480 But is this really 271 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:01,000 depicting the birth of our profession? 272 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:05,600 Because before that, let's say in the Middle Ages, 273 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:10,280 we had a guild that was consisted of barbers 274 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:12,560 that also did a little bit of medical stuff. 275 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:14,520 And that was about it. 276 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:18,520 And, so, now we are entering a new era where science is emerging. 277 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,080 So this guild is really something else. 278 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:23,520 They were real surgeons. They could do something. 279 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,080 They were looking at how the body works. 280 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:28,080 They were opening up the body. 281 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:30,200 There are some flaws in it, actually. 282 00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:34,040 And first of all, there is a tendon of the pinky 283 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:36,680 which isn't there in reality. 284 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:38,800 But the biggest mistake in the picture 285 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:42,200 is that the origin of these superficial flexor tendons 286 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:44,840 is in the medial epicondyle of the elbow 287 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:46,440 and not on the lateral one. 288 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:49,520 So it's really a mistake he made... 289 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:53,400 ..but, you know, I forgive him for that! 290 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:58,400 I adore this painting. 291 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:03,400 When you see the technical virtuosity... 292 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:06,480 ..of the artist's hand... 293 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:09,160 ..at such an early age... 294 00:17:10,360 --> 00:17:14,040 ..at the outset of his career, 295 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:15,840 you're amazed. 296 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:20,560 It's almost as if you could see people saying, 297 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:23,760 "Where did this young man come from?" 298 00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:27,520 Where did I come from? 299 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:32,120 Leiden, a small town. A day's ride from Amsterdam. 300 00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:34,360 I was the sixth of seven children. 301 00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:36,680 Born in 1606. 302 00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:40,120 And my father's mill served the brewery trade. 303 00:17:40,120 --> 00:17:41,720 We weren't rich, we weren't poor. 304 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:43,800 We were somewhere in between. 305 00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:46,400 Quite comfortable. 306 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:49,000 I wasn't interested in malting barley. 307 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,400 I was interested in painting. 308 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:53,320 I had a friend, younger than me, 309 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:57,280 but he'd been master of his own studio since he was 12. 310 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:01,560 Jan Lievens. I wanted to be like him, better than him. 311 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,480 And a sixth child doesn't really matter, 312 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:07,360 so they let me study art. 313 00:18:07,360 --> 00:18:13,120 The Leiden Collection itself was named as a homage to Rembrandt, 314 00:18:13,120 --> 00:18:16,600 and to his home town. 315 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:21,640 It was built out of tremendous passion for Rembrandt 316 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:25,960 and his school. And from the time that we started collecting, 317 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,360 my wife and I realised that 318 00:18:28,360 --> 00:18:30,640 we simply could not live with these paintings, 319 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:32,720 that they were meant to be seen. 320 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:35,000 We made it known to the museums 321 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:38,120 that all of our paintings were available to be on loan. 322 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:44,000 Within the study of Rembrandt and his school, 323 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,680 there is a very special place to be had 324 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:49,880 by what would best be described 325 00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:52,960 as the friendly rivalry 326 00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:56,360 between Rembrandt and Lievens. 327 00:18:56,360 --> 00:18:59,640 They had a true and genuine connection, 328 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,600 a true appreciation for each other. 329 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:04,880 We saw this in the Leiden period 330 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:09,520 where, within one of our paintings, for example, the Sense Of Hearing, 331 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:14,160 Rembrandt paints as a central figure Lievens. 332 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:18,640 We see within Lievens' painting of the Card Players... 333 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:21,800 ..the central figure is Rembrandt. 334 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,760 I followed in Jan's footsteps as far as I could. 335 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:29,320 I went to train with the same master he had. 336 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,760 And when I got home to Leiden, we started painting together. 337 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:36,120 Or, rather, painting at each other. 338 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:44,080 Looking at this portrait of Rembrandt by young Lievens, 339 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:47,880 it's becoming clear how much they looked at each other 340 00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:51,240 and how much they learnt from each other's techniques as well. 341 00:19:56,360 --> 00:19:59,360 Rembrandt, when he's young and he works in Leiden, 342 00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:01,280 he works on a tiny scale. 343 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:02,360 And obviously... 344 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:08,160 ..one is oneself's most patient sitter. 345 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:10,880 So what does he do? 346 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:12,840 He starts to study himself. 347 00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:19,680 The amazing thing is, he leaves the most important part of a face, 348 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:21,880 the eyes, in the shadow... 349 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,640 ..which nobody does when you paint a portrait. 350 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:31,280 He creates, very convincingly, the light in his hair. 351 00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:37,040 And there, he uses a technique that Lievens probably developed, 352 00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:40,680 cos Lievens, although a year younger than Rembrandt, 353 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:46,240 working in the same city, had already finished his training before 354 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:49,320 and he probably developed this scratching 355 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:54,200 with the back of his brush to create light. 356 00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:57,440 The way he's scratching into the wet paint, 357 00:20:57,440 --> 00:20:59,720 no-one had ever done that before. 358 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,640 And now both Rembrandt and Lievens are showing 359 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:07,120 in these paintings, well, how they can use this... 360 00:21:07,120 --> 00:21:10,320 ..new technique to give more life 361 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:12,880 to their faces and to their composition. 362 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:20,240 It's like today's soccer players, if I may make that comparison. 363 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:22,440 Sometimes you need the best players in the world 364 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:23,840 to play in one soccer team, 365 00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:26,160 and all of a sudden the whole team is becoming better. 366 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:28,720 And that's what's happening here as well, 367 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:32,720 so they really encourage each other to get to a higher...higher level. 368 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:34,640 That's magnificent, I think. 369 00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:43,080 I learnt from Jan and I taught him things. 370 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:46,760 He retouched my paintings and told me he'd improved them, 371 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,360 and I did the same for him. 372 00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:52,120 In this picture, I don't think I ever decided 373 00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:54,520 which of us it was behind the easel. 374 00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:57,120 I think in those days, 375 00:21:57,120 --> 00:22:01,040 sometimes people couldn't tell which of us had painted what. 376 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:06,920 Sometimes there is the suggestion, because they were rivals, 377 00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:10,400 that they were also quarrelling. But that's not the case. 378 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:14,360 I think they're just collaborating and doing things for each other. 379 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,640 The story of this painting is complex. 380 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:30,280 First of all, the painting was just five minutes in my studio 381 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:34,560 and then I found a date, 1627, which nobody had ever seen. 382 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:39,600 I'd put it on the easel and looked at it for a few days, 383 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,520 and my first conclusion was based on 384 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:45,320 looking at the coat of the old man. 385 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:47,920 What I see here... 386 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:52,400 ..is not by Rembrandt, but it's by Lievens. 387 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:59,400 But how is that possible if there is not only a date at the bottom left, 388 00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:00,800 but also a signature? 389 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:03,080 A reliable signature. 390 00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:05,360 "RHL" - exactly in the way 391 00:23:05,360 --> 00:23:07,720 Rembrandt signed in '27, 392 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,720 and it's good to realise that Rembrandt only signs a painting 393 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:13,160 when it's finished. 394 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:20,240 To make a very long story very short is that we found out 395 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:25,760 that the painting was entirely finished by Rembrandt... 396 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,600 ..but it was a very dark painting. 397 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,640 It was sent back to the painter. 398 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:34,800 Lievens brought light in a dark painting. 399 00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:36,600 So everything that is... 400 00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:39,400 Almost everything that is lit very strong... 401 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:43,400 ..this wall, the sky, this part, 402 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:47,480 the wall here, the wood, the wood... 403 00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:49,320 ..and the top of the chair... 404 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,320 ..that's all done by Lievens. 405 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:58,040 Then Gerrit Dou painted this blue cloth. 406 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:01,160 ..and this dish. 407 00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:05,320 And, of course, this silk strip. 408 00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:09,440 Gerrit Dou, by the way, was the first pupil of Rembrandt. 409 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:17,240 Yes, we already had pupils, both Jan and I. 410 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:21,560 We weren't nobodies any more. 411 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:23,400 I liked Gerrit. 412 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:26,320 He was a feather in my cap. 413 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:29,240 Rembrandt started it, finished it. 414 00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:31,320 It was probably too dark. 415 00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:33,360 Lievens brought light in it, 416 00:24:33,360 --> 00:24:35,400 and Gerrit Dou... 417 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:37,720 ..made a unity of the painting. 418 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:39,680 That's the basic story. 419 00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:45,160 Their manners of painting were so close 420 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,160 that it was easily mixed up and they... 421 00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:51,000 I think they took advantage of it. 422 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,760 We had a visitor come to Leiden in 1628. 423 00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:01,600 A leading connoisseur - Constantijn Huygens. 424 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:03,640 He was impressed by us both, 425 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,000 commissioned Jan to make a portrait of him. 426 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:07,600 And Huygens told me 427 00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:10,320 that my Judas Repentant was more truthful, 428 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:12,960 more powerful than anything the Italian masters 429 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:14,880 had ever painted. 430 00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:21,520 I agreed and then he left, various promises floating in the air. 431 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:25,360 And I began to think about how small Leiden was 432 00:25:25,360 --> 00:25:28,600 and about Amsterdam and money... 433 00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:30,240 ..and the art 434 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:31,880 that I would turn it into. 435 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:36,840 Well, we are looking at Rembrandt, 436 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:39,400 not yet 23 years old. 437 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,000 This is 1628, 438 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,720 perhaps very early in 1629. 439 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,640 And this is early days in his career. 440 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:52,000 But you can see he's full of ambition, you know. 441 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,440 If you look at him wearing 442 00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:57,160 this gold chain, 443 00:25:57,160 --> 00:25:59,320 which is... 444 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:00,960 ..quite telling... 445 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:04,840 He certainly would have known that some famous artists 446 00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:07,520 past and present, such as Titian and Rubens, 447 00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:12,720 would have been given gold chains by kings and princes. 448 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,760 And that seems to be the message here. 449 00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:20,720 The aspiration here - "I am worth a gold chain... 450 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,400 "..and if not now, then certainly in the future." 451 00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:37,720 This is an extremely exciting moment for a collector. 452 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,920 This will be only the third time that I've seen this painting 453 00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:42,160 in 15 years. 454 00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,680 It will be the first time that I will have seen it cleaned. 455 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:48,080 This is, for us, the jewel in the crown. 456 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:51,360 It has been the Holy Grail for the last 15 years 457 00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:53,320 and I can't wait to see it. 458 00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:58,760 It really is sublime. 459 00:26:58,760 --> 00:26:59,800 I can't... 460 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:03,440 ..I can't really speak. 461 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:09,760 It makes my heart pound. 462 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:16,680 There's something about the signature and the date... 463 00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:18,560 ..the size... 464 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,240 the prominence relative to, of course, the size of the painting 465 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,720 which is, after all, his smallest. 466 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:30,320 It would've been so easy, especially in view of the size of the artwork, 467 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:31,840 to just initial it. 468 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:33,560 No. 469 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:37,640 He recognises himself that he has created a jewel. 470 00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:42,160 The beholder would have looked upon this and said, "He's a genius." 471 00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:48,280 He's on a trajectory the likes of which no other Dutch painter 472 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,000 embarked upon at that time. 473 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:55,720 He's going to be more famous than any other Dutch artist ever. 474 00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:02,560 And it all goes to show that he must have hit Amsterdam... 475 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:04,200 ..like a thunderclap. 476 00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,760 At the time when Rembrandt paints these portraits, 477 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:21,520 he's made a stellar career in Leiden. 478 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:26,160 He arrives in Amsterdam and becomes, very soon, the most fashionable 479 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:31,240 and probably also the most expensive portrait painter in the city. 480 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:35,920 Usually, he paints portraits either half lengths or just bust length. 481 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:40,000 But, here, he paints Marten and Oopjen full length 482 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:43,080 as if they're royalty and not just very rich commoners. 483 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:45,840 And Rembrandt gives every detail, 484 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:50,160 every shine to the costume that one can imagine. 485 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,360 The part that you really want to touch, literally, 486 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,600 are these rosettes on the shoes 487 00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:56,600 of Marten. 488 00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:01,120 She also is incredibly elaborate. 489 00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,440 Fantastic embroidery. 490 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:08,680 And you feel that she's really the boss in the household. 491 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:15,040 These portraits are a ticklish affair. 492 00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:17,640 The people I paint for, 493 00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:21,240 most of them have no idea what great art is. 494 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:23,560 They just want me to make them look good 495 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,280 and they want me to make them look rich. 496 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:28,680 They want them to hang on their walls, 497 00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,360 show their parents, show their kids, 498 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:32,960 and their posterity. 499 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:35,240 Even unto the seventh generation, 500 00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,520 "These were your great-great-grandparents. 501 00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:40,600 "Look how rich they were." 502 00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:43,960 So I pay as much attention to the lace as the face. 503 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,520 I give them good cuffs and collars. 504 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:50,080 He depends on these people 505 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,160 because they are the ones who give him commissions. 506 00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:58,320 So they are the ones who then, you know, provide him with a salary. 507 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:02,040 What they wanted is the best of the best, and they could afford it. 508 00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:03,880 And why could they afford it? 509 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:06,960 Because they were all merchants and traders, and they got 510 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,320 really, really wealthy. 511 00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:12,040 So, basically, they want to flaunt it because the money's there. 512 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:19,680 We were led to believe that black was really frugal 513 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:23,040 and it meant that, you know, our ancestors in the 17th century 514 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:24,560 were really frugal people. 515 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:26,720 Well, nothing speaks of that, 516 00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:28,640 even if you look at the accounts, 517 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:30,080 if you look at 518 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:31,680 the probate inventories. 519 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:35,000 No frugality whatsoever, 520 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:38,760 because black was the most difficult colour to dye. 521 00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:45,840 This is one of Rembrandt's first formal self-portraits. 522 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,880 It was about dress and about showing that you were very successful 523 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,480 and can afford expensive clothes. 524 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:55,120 But he still, even here, 525 00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:57,880 he continues to display himself in roles. 526 00:30:57,880 --> 00:30:59,640 This is another role of his - 527 00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:00,920 successful gentleman 528 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:02,840 or the successful artist role. 529 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:07,080 This is really something where he proclaims his success. 530 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:09,640 He was, in a way, saying, "Come to me." 531 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:18,600 Portraits pay the rent but they're not what I want to be famous for. 532 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,880 I want to be the best and most admired kind of painter there is - 533 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:26,760 a history painter. 534 00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:31,440 Take scenes from the Bible or Roman times and paint them so powerfully 535 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,040 that viewers almost think they're there. 536 00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:38,360 Better than a landscape painter, better than a portraitist, 537 00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:41,040 the history painter does everything they do 538 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:43,240 and brings drama to it all. 539 00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:49,080 And thanks to my patron, Constantijn Huygens, 540 00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:51,520 just such an opportunity falls in my lap. 541 00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:55,760 It's two pictures, part of a series 542 00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,800 that Rembrandt was intending to make for the Stadtholder, 543 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,680 which was the most important, let's say, 544 00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:06,760 leader of state in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century, 545 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:11,200 and this was a very prestigious commission. 546 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:16,320 It was Constantijn Huygens again, who was the most important, well, 547 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:18,960 let's say, intermediate figure between Rembrandt 548 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:20,560 and the Stadtholder. 549 00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:30,280 The painting seems to include a self-portrait of Rembrandt 550 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,280 at the base of the cross, 551 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:35,360 so he is one of the people guilty, so to speak, of... 552 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,280 ..of crucifying Christ, 553 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:42,040 and that insertion of his own self-portrait, 554 00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:44,960 as a kind of confessional of sin 555 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:49,920 or participation in these holy events, was really extraordinary. 556 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:55,400 Every sin we commit 557 00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:57,040 is another injury 558 00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:58,960 inflicted on his broken body. 559 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:05,800 It's true of me as much as anyone else, 560 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,440 and I paint Christ's body as a ruin 561 00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:11,840 because he was a man as well as God 562 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:13,320 and died for us. 563 00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:21,720 This is the kind of painting I was made for... 564 00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:25,640 ..so I'll take my time. 565 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,680 The series of paintings, erm... 566 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:33,480 ..were commissioned in the early 1630s, 567 00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:37,160 and Rembrandt took several years before he completed them. 568 00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,600 One might think that having such a prominent patron 569 00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:45,320 on the national stage would have been Rembrandt's first priority, 570 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:48,160 but clearly it wasn't at that point in his career. 571 00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:51,920 We see him acting all the time 572 00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:53,840 as a kind of disruptor 573 00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:57,240 and someone who exactly knows what he wants to do 574 00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:01,240 and someone who does not necessarily follow the demands 575 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:02,640 of the commissioners. 576 00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,800 So, looking at a commission like this, apparently it's not 577 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,000 the money that's important to him, 578 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,480 but it's the final result, 579 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:15,520 and it's only Rembrandt himself who decides 580 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:18,040 what's good and what's not good. 581 00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,000 It may well have been because he was simply too busy 582 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,760 with other commissions right at hand. 583 00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:25,520 He wanted to ingratiate himself 584 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:27,520 with clientele in the city of Amsterdam 585 00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:30,240 who were paying him quite a lot of money for portraits 586 00:34:30,240 --> 00:34:33,680 and buying other types of pictures as well. 587 00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:35,680 He was running a large studio. 588 00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:37,480 He was engaged to be married. 589 00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:43,960 I'm far from penniless, 590 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:45,400 I'm doing well, 591 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:50,200 so I ask her Uncle Uylenburgh for Saskia's hand in marriage, 592 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:54,320 and I draw her on the 8th of June, 1633, 593 00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:56,600 the third day after our engagement. 594 00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:01,720 She's 21 years old, and she's mine. 595 00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:07,160 I paint her as herself and other people. 596 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:09,800 No need to flatter if you truly love. 597 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:13,800 I'll paint her as the goddess Flora, pagan goddess of fertility, 598 00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:16,800 because we want our union blessed. 599 00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:20,680 I'll paint myself as the prodigal son and her as my whore 600 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:25,600 because I love her and because there's a market for morality tales. 601 00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:28,640 So, we sell and we spend. 602 00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:30,440 Life is good. 603 00:35:39,720 --> 00:35:43,200 In the beginning of his career in Amsterdam, 604 00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:46,080 Rembrandt bought things at auctions... 605 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:49,480 ..and he bought a lot. 606 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:54,440 This is, of course, a time where he makes very nice paintings 607 00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:55,880 for very rich people. 608 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,760 The drawing by Adriaen Brouwer - less than two guilders. 609 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:04,160 That's not too much. 610 00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:06,680 The first documented purchases 611 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:10,720 that we have are of works of art and specifically prints. 612 00:36:10,720 --> 00:36:14,600 Rembrandt collects art on a grand scale. 613 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,920 We know that he had an incredible collection of prints. 614 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:20,400 One of his favourite artists was Lucas van Leyden. 615 00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:23,880 Lucas, like him, came from Leiden and was a predecessor 616 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,320 and both a very good printmaker 617 00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:28,920 and a very good painter. 618 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:33,440 This is 1637, March, 619 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:38,400 and he bought for the immense amount of 637 guilders 620 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:42,080 an art book from Lucas van Leyden. 621 00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:46,520 This is really an enormous amount of money. 622 00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:48,000 That's the kind of thing that... 623 00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:53,320 ..was so outrageous that people would remember it for decades. 624 00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,120 A couple of half-length portraits should cover it. 625 00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,800 Anyway, it's what it's worth. 626 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:06,360 Prints by Albrecht Durer show up and he's buying those in quantity. 627 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,400 Seven complete sets of Durer's Life Of The Virgin - 12 guilders. 628 00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:14,080 Bargain! 629 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,720 He's pursuing stuffed animals. 630 00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:20,000 I mean, going to auctions, er, can become a habit. 631 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:21,680 He's buying 632 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:26,080 oriental exotica, such as a Japanese helmet. 633 00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:31,120 He has, of course, his busts of the emperors, some of them in plaster, 634 00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,160 but he also has Venetian glass. 635 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:39,760 And he buys and he buys and he buys... 636 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,760 I buy things that I might copy in a picture. 637 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:46,560 Some seashells, God's handiwork. Beautiful. 638 00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:48,840 As we say, he had a hole in his hand. 639 00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:51,880 He was spending all of the time 640 00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:54,920 and he had no real idea of money, I think. 641 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:02,040 Of course, it adds up. 642 00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:08,080 Saskia's family accuse me of squandering her dowry, 643 00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:10,400 so I sue them for slander. 644 00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:12,280 The judge threw the case out. 645 00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:14,000 Idiot. 646 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,240 It wasn't my name I was defending. 647 00:38:16,240 --> 00:38:18,120 It was my purpose. 648 00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:22,080 Almost everything I buy ends up in one of my pictures, 649 00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:24,760 like almost everything I see. 650 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:26,120 The world God made 651 00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:28,720 and all the men and creatures in it. 652 00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,880 In 1637 Rembrandt goes to the fall fair 653 00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:37,920 and there is the attraction of the year, an elephant, 654 00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:40,840 an Asian elephant. 655 00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:43,560 She is seven years old and her name is Hansken 656 00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:45,080 and she's travelling the world, 657 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,720 so a real must-see for an artist like Rembrandt 658 00:38:48,720 --> 00:38:52,280 because he was fascinated by the creation, 659 00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:55,840 by everything which was life, 660 00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:59,200 and it was important for him as an artist to see animals in the flesh. 661 00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:02,360 He draws her. 662 00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:06,120 A year later, he uses her in an etching. 663 00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:10,680 He etches Adam and Eve in paradise, 664 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,760 and when normally we see Adam and Eve surrounded by 665 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:18,200 a huge variety of species like a zoo, 666 00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:21,480 Rembrandt chooses to depict only two creatures. 667 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:25,080 One is fantasy - a dragon - 668 00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:27,760 and the other is an elephant and it's Hansken. 669 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:30,160 So the buyers of this print must have understood 670 00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:32,240 that this was Hansken, 671 00:39:32,240 --> 00:39:34,720 and maybe they had seen her themselves also. 672 00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:40,680 God made the world... 673 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:44,240 I believe it, even though I'm no churchgoer. 674 00:39:44,240 --> 00:39:48,280 It's from the Bible that I take so many of the stories that I tell, 675 00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:51,760 fit subjects for etchings and for paintings, too, 676 00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,680 the turning points of history. 677 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:56,360 The fall of man, 678 00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:58,600 the fall of pagan kings. 679 00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:12,200 You see his ambition here as a history painter. 680 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:14,280 He paints a biblical story, 681 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:17,720 one of the highly dramatic Old Testament stories. 682 00:40:17,720 --> 00:40:20,080 Belshazzar's Feast. 683 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:24,480 You remember, it's this story of Belshazzar giving a big feast 684 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,880 and using the sacred vessels 685 00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:30,720 his father looted from the temple in Jerusalem. 686 00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:32,760 So it's a sacrilege here. 687 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:35,480 And then, at the height of the feast, 688 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,280 the writing appears on the wall, 689 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:42,680 which ultimately means, "You are going to die, 690 00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:44,880 "and your kingdom will perish." 691 00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:49,360 In a way, Belshazzar is sort of the hinge here, you know. 692 00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:53,560 So it's the writing on the wall appearing, 693 00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:56,880 him noticing this and reacting to it. 694 00:40:56,880 --> 00:41:00,360 And then the others pick that up, 695 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:02,440 that something is happening. 696 00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:05,480 They haven't realised yet what it is, it seems, 697 00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:10,840 but because he reacts to it, they are also sort of reacting to him. 698 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,440 Other artists paint the aftermath, 699 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,680 but the moments I look for are the turning points. 700 00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:26,280 The king startles. 701 00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:28,160 The drink is spilt. 702 00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:32,440 And the others know only that their great king is suddenly unmanned. 703 00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:37,000 Pride goes before a fall. 704 00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:43,000 Rembrandt didn't spend only money 705 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:48,000 on prints and paintings and props, 706 00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:52,080 but Rembrandt also wanted to live somewhere... 707 00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:54,080 ..permanently. 708 00:41:55,360 --> 00:42:00,280 And that's why, in 1639, he goes to a notary, 709 00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:07,200 and, together with two other guys who own a house in the Breestraat, 710 00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:10,000 and this is the contract. 711 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:13,080 They sell. And Rembrandt, he buys. 712 00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:22,520 Rembrandt bought the house 713 00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:27,400 for 13,000 guilders, difficult to translate into today's money. 714 00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:29,720 But I mean, more than a million euros, probably. 715 00:42:29,720 --> 00:42:30,920 A very expensive house. 716 00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:34,320 And we also know that he could afford it. 717 00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:36,160 He was doing very well. 718 00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:40,040 Rembrandt was able to put down a down payment, 719 00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:43,480 and the rest of the amount he was allowed to pay in instalments, 720 00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:46,680 very much like we pay our mortgages these days. 721 00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:50,480 It was a beautiful house. 722 00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:53,160 There were five floors, if you include the cellars 723 00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:55,000 and the attics, that were used. 724 00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:56,920 So he was able to do a lot here. 725 00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:00,960 Not only his own studio, but also the studio for his pupils. 726 00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:04,560 He was able to receive patrons and commissioners, 727 00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:06,320 and there was also space 728 00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:11,760 for his beautiful collection of art and curiosities, so space enough. 729 00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:14,920 And it was a house in grand style with great lighting. 730 00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:17,760 What more would you want as a painter? 731 00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:24,440 It is an enormous amounts of money - 13,000 guilders for a house. 732 00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:29,160 But as long as Rembrandt did not pay the full amount of money, 733 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:31,760 it was not his house officially. 734 00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:34,880 It's perfect. 735 00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:36,320 Plenty of room for everything. 736 00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:38,120 Pictures, people... 737 00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:40,720 Then there's the matter of the cash. 738 00:43:40,720 --> 00:43:43,760 I do have it, in a manner of speaking. 739 00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:46,640 I finished the Passion paintings for the Stadtholder. 740 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:48,160 That means money. 741 00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:52,440 Once he's paid, I should get in touch with Huygens and let him know. 742 00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:56,040 So, Rembrandt writes to Constantijn Huygens. 743 00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:57,760 The letters are cordial. 744 00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:01,680 They communicate a desire to serve his patron. 745 00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:07,480 But he's also looking for payment, and he wants to get paid quickly. 746 00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:10,760 He would like to be paid, interestingly enough, 747 00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,560 more than the original agreement seems to have been. 748 00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:17,360 My dear sir. I have taken great pleasure 749 00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:21,160 in the proper execution of the paintings of Christ's entombment 750 00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:24,280 and his resurrection for His Highness the Stadtholder. 751 00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:27,960 They will bring His Highness pleasure, for in these two pictures 752 00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:32,040 I have observed the deepest and most natural emotion. 753 00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:34,480 I'm now sending you these two pieces, 754 00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,320 which I think are fine enough to warrant His Highness paying me 755 00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:40,480 no less than 1,000 guilders for each of them. 756 00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:43,320 I rely on his knowledge and discretion. 757 00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:47,440 Should Rembrandt have asked for more money from Constantijn Huygens? 758 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:48,600 That's a good question. 759 00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:53,640 He is following a model of princely patronage, whereby... 760 00:44:54,880 --> 00:45:00,080 ..in asking for more money, he is appealing to Huygens' taste. 761 00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:03,840 He is saying, essentially, "If you recognise good art, 762 00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:07,000 "you'll be willing to pay for it, and pay more for it." 763 00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:09,520 Huygens doesn't seem to have agreed, 764 00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:12,080 and wanted to stick to their original price. 765 00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:16,000 The letters show some signs of strain in their relationship. 766 00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:20,240 If His Highness cannot be persuaded to pay a higher price, 767 00:45:20,240 --> 00:45:22,640 even if they are obviously worth it, 768 00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:26,040 I shall be content with 600 guilders a piece, 769 00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:30,960 provided I am reimbursed for my cash outlay of 44 guilders 770 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,360 for the two ebony frames and the crate. 771 00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,800 Your obliging and affectionate servant, Rembrandt. 772 00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:42,680 Remember and money, that's a complicated thing. 773 00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:44,400 He was really... 774 00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:50,840 ..economically aware of his own value and what he could earn 775 00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:52,480 and what he should ask. 776 00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:55,680 But he was also aware of the value of art 777 00:45:55,680 --> 00:46:00,760 and was prepared to really pay huge sums to acquire that. 778 00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:03,600 I feel that, for Rembrandt, 779 00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:07,440 making art or painting, making prints, drawing, 780 00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:11,120 was more of a calling than an economic activity. 781 00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:13,760 He just needed to do that. 782 00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:21,680 People mistake me. They think I'm greedy because they think 783 00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:25,840 that art is a craft, a job, a way of making a living. 784 00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:28,360 No. No, no, no. 785 00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:31,840 You won't understand me if that's the way you think. 786 00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:34,640 Life is a means of making art. 787 00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:36,920 That's the right way round. 788 00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:39,280 That's why a house like this, 789 00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:42,720 there's room to live, room for my own studio, room to teach. 790 00:46:42,720 --> 00:46:46,600 Yes, of course pupils pay for the privilege. 791 00:46:47,720 --> 00:46:51,200 We're in the space that Rembrandt called his small painting room. 792 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:54,640 This is actually his pupils' atelier. 793 00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:58,360 He kept his pupils separate from his own space. 794 00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:03,280 We have biographers like Joachim von Sandrart 795 00:47:03,280 --> 00:47:06,560 writing fairly early about Rembrandt's studio, 796 00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:10,880 where he may have had a peek when he was here in the 1630s. 797 00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:14,040 We notice that these people had their own agendas. 798 00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:16,120 And he sees Rembrandt as a mercenary, 799 00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:18,600 and he also points to all of these pupils. 800 00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:22,320 He actually calculates how much income Rembrandt would have had 801 00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:25,480 from these pupils - it's over 2,000 guilders per year. 802 00:47:25,480 --> 00:47:27,120 He can't believe the sum. 803 00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:31,040 So it may or may not have been true, but it does tell us that 804 00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:34,480 part of the criticism of Rembrandt was that he was in it for the money 805 00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:36,600 and people didn't understand his aim 806 00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:38,920 and why he painted and drew the way he did. 807 00:47:40,240 --> 00:47:42,600 The pupils had various tasks, 808 00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:45,800 and in this alcove we've reconstructed 809 00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:49,600 the very important activity of creating a copy 810 00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:51,920 after one of Rembrandt's paintings. 811 00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:54,360 We have our own copy 812 00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:59,360 of Rembrandt's The Angel Departing From Tobias And His Family, 813 00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:00,760 now in the Louvre, 814 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:04,920 and we show how an artist would have started the painting. 815 00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:08,680 Rembrandt could have then perhaps touched these up. 816 00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:12,200 We also have stories of his pupils producing paintings 817 00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:14,040 that were so close to the master style 818 00:48:14,040 --> 00:48:15,720 that people couldn't distinguish 819 00:48:15,720 --> 00:48:17,960 and they were actually sold as works by Rembrandt, 820 00:48:17,960 --> 00:48:19,440 which was fair game. 821 00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:22,400 After all, it was produced at Rembrandt's behest, 822 00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:25,240 under his supervision, in his style, 823 00:48:25,240 --> 00:48:28,120 and other artists worked much in the same way. 824 00:48:28,120 --> 00:48:31,520 And, of course, it was all too tempting for later sellers 825 00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:34,160 to fudge the part about the pupil 826 00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:37,040 and to emphasise the part about the master, 827 00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:38,520 and, by the 19th century, 828 00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:42,040 there were scattered throughout collections in Europe, 829 00:48:42,040 --> 00:48:43,880 and in other areas, 830 00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:48,760 many of these paintings that came out of Rembrandt's studio, 831 00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:52,040 and people no longer knew what the difference was. 832 00:48:56,680 --> 00:48:58,760 If I've done my job, 833 00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:01,760 it's me that lives inside their fingers. 834 00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:04,720 They think and paint like I do. 835 00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:07,120 But once they leave, 836 00:49:07,120 --> 00:49:10,840 of course, they can go their own way, like I did. 837 00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:22,560 In 1639, there were two very significant 838 00:49:22,560 --> 00:49:26,000 Italian Renaissance paintings in Amsterdam. 839 00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:28,800 And we know that he sold both of them. 840 00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:32,920 One was a portrait of a gentleman by Titian. 841 00:49:32,920 --> 00:49:35,080 And we know that he saw a painting 842 00:49:35,080 --> 00:49:38,960 by an even more famous Italian Renaissance painter, Raphael, 843 00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:42,000 which came up for sale in 1639. 844 00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:44,960 And he combines that with the Titian to say, 845 00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:47,240 "I'm a little bit like these people. 846 00:49:47,240 --> 00:49:50,880 "I stand in the tradition of these great masters." 847 00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:58,680 There was this rich tradition called emulation, 848 00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:02,920 which meant both imitating people from the past that you admired, 849 00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:07,440 but also doing one better, showing that you had a greater ambition. 850 00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:12,640 So this year, 1640, was significant for many reasons, 851 00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:14,880 personal, as well as professional, 852 00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:17,280 and with Rembrandt, the personal and the professional 853 00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:18,600 are never far apart. 854 00:50:21,200 --> 00:50:24,560 This year, as happened frequently 855 00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:27,360 during his marriage with Saskia, 856 00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:29,960 a child died, 857 00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:34,360 and so you have to imagine him holding all these conflicting.... 858 00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:38,760 ..events and feelings in balance, 859 00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:42,280 even as he continues to push his art forward. 860 00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:51,040 Saskia was a very common model 861 00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:55,120 through the first years of their marriage. 862 00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:58,800 We think this drawing of Saskia in her bedroom 863 00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:01,040 with a four-poster bed and curtains 864 00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:05,320 was probably drawn about the time that she was expecting 865 00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:08,760 their first daughter, Cornelia, in 1638. 866 00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:12,480 And the reason we know that she's probably in bed 867 00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:14,880 because she's expecting 868 00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:20,720 is that it has this nursing couch in the foreground, 869 00:51:20,720 --> 00:51:24,600 and that allowed either the mother or the midwife to recline 870 00:51:24,600 --> 00:51:28,720 and to nurse the child sort of propped up with cushions. 871 00:51:28,720 --> 00:51:33,560 Saskia looks a little bit pallid, a little bit wan. 872 00:51:33,560 --> 00:51:37,840 We don't actually know whether it's just before or after the birth. 873 00:51:37,840 --> 00:51:41,760 It could well have been. The poor baby was buried within three weeks, 874 00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:45,280 so it could be that the nursing couch is still there, 875 00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:47,360 just needing to be removed. 876 00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:51,160 The infant mortality rate was staggering. 877 00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:55,440 But we have so many drawings by Rembrandt of his wife Saskia 878 00:51:55,440 --> 00:51:57,880 in these various phases of illness 879 00:51:57,880 --> 00:52:00,920 because she also must have been ill during her pregnancies, 880 00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:03,200 and during the loss, but also later on. 881 00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:07,000 Drawings of women and children that are so heartfelt, 882 00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:08,880 and so well observed, 883 00:52:08,880 --> 00:52:14,520 that there is no other way than that he must have felt deeply 884 00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:16,480 for all the children that were born, 885 00:52:16,480 --> 00:52:20,200 and that he must have grieved deeply as well, together with Saskia. 886 00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:22,240 And the drawings tell that story. 887 00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:30,080 Every human being has the same emotions - 888 00:52:30,080 --> 00:52:33,240 we all feel fear, we all feel joy, we all feel sadness. 889 00:52:33,240 --> 00:52:37,520 And that is why these drawings especially so speak to us today 890 00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:39,960 because we can see ourselves in them. 891 00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:50,120 Three times now in the Zuiderkerk, I've watched them write 892 00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:54,120 the simple facts - 15th of February, 1636. 893 00:52:54,120 --> 00:52:56,560 A child of Rembrandt, painter. 894 00:52:56,560 --> 00:52:58,720 Robertus. 895 00:52:58,720 --> 00:53:00,280 He was two months old. 896 00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:03,880 13th of August, 1638. 897 00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:06,720 A child of Rembrandt, painter. 898 00:53:06,720 --> 00:53:08,360 Cornelia. 899 00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:10,120 Named after my mother. 900 00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:11,880 Two weeks old. 901 00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:15,240 Which was the same age that our third child reached, 902 00:53:15,240 --> 00:53:16,880 our second Cornelia, 903 00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:20,280 buried on 12th of August, 1640. 904 00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:25,640 The good Lord gives, the good Lord takes away. 905 00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:28,680 He takes. He takes. 906 00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:30,280 He takes. 907 00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:35,640 I hear other people talk of profit and loss. 908 00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:39,280 Their children sleep at home. 909 00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:54,040 For anyone who has even 910 00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:58,440 the remotest emotional attachment to Rembrandt, 911 00:53:58,440 --> 00:54:02,720 this...painting is... 912 00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:06,040 ..like a punch to the gut. 913 00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:13,080 By all accounts, the happiest time of Rembrandt's life 914 00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:17,120 was the time that he spent with his wife Saskia. 915 00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:22,920 By 1641, by the time this painting was made... 916 00:54:24,160 --> 00:54:28,400 ..Saskia has lost three children soon after childbirth. 917 00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:32,000 The poignancy 918 00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:36,200 of this exchange of glances... 919 00:54:37,280 --> 00:54:42,040 ..is so deeply, deeply moving... 920 00:54:43,160 --> 00:54:48,320 ..and the flower joins them together in that bond of... 921 00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:55,400 ..enduring, sustained hope. 922 00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:06,560 This is a church registration from the Zuiderkerk, 923 00:55:06,560 --> 00:55:10,000 which is translated as the "Southern Church"... 924 00:55:12,400 --> 00:55:16,440 ..the Protestant church which was closest to the Breestraat 925 00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:18,400 where Rembrandt lived. 926 00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:22,240 And this is a baptism of the son 927 00:55:22,240 --> 00:55:24,840 of Rembrandt and Saskia, 928 00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:27,920 1641. Titus. 929 00:55:27,920 --> 00:55:32,000 And the name of the parents, of course, are mentioned. 930 00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:37,840 And the date - he was baptised on September 22, 1641. 931 00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:40,600 I mean, of course, the son is born. 932 00:55:42,520 --> 00:55:47,000 It must be a happy moment, but Rembrandt and his wife Saskia, 933 00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:50,560 they lost already three children in infancy. 934 00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:53,720 And you never know. 935 00:55:55,320 --> 00:55:57,800 They never knew if Titus would survive. 936 00:55:57,800 --> 00:56:02,040 Birth and death were very close in these ages. 937 00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:07,400 BELL CHIMES 938 00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:20,320 This book is the registration of burials 939 00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:22,000 of the Old Church, 940 00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:26,240 the most expensive church you could say, 941 00:56:26,240 --> 00:56:30,240 the most posh church of Amsterdam at the time. 942 00:56:30,240 --> 00:56:32,080 This is a burial. 943 00:56:32,080 --> 00:56:36,520 Saskia van Uylenburgh was buried in the Old Church... 944 00:56:36,520 --> 00:56:40,800 ..19th of June, 1642. 945 00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:43,920 I mean, this is all what is left at the end of your life, 946 00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:46,960 one or two lines in a volume like this. 947 00:56:51,160 --> 00:56:53,080 That's how history works. 948 00:56:54,640 --> 00:56:58,640 So Rembrandt had no wife any more. 949 00:57:11,320 --> 00:57:14,000 This is a notary again. 950 00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:16,400 And this... 951 00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:21,760 This is the last will of Saskia. 952 00:57:28,640 --> 00:57:31,120 Saskia's will provided 953 00:57:31,120 --> 00:57:33,640 for the inheritance of the goods 954 00:57:33,640 --> 00:57:36,720 that she had brought into the marriage 955 00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:40,880 and that Titus would have been entitled to inherit from her. 956 00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:45,400 And that was, at the time of her death, half of the estate. 957 00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:49,280 So what happens if Rembrandt remarries? 958 00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:53,840 Under the conditions of Saskia's will, 959 00:57:53,840 --> 00:57:57,600 he has to pay Titus half of the estate 960 00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:00,800 as it was when Saskia died, 961 00:58:00,800 --> 00:58:06,160 and this was worth 20,375 guilders. 962 00:58:08,760 --> 00:58:10,240 I have a son. 963 00:58:12,040 --> 00:58:13,440 But no wife. 964 00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:18,720 And if I find a wife to be a mother for him... 965 00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:21,960 ..profit and loss. 966 00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:24,520 Loss. 967 00:58:26,640 --> 00:58:27,800 Loss. 968 00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:40,880 Captain Frans Banninck Cocq tells me he wants a likeness of him 969 00:58:40,880 --> 00:58:42,720 and his militia company. 970 00:58:45,160 --> 00:58:47,760 Here was a picture about the pride of my city, 971 00:58:47,760 --> 00:58:50,200 and in the years after I painted it 972 00:58:50,200 --> 00:58:53,640 my face and name were dragged in the mud. 973 00:58:53,640 --> 00:58:55,920 Rembrandt the adulterer, 974 00:58:55,920 --> 00:59:00,080 the great painter who lost all his money.