1 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:16,160 In 2008, I became one of the directors of the Rijksmuseum 2 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:21,640 and I suddenly thought, wouldn't it be amazing if every child 3 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:26,080 who lives in the Netherlands, whatever their background is, 4 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:30,960 could visit the Rijksmuseum and see The Night Watch? 5 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,840 My eye and my beret. 6 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:29,400 That was enough by then for anyone to know that it was me. 7 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:31,320 A famous painter. 8 00:01:31,320 --> 00:01:33,480 His more famous hat. 9 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:36,200 But after this, it all went wrong. 10 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:39,000 Here was a picture about the pride of my city, 11 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,280 and in the years after I painted it, 12 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:45,080 my face and name were dragged in the mud. 13 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,600 Rembrandt - the adulterer. 14 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:50,200 Father of a bastard child. 15 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:53,640 The great painter who lost all his money. 16 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,160 So this is the time when he was doing his magnum opus 17 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:16,600 The Night Watch, 18 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:23,520 but it was also a very tragic period because his wife Saskia... 19 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:26,960 ..I do believe they had a really good relationship. 20 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:32,160 Titus - their son - has only just been born 21 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:37,960 and she was dying, actually, at the time he was doing The Night Watch... 22 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,720 ..and he would have been conscious of her lying there. 23 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:45,240 So, I don't know, I think that's a tragic aspect 24 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:49,160 that I brought into my book about Rembrandt. 25 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:51,520 You see Saskia... 26 00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:55,000 ..lying in a bed sweating 27 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:59,040 and she's obviously fighting against her illness. 28 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:00,080 Not much later... 29 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:08,000 ..Rembrandt comes to her and he's all enthusiastic. 30 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:13,080 But Saskia's drifting in and out of feverish delirium. 31 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:17,520 And he's so enthusiastic to tell her that he's finally finished. 32 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:22,440 And we see this very happy... 33 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:25,960 ..face of Rembrandt, and you rarely see Rembrandt happy in his book 34 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:28,400 and he says, "It's ready. 35 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:30,520 " 'The Company Of Captain Frans Banning Cocq 36 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:32,640 "And Lieutenant Willem Van Ruytenburgh 37 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:34,680 "Preparing To March Out' it's called." 38 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:37,320 Because that's the original title of The Night Watch. 39 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:40,120 And she starts to laugh, of course. 40 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,120 "You're like a little boy when you get all enthusiastic. 41 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:45,800 "I wish I could see it though." 42 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,040 He sits down and there's a moment of silence. 43 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:55,080 And just before she fades away, Saskia says to him, "Where's Titus?" 44 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:56,640 "Shall I go get him?" 45 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:15,240 TANNOY: Ladies and gentleman, the museum will close in 15 minutes. 46 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:18,080 We kindly ask you to make your way to the exits. 47 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:20,440 We thank you for your visit. 48 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:28,200 When you work in a museum, in the Rijksmuseum, 49 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:33,280 you have these moments after closing that you're on your own... 50 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:34,840 ..with the pictures. 51 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:43,280 The Night Watch, which you know is an icon, actually comes to life. 52 00:04:43,280 --> 00:04:47,640 You step into the scene, and every time I'm amazed again 53 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:49,280 that it has that power. 54 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:02,560 Being on your own with it and standing really eye and eye 55 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:06,800 with real people from the 17th century is an amazing thing. 56 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:09,080 And that was the highest goal 57 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,960 for 17th century Dutch painters, 58 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:16,560 to recreate the scene in front of your eyes. 59 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:24,040 Captain Frans Banning Cocq tells me he wants a likeness of him 60 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,280 and his militia company. 61 00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:29,640 I look at how other artists make these group portraits. 62 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:33,960 A line of likenesses. All very well, but no energy, no action, 63 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:38,520 no anything as far as I'm concerned. Why make such a painting? 64 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:40,360 I won't. 65 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:44,880 What does Rembrandt do? And that's the amazing thing about Rembrandt, 66 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:48,320 and that's why I always think he's just a rebel. 67 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:49,840 There was something in him 68 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:53,200 that he wanted to do something no-one had tried, 69 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:59,440 and Rembrandt approaches it, not as a portrait, but as a history scene. 70 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:05,440 He wanted to recall the great past of the militia, 71 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:11,840 protecting the city of Amsterdam from the enemy - the Spanish. 72 00:06:11,840 --> 00:06:15,160 Therefore, the slightly old-fashioned dress, 73 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:20,400 the kind of nearly Divine Light which structures the composition 74 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:22,760 and this apparent chaos. 75 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:28,120 These days, the militias are drinking clubs 76 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:30,760 for the middling sort of citizen. 77 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,000 But when we sought our independence 30, 40 years ago, 78 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:35,840 it was a different matter. 79 00:06:35,840 --> 00:06:38,800 So I give them back their swagger and their weapons, 80 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:41,320 their purpose and their pride. 81 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,800 I roll the drums, I march them out. 82 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:47,840 I give them back their city. 83 00:06:47,840 --> 00:06:51,840 I make the city mine, forever. 84 00:06:51,840 --> 00:06:55,080 Well, there are many mysteries to the painting 85 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:59,840 but the little girl remains one of those intriguing things. 86 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:02,400 Who is she? 87 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:05,960 And people in the past have often seen her as Saskia, 88 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:09,080 Rembrandt's great love and his wife 89 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:12,840 who dies at the time of The Night Watch. 90 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:15,960 And there's been a long time of people saying, 91 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:18,400 "Well, no, we shouldn't consider that." 92 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:20,480 But I think when you look at it 93 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:23,720 and you think of the images we know of Saskia, 94 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:28,200 this little girl has very similar features. 95 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:32,280 So intently or not intently, I think he did paint Saskia. 96 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:40,200 Course I did. 97 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:44,560 She was the reason I'd done everything. 98 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:48,080 The reason to be rich, to be good enough for her rich family. 99 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,480 I saved her here from rot and corruption. 100 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:04,520 The company were delighted with the picture. 101 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:09,400 They paid me 1,600 guilders for it, the price agreed without a quibble. 102 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:14,280 I don't know what I did with the money. 103 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:16,480 I don't know what I'm doing at all. 104 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:27,360 I hate the nights. 105 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:29,800 I hate the hours of darkness. 106 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:36,200 I can't bear her absence, I can't bear the loneliness. 107 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:38,080 I can't bear the empty bed. 108 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:42,400 I can't stand that there's no-one to touch. 109 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:46,760 When Titus wakes and cries... 110 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:49,440 ..the nurse calms him. 111 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:52,640 Like father... 112 00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:55,520 ..like son. 113 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:01,400 In the months after Saskia's death, 114 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:05,000 we have evidence that a situation transpires 115 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:07,720 where Saskia is replaced. 116 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:11,400 And Geertje Dircx, the dry nurse 117 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:15,400 whom he had hired to look after Titus, 118 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:21,440 probably as Saskia was ailing and starting to fade, 119 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:24,400 he starts an affair with her. 120 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:32,720 She was a really working class girl 121 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:35,160 and she must've put him on a pedestal 122 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:38,000 because he was at the top of his career at that moment. 123 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:42,520 He was very popular and they have this... 124 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:45,120 ..affair, which is behind closed doors. 125 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:54,360 He sort of stumbles upon everything. 126 00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:56,720 He's not acting in his life, 127 00:09:56,720 --> 00:09:58,920 he's letting things happen. 128 00:10:04,680 --> 00:10:07,080 At the time, they were of course both widowed. 129 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:10,880 Geertje was already widowed when she came in his service. 130 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:15,000 And I think they found a sort of solace in each other's misery. 131 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:18,200 And she was taking good care of him and of his child. 132 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:20,440 She already lived in the place, 133 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:24,760 so it was a comfortable way for him... 134 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:27,160 ..to get over his... 135 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:30,000 ..well, some of his misery in that period of his life. 136 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:35,200 Do I love Geertje? 137 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:41,400 I love that she loves the boy. 138 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:45,840 I love the fact that she's alive, warm when I touch her. 139 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:51,560 And within these walls, I'm not ashamed of anything we do. 140 00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:54,360 Outside them is another matter. 141 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:04,640 Here in the... 142 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:06,600 ..Amsterdam City Archives, 143 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:10,080 we have about three-and-a-half stretching kilometres 144 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:12,680 of notarial archives. 145 00:11:12,680 --> 00:11:15,600 And hundreds of different notaries. 146 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:24,000 This is just one of the 25,000 volumes. 147 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:25,040 And this... 148 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:31,760 ..this is the last will of Saskia. 149 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:33,200 The terms of Saskia's will 150 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:35,840 were that half of the estate went to Rembrandt 151 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:38,920 and half should go to Titus when he came of age, 152 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:41,120 or if Rembrandt should remarry. 153 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:45,600 That was a pretty standard stipulation in wills, 154 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:48,800 because it protected the child from, you know, 155 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:51,200 the myth of the evil stepmother, 156 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:54,080 or being cut out of the family legacy at a later point. 157 00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:58,320 I can't marry Geertje. 158 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:03,320 Even if I wanted to, the will prevents me. 159 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:08,520 I'd have to sell things to pay Titus his share. 160 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:12,680 And what would a one-year-old do with 20,000 guilders anyway? 161 00:12:12,680 --> 00:12:14,520 Play with it? 162 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:17,480 He can have his inheritance when he's 25. 163 00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:22,240 There's plenty of time to make that money. 164 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:28,120 His production seems to decrease in quantity during the 1640s. 165 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:30,800 He turns his attention more to landscape, 166 00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:32,920 less on portraiture, 167 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:35,200 more on history painting. 168 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,360 But the quantity of pictures that we have from him 169 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:40,120 seems to decline. 170 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:44,360 That may have well impacted his financial status. 171 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:47,000 He also, though, has a house to pay off 172 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:50,280 and didn't make prompt payments on the house. 173 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:58,280 After completing The Night Watch, 174 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:02,560 he stops with painting for almost a decade. 175 00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:04,800 He does produce some paintings at this point, 176 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:09,480 but I think that Rembrandt had an existential crisis at that point 177 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:13,440 and I think it had to do with the death of Saskia. 178 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:15,960 He basically wanted to get out of the rat race 179 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:20,200 and I think that's why he was painting so little at this time. 180 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:24,080 I think Rembrandt thought... 181 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:28,040 ..you know, "Screw it, I'm going to do what pleases me, 182 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:30,560 "and only pleases me." 183 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:37,600 I've had enough of high society. 184 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:41,320 Enough of wealthy portrait sitters wasting my time. 185 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:46,320 I teach. 186 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:47,760 I sketch. 187 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:49,000 I etch. 188 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,680 Around 1644 or 45, 189 00:13:57,680 --> 00:14:00,360 he was having an affair with Geertje Dircx. 190 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:03,200 And that's exactly the period that he makes images 191 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:06,960 with a lot of, well, basically youngsters... 192 00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:10,160 ..relating to each other, sometimes more explicit than others, 193 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:14,960 but there is a lot of, well, let's say erotic tension in the air. 194 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:18,320 The Omval. 195 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,720 It's obviously a landscape etching from 1645. 196 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:25,200 It's a very interesting print for a number of reasons. 197 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:29,520 This came about as a study of a willow tree 198 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:33,120 and then adds a narrative context. 199 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:34,280 It's a particular place. 200 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:37,440 It still exists just outside Amsterdam. 201 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:41,960 And as part of the narrative, he adds a couple here in the shadow. 202 00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:45,520 And you have to really take your time looking at what's there 203 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:46,760 and then you realise, 204 00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:51,080 "Oh, my God, there's a couple in the shadow doing... 205 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:53,440 "..having a good time together." 206 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:04,440 The Three Trees is by far his most pictorial landscape etching ever, 207 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:08,760 because you almost think like you're looking at a painting. 208 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:10,360 It is his most elaborate, 209 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:14,320 also probably one of his largest landscape etchings that he ever did. 210 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:15,840 But he does the same thing. 211 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:20,960 What you see in the bushery around to the small lake, 212 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:24,840 there is again a couple having a good time together. 213 00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:30,040 And, for me, I know an impression is better than another 214 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:32,000 if you can hardly see the couple, 215 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,600 because when the plate starts to wear down 216 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:37,360 they show up ever more clearly. 217 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:45,280 This one is the most explicit. 218 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,320 It shows a couple in a bed. 219 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:50,880 Well, a couple having fun. 220 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:53,480 There has been a lot of effort to attribute this print 221 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:55,400 to somebody else but it's Rembrandt 222 00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:59,240 in the period that he was having an affair with Geertje Dircx. 223 00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:03,080 And whether you can see that, it's very tempting, 224 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:07,000 but it is a little bit stretching it, as far as I'm concerned, 225 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,080 to assume that the man then should be Rembrandt 226 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:13,800 and the woman should be Geertje Dircx. 227 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:26,080 My own view is that Rembrandt had to represent everything at least once. 228 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:28,880 That he saw himself as the universal artist. 229 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:32,000 And so he has lovemaking as part of his repertoire 230 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,640 and he, of course... He depicts it after life. 231 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,160 It's perhaps fair to speculate that he's thinking 232 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:43,080 or has in mind his own relationship. 233 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:46,960 So it's fair to see some connection between Rembrandt's own life. 234 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:50,400 But I wouldn't see that as Rembrandt representing himself. 235 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:57,360 Everything seems to drift back to what happens in our bedroom 236 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:00,400 and what our little world will think of it. 237 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:04,200 I wonder what I dare to do? 238 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:07,320 I wonder what I think of my own conduct? 239 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:08,840 What do I wish for? 240 00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:11,440 What can I afford? 241 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:17,280 I've told my pupils that I think of her as my wife. 242 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:21,040 I let her wear the jewels that Saskia left behind. 243 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:33,920 In 1644 Rembrandt's paints... 244 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:38,240 ..a very unusual and elaborate version of this story 245 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:43,360 from the Old Testament, of Christ and a woman who's brought to him 246 00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:46,320 and accused of adultery. 247 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:48,600 You see the head scribe saying... 248 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:54,440 .."Teacher, tell us. This woman was caught in adultery 249 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:58,320 "and the laws of Moses tell us that she should be stoned to death. 250 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:00,560 "What do you say?" 251 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:04,920 And in the story, it's continued that Christ contemplates her 252 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:09,600 and then starts writing something on the ground, presumably in the sand, 253 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:11,480 or maybe with a piece of chalk 254 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:13,880 and then when he gets back up 255 00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:17,360 they see that what he has said in writing is, 256 00:18:17,360 --> 00:18:22,680 "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone at her." 257 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:24,360 As so often with Rembrandt, 258 00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:26,480 I think there was a clear sense 259 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:29,160 that it has some personal relevance for him. 260 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:31,400 Which is why he draws out this beautiful idea 261 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:34,120 of withholding judgment for the time being. 262 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:44,000 The centrepiece of the composition in the foreground 263 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:45,480 is the woman herself. 264 00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:51,600 Rembrandt might have used Geertje as the model most readily at hand. 265 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:55,240 The 17th century was not a time when models were that freely available, 266 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:57,200 especially female models. 267 00:18:57,200 --> 00:18:59,040 So I think it's entirely plausible 268 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:02,600 that Geertje Dircx would have been a model for this. 269 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:11,200 I turn this over and over in my mind. 270 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:15,200 Are we sinful? Is this wrong? 271 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:20,200 Have I ruined her? Has she ruined me? 272 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:22,120 Are we judged? 273 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:25,640 I find I don't care. 274 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:27,280 I'm certainly a sinner. 275 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:28,680 So is she. 276 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:30,920 And so is everyone on Earth. 277 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:34,880 I put the gossip behind me and I paint less and less. 278 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,840 The etching plate is where I wish to work. 279 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:40,520 I've made a new friend. 280 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:42,680 A patron, really. 281 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:45,400 Jan Six. A lover of art. 282 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:47,400 A rising man. 283 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:49,760 He'll rise beyond me, soon enough. 284 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:51,960 He commissions a portrait from me 285 00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:56,280 and I leave the paint brush aside and take up the needle. 286 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:02,920 This is his portrait of Jan Six, his friend, made in 1647. 287 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:05,840 Jan Six was powerful. 288 00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:11,880 He would become Mayor Of Amsterdam later in his life, 289 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:17,640 and here he is leaning casually on the windowsill reading a book. 290 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:21,200 I mean, this is perhaps the most informal way 291 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:23,080 you could depict somebody... 292 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:26,560 ..in those days. 293 00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:31,400 This is one of the most marvellous etchings Rembrandt ever produced 294 00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:33,120 and certainly one of the most marvellous 295 00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:35,760 in the history of printmaking. 296 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:39,120 And it was by means of his prints, really, 297 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:42,000 that he became famous all over Europe. 298 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:49,960 What he does here is explore the full potential 299 00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:52,160 of what he could do with shadow. 300 00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:55,040 Nobody could do this. 301 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:57,680 There was only one artist in the world at that time 302 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:01,040 who could make this kind of tonality, that was Rembrandt. 303 00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:03,160 It's really stunning. 304 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:06,320 What you would usually do in a portrait is... 305 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:08,760 There is the person to portray 306 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:12,240 and you say to the person, "Look at me, please." 307 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:14,040 And then you start making a portrait. 308 00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:15,640 That's not what's happening here. 309 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:17,160 It's almost like a snapshot. 310 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:24,360 We were friends. Not social equals, but friends. 311 00:21:24,360 --> 00:21:25,800 So why be formal? 312 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:28,720 What's the point of a formal portrait? 313 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:31,600 Wrapping him and his possessions 314 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:34,800 in that velvet dimness took me hours. 315 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:38,480 Everyone who sees a copy asks me how I did it. 316 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:42,080 And I don't tell them. 317 00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:44,560 Every great artist has his secrets. 318 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:54,840 So this, now, is a very interesting painting indeed. 319 00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:58,000 We see a woman in bed. 320 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:02,440 This is not really what you would expect... 321 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:06,000 ..a decent woman in the 17th century... 322 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,520 ..to have painted of her, you know? 323 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:11,840 So this is the first question mark. 324 00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:15,480 And then, of course, the next question is... 325 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:18,120 ..who she can possibly be? 326 00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:21,920 That is linked to the date, and the picture is dated. 327 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:26,520 Unfortunately the last figure is damaged and basically gone. 328 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,280 So it reads 164-. 329 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:32,960 Luckily, however, we know from two different sources 330 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:37,520 that the picture in all likelihood was painted in 1647. 331 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:41,160 His wife had died five years before. 332 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:45,960 And in this particular moment, the only woman in his house 333 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,760 would have been Geertje Dircx. 334 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:51,840 She started as a maid in his household. 335 00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:55,560 And many people have noted that her hands, 336 00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:59,240 actually, are rather...worker's hands. 337 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:01,560 And, yeah, that would at least fit. 338 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:04,960 What would not really fit, of course, 339 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:09,760 is this golden hair dress she's wearing 340 00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:13,440 and also the very ornate and rich bed she's in. 341 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:18,360 So there is probably more behind this picture. 342 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:32,080 Geertje Dircx sits for me as Sarah, the would be wife of Tobias 343 00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:34,960 from the Book Of Tobit in the Bible. 344 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:36,920 A cursed woman. 345 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:41,000 A demon has killed every man she tried to marry. 346 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:44,720 And now she watches as Tobias burns the guts of a fish 347 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:46,520 to drive the demon away. 348 00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,680 She hopes his spell will prove successful. 349 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:55,840 She yearns for marriage. 350 00:23:57,600 --> 00:23:59,520 Just as Geertje Dircx does. 351 00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:04,160 She has been working there 352 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,960 and living in Rembrandt's household for a while 353 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:11,880 and getting pretty serious with Rembrandt, I guess, 354 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:14,280 at least from her side. 355 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:15,800 Because... 356 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,320 ..in this last will dated on January... 357 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:27,880 ..the 24th in 1648, she has only a few heirs that she that she mentioned 358 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:30,400 and the most important one is Titus van Rijn, 359 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:34,000 which is the stepson-to-be, the son of Rembrandt. 360 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:37,240 And, yeah, it's quite unusual 361 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:43,760 that somebody who's not married to the father of the stepson-to-be... 362 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:47,480 ..mentions him already as her heir. 363 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:52,080 In January 1648, when Geertje Dircx is making her will, 364 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:55,560 she doesn't have much, but she's leaving her clothing to her mother, 365 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:56,920 and the rest goes to Titus. 366 00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:04,480 And she explicitly states that she leaves, also, her jewellery, 367 00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:08,680 and her gold and silver objects to Titus. 368 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:11,920 And this is important, 369 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,240 cos these jewels must have come from Rembrandt, 370 00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:18,480 were given by Rembrandt and had belonged to Saskia. 371 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:28,360 I wish I hadn't given her the jewels at all. It was going too far. 372 00:25:28,360 --> 00:25:32,520 At the very least, they belong to Saskia's side of the legacy. 373 00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,920 They have to go to Titus when he comes of age. 374 00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:39,200 Another miracle. 375 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:45,080 Probably the most elaborate self-portrait by Rembrandt... 376 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:49,600 ..where he portrays himself just as he would have been clothed 377 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:51,200 in his workshop... 378 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:53,440 ..sitting by the window... 379 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:55,680 ..studying his face. 380 00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:59,640 Because if there is a self-portrait without any pretence 381 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:04,200 and without any making faces, then this is it. 382 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,280 And it is a beautiful sequence, 383 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:11,080 because what you see here is a self-portrait coming into being 384 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:15,640 and you see it's still imperfect, but the groundwork is there. 385 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,880 And then towards perfection... 386 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:22,040 ..and it's almost photographical, 387 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:25,560 which, at that time, 1648, was a miracle 388 00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,240 because nobody else could do such a thing as this. 389 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,640 Here, still more... 390 00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:33,400 ..tone and darkness and mystery. 391 00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:37,480 And then he continued, in an effort to get it even darker, 392 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:39,240 to get it even murkier. 393 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:41,520 And to my mind he shouldn't have done that, 394 00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:43,320 because it's too much. 395 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:51,400 Why did it grow darker? 396 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:57,080 I think I wanted the face to be the focus. 397 00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,680 My 42-year-old face, just as it is. 398 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:06,920 And why, in my last attempt, did I fill the window with a landscape 399 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:08,880 I've never lived in? 400 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:12,400 Houses and a hill, not Amsterdam. 401 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,120 Maybe I should be living another life entirely. 402 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,160 I no longer wish to be with Geertje. 403 00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:31,840 Another maid has entered the house and Rembrandt has fallen in love 404 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:35,360 with this much younger Hendrickje Stoffels. 405 00:27:35,360 --> 00:27:38,080 There was a big difference between Geertje 406 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,480 and Hendrickje for Rembrandt. 407 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,920 In spring 1649, it's clear that Geertje is leaving the house 408 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,280 and moving to a simple rental house in the neighbourhood. 409 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,000 And then shortly after, she summons Rembrandt 410 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,640 to the commissioners of The Chamber Of Marital Affairs 411 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:57,760 and she is openly stating that they have slept together 412 00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:02,240 and that he has broken his promise to marry her. 413 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:08,040 This whole book is full of men trying to get away with it. 414 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:12,840 People who were promised to be married... 415 00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:16,520 ..and one says, "Oh, no, no, no, no. 416 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,680 "On second thought maybe not." 417 00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:22,560 And this has happened with Geertje Dircx as well. 418 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:29,920 And she says that she slept with him several occasions. 419 00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:33,280 And, yeah, she wants to get married now. 420 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,280 And Rembrandt says... 421 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,200 ..well, yeah, of course he denies 422 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:41,960 that he ever, ever, ever, had serious promises of faith 423 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:44,960 and marriage and everything. No, no, no, no, no. 424 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:46,840 And because of that, 425 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,920 he doesn't have to confess that he slept with her. 426 00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:55,680 It's clear that the commissioners of the marriage affairs... 427 00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,440 ..they believed Geertje. 428 00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:06,360 He has to pay 200 guilders a year... 429 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:09,240 ..during the rest of her life. 430 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:13,960 And that was quite much. 200 guilders was really much. 431 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:23,240 However, Geertje turns on this agreement... 432 00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,880 ..rejects it and storms off. 433 00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:33,520 And this likely precipitates a state of mind where even her family... 434 00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:37,280 ..collaborates with Rembrandt to have her committed 435 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:39,920 to the spinhuis or the House Of Correction. 436 00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:45,400 It ended very badly for Geertje. 437 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,440 She was put in a woman's jail, basically. 438 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,760 And so that whole episode has also coloured our understanding 439 00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:54,160 of Rembrandt as a person 440 00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,600 and whether he was a horrible person or a misogynist. 441 00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:01,880 It's very difficult for historians to understand what really happened. 442 00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:08,680 Lots of historians have figured 443 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,160 that Rembrandt was the driving force behind that, 444 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,000 but, actually, in Dutch law, 445 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:19,720 a question to lock someone up, lock her up... 446 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:24,000 ..had to be made by relatives, by the family. 447 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,640 So we don't have the application, 448 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:33,640 but we know it must have been made by her brother - Dircx. 449 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:38,640 But she must have led a low life in some way or another 450 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:42,160 that merits her being sent to the House Of Correction 451 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:46,080 and that being approved by the local authorities. 452 00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:50,880 It was not so in Amsterdam society that if you broke up 453 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,200 you could just send your ex-girlfriend 454 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,280 to a House Of Correction. 455 00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:00,160 It's quite easy to see Rembrandt in this whole story 456 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:04,600 as sort of the evil genius wanting to get rid of a woman. 457 00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:10,960 But I think it was, for him, also much more complicated. 458 00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:14,520 It's tempting to think that Rembrandt was sort of pulling the strings 459 00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:18,160 and arranging her to go to this... 460 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,840 ..House Of Correction but there were other people involved also, 461 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:25,760 and Geertje was, apparently, clearly also a woman 462 00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:30,040 who could become very angry and very untameable. 463 00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:31,160 So... 464 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:34,240 ..we don't know. 465 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:41,320 I put it behind me. 466 00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:43,400 I put her behind me too. 467 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:44,920 She would not be helped. 468 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:46,880 So when her brother asked for my support 469 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:50,520 in placing her in the spinhuis, I gave it gladly. 470 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,120 There's a reason such places exist. 471 00:31:56,440 --> 00:32:00,640 And then I paint myself in my studio clothes 472 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:05,360 as a man you can do business with, despite what you've heard. 473 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:08,560 And I paint in a new less finished style. 474 00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:11,960 Why? 475 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:15,520 I've been away from painting far too long. 476 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:20,200 The market's flooded with my own pupils painting as I used to. 477 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:26,400 And, anyway, it seems truer to the likeness of the person 478 00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:28,520 and the painted self. 479 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:32,360 The truth is, I've run short of money. 480 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:37,200 Every day, I expect the man I bought the house from to come knocking. 481 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:42,160 The date is 11th of January, 1653. 482 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,800 Must have been cold there on The Sint Antoniesbreestraat. 483 00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:50,800 Christoffel Thysz, accompanied by a notary and another witness, 484 00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:55,520 he goes to the house of Rembrandt where Rembrandt is not at home. 485 00:32:55,520 --> 00:33:01,160 And his servant is opening the house and the girl says, 486 00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:06,280 "No, no, he's not at home. But I'll tell him that you have been here." 487 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:09,960 Rembrandt was supposed to have paid off the house years before 488 00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:13,240 and taken full possession of the deed to the house. 489 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:15,400 And Christoffel Thysz had been quite patient, 490 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:17,720 but his patience evidently ran out. 491 00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:24,800 Two days later, the notary and the witness go again 492 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,440 to Rembrandt's house and then he is there. 493 00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:31,680 So Christoffel Thysz says, 494 00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:36,720 "Yeah, it's already lying there for a long time. Blah, blah, blah. 495 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:39,320 "You even don't pay taxes." 496 00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:41,640 Taxes. 497 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,560 I haven't paid the city taxes on my house for years. 498 00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:48,480 Thysz has been paying them for me and I know what he really wants. 499 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:51,360 He wants what I still owe for the house. 500 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:53,720 I mean, the taxes he can maybe afford. 501 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,080 But the sum that he needs for the house, 502 00:33:57,080 --> 00:33:58,960 it's obvious that he doesn't have that money. 503 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:00,080 He doesn't have it. 504 00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,640 He doesn't say so but, I mean, that's what we know. 505 00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,040 Christoffel Thysz presented Rembrandt with a bill 506 00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:09,560 showing that he owed still more than 8,000 guilders 507 00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:13,560 out of the 13,000 guilder purchase price on the house. 508 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:15,960 It was supposed to have been paid off in four or five years 509 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:18,160 according to the original contract. 510 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:21,520 Presented with this bill and not wanting to lose the house, 511 00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:26,160 Rembrandt had to scramble. He had to come up with a great deal of cash, 512 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,040 in a very short span of time. 513 00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:33,360 Who can I find to borrow from in this money grubbing city? 514 00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:37,320 I'm sure Jan Six will lend me something. 1,000 guilders maybe. 515 00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:40,520 You can't ask a friend for more. Who else? 516 00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:43,840 Here is Mr Cornelis Witsen. 517 00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:47,240 He was a counsellor and an old elder man of the city. 518 00:34:47,240 --> 00:34:51,040 He is an important man from an important family. 519 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:58,520 And Rembrandt borrows 4,180 guilders. 520 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:03,760 Cornelis Witsen very likely imagined that he could get Rembrandt under his wing. 521 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:09,200 That Rembrandt might be in service to him because of this debt. 522 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:14,360 Rembrandt says, "OK, I'm going to pay it back within one year, 523 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:18,320 "and, Cornelis, you can get everything I have if I don't pay." 524 00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:20,480 That's what he says. 525 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,040 Yeah. But it's easy. It's easy to say. 526 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:32,320 So there are more people who Rembrandt borrowed money from. 527 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:36,000 And here we have another one. 528 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:42,760 He borrows 4,200 from Isaac Van Heertsbeeck. 529 00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:45,040 Again, Rembrandt says, 530 00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:50,080 "Yeah, all my goods and my house and all my belongings 531 00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,680 "is what you're going to get if I don't pay back." 532 00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:59,800 If we make a calculation and we see that together with Jan Six 533 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:02,720 it's an amount of 9,000 plus guilders... 534 00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:07,480 ..that he borrowed within weeks. 535 00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:12,760 And all on the condition that he had to pay this back in a year. 536 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:16,080 Yes, it's impossible. 537 00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:19,080 It's more, I think, an idea of, 538 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:22,320 "Nah, OK. We'll see what the future will bring. 539 00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:26,440 "We'll see how long I can stretch this situation. 540 00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:29,760 "Every day is another day." 541 00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:42,400 Everything I've borrowed rests on the same security. 542 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,360 Everything I possess. 543 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:47,800 It's probably illegal but what else can I do? 544 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:49,920 Apart from work. 545 00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:53,080 These date from 1653. 546 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:56,640 This print, The Crucifixion - or as it's known, 547 00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:59,480 The Three Crosses - is my favourite print 548 00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:02,120 and this is my favourite impression. 549 00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:05,040 It's the first state, so this is how he started out 550 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:08,480 and he printed it on almost golden vellum. 551 00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:10,680 Almost the size of a small painting 552 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:12,880 and also the impact of a painting. 553 00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:14,640 But this... 554 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:18,880 ..is such a remarkable project 555 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,440 because he executed his print completely in dry point. 556 00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,400 So it's basically scratched into the copper plate. 557 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:29,320 All the lines have this soft velvety quality 558 00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,120 which really adds to the image here. 559 00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:37,080 It has, also, a very important disadvantage 560 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:40,120 because it wears down fairly quickly. 561 00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:43,800 You can make about 50 impressions and then it's just gone. 562 00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:46,280 This is a large plate. It must have been expensive. 563 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:50,440 And if you can only make a few impressions, that's a waste. 564 00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:54,360 And he made a brilliant solution. 565 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:57,880 And it is - he completely reworked the plate. 566 00:37:57,880 --> 00:37:59,920 And that's what you see there. 567 00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:02,400 Everything you see here is there too. 568 00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:07,360 And, for example, it's more grim, dark, and it seems late at night 569 00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:11,440 but you can still see Christ on the cross and a lot of the figures... 570 00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:15,040 ..are still the same. But here he added a new figure. 571 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:21,080 You can see that there are numerous lines all over the image 572 00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:23,760 and those are completely straight, 573 00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:25,720 so he must have had a ruler. 574 00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:28,440 And that's a beautiful image of Rembrandt, 575 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,840 and I picture it at night or in the evening, 576 00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,640 just having this plate in front of him and with a ruler, 577 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:38,400 just shadowing the complete plates in order to get at that, 578 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,040 and that must have taken quite some time. 579 00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:42,760 It was, as far as I'm concerned, 580 00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:45,240 a brilliant solution to a problem that he had 581 00:38:45,240 --> 00:38:48,760 and that would allow him to make 50 more impressions. 582 00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:51,840 And you can imagine that, as a collector, you would want that. 583 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,360 So, in a way, he is thinking economically. 584 00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:59,360 How can I make more impressions of this plate? 585 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:01,600 But that's only half of the story 586 00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:04,880 because he is also thinking as an artist 587 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:06,440 and making it into a new picture. 588 00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:10,560 And, in a way, as stunning as the first version, 589 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:13,440 but completely different. 590 00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:22,360 For these prints, I can charge a guilder at the very most. 591 00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:25,480 Mere drops in my ocean of debt. 592 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,440 I waste my time on them because they're beautiful. 593 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:36,200 Because they keep my mind at bay, my hands busy. 594 00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:39,880 They make me still. 595 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,120 1653 was a terrible year for Rembrandt. 596 00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:49,240 There is only one painting that is signed and dated to that year, 597 00:39:49,240 --> 00:39:51,640 but it's an extraordinary painting. 598 00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:54,960 It's a painting that was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art 599 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:58,240 in the early 1960s at auction. 600 00:39:58,240 --> 00:40:02,040 At that point, it was the most expensive painting in the world. 601 00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:05,520 They paid a record price for it - $2.3 million. 602 00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:11,960 They bought it on a Wednesday 603 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:14,280 and the first day that they put it on display 604 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:16,760 in the Metropolitan Museum was that Saturday. 605 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,800 And more than 50,000 people came to see it. 606 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:23,320 And the day after, more than 70,000 people. 607 00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:37,600 1653 marks a watershed in Rembrandt's... 608 00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:39,840 ..financial status. 609 00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,040 Rembrandt needed this commission. 610 00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:46,880 The money was extremely important for him. 611 00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:52,040 He was trying to work himself out of a mountain of debt. 612 00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:58,440 He was given this commission by Don Antonio Ruffo... 613 00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:06,200 ..for delivery to his palace in Messina, Sicily. 614 00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:11,160 When Ruffo first took possession of the painting, 615 00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:14,000 he did not know or did not acknowledge 616 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:18,720 that the central figure was indeed Aristotle. 617 00:41:18,720 --> 00:41:24,160 What he understood this to be was a painting of a philosopher. 618 00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:26,800 It's possible, though, 619 00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:30,040 that we've all gotten the subject of Rembrandt's painting wrong 620 00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:33,520 and that Rembrandt might have intended it to represent Apelles, 621 00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,400 the greatest of Ancient Greek painters. 622 00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:41,440 We also see that Homer is cited by writers in Rembrandt's sphere 623 00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:45,920 as an inspiration to persevere through difficult times with patrons. 624 00:41:50,720 --> 00:41:53,840 Homer died in poverty, they say. 625 00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:56,720 Perhaps the same fate waits for me. 626 00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:03,440 Money. 627 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:08,400 Money doesn't matter any more. 628 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:10,680 It's just a mud I'm stuck in. 629 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,440 A picture for Don Ruffo made me a few hundred guilders, 630 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:17,840 but I owe 9,000. 631 00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:23,000 But it's all just money. 632 00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:25,280 There's everything to live for. 633 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:27,960 Although I can't marry Hendrickje 634 00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,320 any more than I could have married Geertje. 635 00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:36,120 Because... 636 00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:39,280 ..that would cost me money too. 637 00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:40,920 Money I haven't got. 638 00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:48,560 Rembrandt painted this picture 639 00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:53,280 The Woman Bathing In A Stream in 1654. 640 00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:55,040 But there is much more to it 641 00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:58,560 than the title would ever be able to convey. 642 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:02,640 Not least because the woman depicted, in all likelihood, 643 00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:06,280 is his partner of many years - Hendrickje Stoffels. 644 00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:09,760 There is no official portrait of her. 645 00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:16,600 But this woman features in a number of works throughout this period... 646 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:20,920 ..and although none of them are documented as portraits of Hendrickje, 647 00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:23,440 it seems very likely that it is her. 648 00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:27,000 This is... 649 00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:29,320 ..one of the most... 650 00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:32,400 ..sensorial and sensitive... 651 00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:36,840 ..works Rembrandt ever painted. 652 00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:39,640 And at the same time, 653 00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:46,160 he excels, in his way, to create delicacy... 654 00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:47,840 ..with his rough manner. 655 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:53,360 You can see that he uses the under paint, you know, 656 00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:58,080 which is brownish, streaky, to create structure. 657 00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:03,600 And he creates this illusion of this light white garment she's wearing. 658 00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:07,200 It's just... 659 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:08,480 ..perfect. 660 00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:21,360 The informality in the painting, 661 00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:25,480 which is so enhanced by that extremely vigorous brushwork, 662 00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:27,240 especially in that shift, 663 00:44:27,240 --> 00:44:29,000 which was actually very carefully done, 664 00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:32,360 but it looks like it's done in a fast dash. 665 00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:35,720 It's complemented by this... Not just to this robement, 666 00:44:35,720 --> 00:44:38,800 but also this lovely loosened curl 667 00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,200 that twirls around the side of her face, 668 00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:43,800 a very loving detail I think. 669 00:44:43,800 --> 00:44:48,880 Clearly he'd wanted to be with this woman 20 years his junior. 670 00:44:50,720 --> 00:44:54,200 She's hiked up her shirt extremely high, 671 00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:57,840 revealing herself again to a degree that you'd have to say, 672 00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:00,840 this may have been a little bit shocking to people. 673 00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:05,080 Rembrandt may have painted it for himself for all that we know. 674 00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:09,840 I think that while Saskia was the first great love of his life, 675 00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:13,240 Hendrickje really took up a very important role 676 00:45:13,240 --> 00:45:16,560 in his affectionate life in later years. 677 00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:19,160 But there was a bit of trouble with it 678 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:22,000 because she was considered to be living in sin with him. 679 00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:33,240 I ask her to sit for me a little longer, 680 00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:35,600 entirely naked.. 681 00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:37,840 ..for a different picture. 682 00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:42,120 I know it isn't comfortable, this unmarried place I've put her in. 683 00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:45,360 I understand the risk she runs 684 00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:51,120 so I paint her as Bathsheba from the Bible at her bath 685 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:56,440 just after she's received the letter from King David saying he wants her... 686 00:45:56,440 --> 00:45:58,880 ..even though she has a husband. 687 00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:13,520 She has read the letter. 688 00:46:13,520 --> 00:46:15,200 She's still holding it. 689 00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:18,920 Her eyes are downcast. 690 00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:22,760 She's clearly not speaking. 691 00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:25,560 She's not saying anything to the quiet attendant. 692 00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:32,120 And she's really lost in very deep thought 693 00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:35,800 and has what we know to be a quandary before her. 694 00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:38,360 She is a married woman. 695 00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:39,840 The question for her, 696 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:42,240 "Do I become the mistress of King David?", 697 00:46:42,240 --> 00:46:46,560 this powerful king whom she really can't refuse. 698 00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:52,160 It seems almost impossible for me 699 00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:55,560 to think that Rembrandt didn't have Hendrickje in mind 700 00:46:55,560 --> 00:46:57,880 as he painted this subject. 701 00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:01,640 The woman having to think hard about her adulterous relationship 702 00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:05,040 seems very resonant with his own life at this time. 703 00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:11,840 Conflict. Inner conflict. 704 00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:14,760 Any woman who's faced with the prospect 705 00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:17,720 of having an illicit affair. 706 00:47:17,720 --> 00:47:20,840 Wanting it, knowing it's wrong, not wanting it. 707 00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:22,880 What to do? 708 00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:27,240 Yeah, the turmoil of... It's the argument with oneself. 709 00:47:27,240 --> 00:47:30,520 It really is a remarkable feat. 710 00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:32,440 All of a sudden, he gives the floor to her 711 00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:33,960 and tries to think to himself, 712 00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:36,240 "What is it like for her to be in this situation 713 00:47:36,240 --> 00:47:38,640 "and to receive the letter?" 714 00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:40,520 To really see it from her perspective. 715 00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:44,240 Life is about decisions. 716 00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:48,240 I'm very grateful for hers. 717 00:47:48,240 --> 00:47:50,520 I wish I could afford to marry her. 718 00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:53,560 It would save her from the hypocrites and busybodies, 719 00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:58,800 the born agains who are so sure they're good enough for God. 720 00:47:58,800 --> 00:48:02,000 What we've got here is protocol number nine 721 00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:06,400 from the Calvinist church court 722 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:11,040 and this is a book where they wrote down almost everything 723 00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:15,280 that's concerned them and the members of the church... 724 00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:17,760 ..who are not living properly enough 725 00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:22,120 according to the rules and the ideas of the Calvinist reverence. 726 00:48:22,120 --> 00:48:25,640 And one of them is on this page, she's called Hendrickje. 727 00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:30,480 And Hendrickje, she's living on the Breestraat... 728 00:48:30,480 --> 00:48:34,160 ..and she, as it said in Dutch... 729 00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:37,480 SPEAKS DUTCH 730 00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:42,400 "She lives as a whore with Rembrandt the painter." 731 00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:47,000 And she confessed. 732 00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:53,880 And the punishment was that, as long as she is living this bad life, 733 00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:56,960 she cannot take part in the Holy Supper. 734 00:48:56,960 --> 00:49:01,960 And it's a clear case, she will be seen as a prostitute. 735 00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:03,600 The thing is... 736 00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:09,880 ..you can ask why is it that Hendrickje got this punishment 737 00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,560 and why did Rembrandt get no punishment? 738 00:49:14,680 --> 00:49:16,720 Well, there are two parts of the answer. 739 00:49:16,720 --> 00:49:18,720 First... 740 00:49:18,720 --> 00:49:21,600 Rembrandt was not a member of the church. 741 00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:25,120 And on the other hand, very often in these kind of cases, 742 00:49:25,120 --> 00:49:28,720 it's the woman who got cut-off from the Holy Supper 743 00:49:28,720 --> 00:49:34,880 and the man, well, lives on happily ever after. 744 00:49:34,880 --> 00:49:36,560 She acknowledged it. 745 00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:39,120 She acknowledged that she had been a-whoring with Rembrandt, 746 00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,200 in the colourful language of the time, 747 00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:44,960 and yet she didn't exactly recant. 748 00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:48,840 They kept on living in sin, so to speak, and moreover, 749 00:49:48,840 --> 00:49:50,840 it becomes evident later, in a year, 750 00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:53,200 why the reformed council was onto this. 751 00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:58,440 She was pregnant and gave birth to their child Cornelia 752 00:49:58,440 --> 00:49:59,920 not long thereafter. 753 00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:07,840 We took her for baptism at The Oude Kirk at the end of October. 754 00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:13,920 It is the third time that a daughter of mine has been baptized 755 00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:16,520 with my mother's name. 756 00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:20,200 God, let her live. 757 00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:21,880 Her mother, too. 758 00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:33,600 I've made Hendrickje in to a very confident, sort of modern... 759 00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:36,520 ..almost suffragette lady. 760 00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:39,560 And... 761 00:50:39,560 --> 00:50:43,160 ..she's a way better communicator than Rembrandt is. 762 00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:48,040 In this scene, we see a couple who are standing... 763 00:50:48,040 --> 00:50:50,880 ..looking at a painting of Rembrandt's, 764 00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:55,440 and they get a little closer to see what's really going on there. 765 00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:59,160 And then you hear somebody barking, almost. 766 00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:03,600 "Not too close! You want to look at it, not smell it." 767 00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:05,600 And that's Rembrandt, of course. 768 00:51:05,600 --> 00:51:08,880 But luckily he's called away because... 769 00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:12,600 .."Mr Six has arrived, sir", and Hendrickje takes over. 770 00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:18,640 Jan Six and Rembrandt had a friendly relation. 771 00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:21,960 I think they were sort of chummy. 772 00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:24,920 And here he is, posing for Rembrandt. 773 00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:32,520 When Rembrandt couldn't repay Jan Six after one year, 774 00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:37,000 we see another transaction happened between them, and that is 775 00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:40,800 that Rembrandt paints the extraordinary portrait of Jan Six. 776 00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:50,240 I find this image so striking... 777 00:51:50,240 --> 00:51:54,000 ..that even a transparency takes my breath away. 778 00:51:55,320 --> 00:52:01,200 I do believe that, were this the only work of his... 779 00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:07,880 ..one would account him to be one of the greatest painters 780 00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:09,720 in art history. 781 00:52:09,720 --> 00:52:11,680 As he gets older, of course, 782 00:52:11,680 --> 00:52:15,280 Rembrandt's fascination with the ability of paint 783 00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:20,960 to create an impression in and of itself 784 00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:25,000 just by the usage of the paint... 785 00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:32,240 ..develops in to the genius that presages Impressionism... 786 00:52:32,240 --> 00:52:33,320 ..by centuries. 787 00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:38,680 It is painted with extraordinary brevity. 788 00:52:38,680 --> 00:52:44,080 The latches on his red cloak are just single strokes of paint, 789 00:52:44,080 --> 00:52:45,600 wet into wet. 790 00:52:45,600 --> 00:52:51,200 There is a fantastic bravura in the way that it's painted. 791 00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:59,080 The human element, the interior life that Rembrandt conveys in the face. 792 00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:05,960 The pursing of the lips to indicate a man of wit 793 00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:12,320 with some charm, perhaps with a surfeit of dignity... 794 00:53:12,320 --> 00:53:15,480 ..makes this one of the great treasures of western art. 795 00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:30,560 Rembrandt's going price for a portrait of that size 796 00:53:30,560 --> 00:53:34,000 and that character would have been about 500 guilders. 797 00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:39,080 But we don't see any reduction in Rembrandt's debt. 798 00:53:39,080 --> 00:53:41,640 You would think that Jan Six would say, 799 00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:44,440 "Oh, OK. Now you only owe me 500 guilders." 800 00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:46,560 But that's not what happened. 801 00:53:46,560 --> 00:53:49,320 Was the painting a gift? 802 00:53:49,320 --> 00:53:51,040 I think it probably was. 803 00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:55,280 And by giving Jan Six this gift, he was saying, basically, 804 00:53:55,280 --> 00:53:58,200 "I'm sorry. I'm not going to pay you back right now, 805 00:53:58,200 --> 00:53:59,960 "even though I promised to do so." 806 00:53:59,960 --> 00:54:02,080 And Jan Six let it slide. 807 00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:09,520 It's a small reprieve. 808 00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:11,800 A few more days or weeks or months 809 00:54:11,800 --> 00:54:14,360 before the bigger debts come calling. 810 00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:19,640 I catch my face in the mirror and it says, 811 00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,280 "Paint me, man of sorrows." 812 00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:25,360 And when it's finished... 813 00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:28,400 ..sell it for a few days more. 814 00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:38,360 This is Rembrandt... 815 00:54:38,360 --> 00:54:42,040 ..in 1655. He's nearly 50 years old. 816 00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:46,040 It's a very... 817 00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:47,800 ..special self-portrait. 818 00:54:47,800 --> 00:54:50,760 You are eye and eye with him. 819 00:54:50,760 --> 00:54:52,560 It's very immediate. 820 00:54:53,720 --> 00:54:57,640 And I think the function of his self-portraits 821 00:54:57,640 --> 00:55:00,160 changes throughout his career. 822 00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:04,000 I mean, if you think back to his early works, you know, 823 00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:10,480 it's much more taking your likeness as a model to experiment. 824 00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:14,640 And by this time, this is self-observation. 825 00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:19,880 This is not Rembrandt in fancy costume showing off. 826 00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:22,680 The focus here is on his face. You know? 827 00:55:22,680 --> 00:55:26,320 It's just the face and this expression. 828 00:55:26,320 --> 00:55:29,640 And he is looking troubled. 829 00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:31,400 And that, of course... 830 00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:35,920 ..is what he must have been in those years. 831 00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:39,400 Rembrandt was not just facing financial troubles. 832 00:55:41,520 --> 00:55:47,480 His partner Hendrickje Stoffels had been accused of living with him 833 00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:49,920 without being married to him. 834 00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:53,320 And that accusation, of course, was a public one. 835 00:55:53,320 --> 00:55:57,040 And surely some of Rembrandt's friends, 836 00:55:57,040 --> 00:56:04,360 some of his potential clients would have been disturbed by that. 837 00:56:08,720 --> 00:56:11,600 Doors close. 838 00:56:11,600 --> 00:56:16,040 My friend Jan Six takes a position on the town council 839 00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:19,760 and he's appointed Head Of The Chamber For Marital Affairs. 840 00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:21,800 Of course, he can no longer associate 841 00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:25,040 with the city's most famous marital embarrassment. 842 00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:29,680 I know he was delighted by his portrait. 843 00:56:29,680 --> 00:56:32,640 He made an entry in his album about it. 844 00:56:32,640 --> 00:56:36,400 "Such a face had I, Jan Six." 845 00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:38,000 But there we are. 846 00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:42,960 He has the face I painted and a public face to save. 847 00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:46,360 I understand entirely. Faces are my business... 848 00:56:47,600 --> 00:56:48,720 ..after all. 849 00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:52,640 But business isn't going very well. 850 00:56:54,680 --> 00:56:56,080 I'm ruined. 851 00:56:57,920 --> 00:57:04,520 Well, on July 14th, 1656, Rembrandt went to the City Hall 852 00:57:04,520 --> 00:57:09,120 and walked into the building and entered this room. 853 00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:14,520 And here were the commissioners of the Chamber Of Insolvency. 854 00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:17,760 The decoration of this building is full of symbolism, 855 00:57:17,760 --> 00:57:20,360 and above the door of this room 856 00:57:20,360 --> 00:57:24,200 we see a mythological figure - Icarus. 857 00:57:24,200 --> 00:57:29,240 He had plans to fly like a bird, and in his hubris, 858 00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:31,080 he flew too high to the sun 859 00:57:31,080 --> 00:57:35,080 and the wax melted on his arms and he fell very deep. 860 00:57:36,240 --> 00:57:39,080 And even above that decoration, 861 00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:42,240 we see rats eating worthless papers 862 00:57:42,240 --> 00:57:47,360 and we see a treasure box which is emptied and fallen over. 863 00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:50,920 So all of this symbolizes the failure... 864 00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:54,600 ..actually, of Rembrandt in that particular moment, 865 00:57:54,600 --> 00:57:59,880 to be forced to enter this room and to state his insolvency. 866 00:57:59,880 --> 00:58:04,360 This day was a dark day in his life 867 00:58:04,360 --> 00:58:07,120 and it surely, also, was a shameful situation. 868 00:58:11,320 --> 00:58:14,520 I owe money everywhere to everyone. 869 00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:18,360 I'm followed by a crowd of notaries all waving bills 870 00:58:18,360 --> 00:58:22,840 and people who say they'd like a picture but not until next year. 871 00:58:25,760 --> 00:58:27,600 I'm bankrupt. 872 00:58:33,360 --> 00:58:37,080 Say what you like, everybody else did. 873 00:58:37,080 --> 00:58:39,080 Why can't you paint something beautiful? 874 00:58:39,080 --> 00:58:40,800 Why is nothing finished? 875 00:58:40,800 --> 00:58:43,720 Why can't you pay your bills? 876 00:58:43,720 --> 00:58:46,400 But there were some people who knew that in my '50s, 877 00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:51,840 I was painting better than ever, closer to the truths of humanity. 878 00:58:51,840 --> 00:58:53,440 Ugly. 879 00:58:53,440 --> 00:58:55,320 Damaged. 880 00:58:55,320 --> 00:58:56,520 Old.