1 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,960 There was a time in the 1630s, even the early '40s, 2 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:12,400 when Amsterdam loved everything I did. 3 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:15,040 The richest and most fashionable burgomasters 4 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:17,480 wanted portraits from me. 5 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,880 I made paintings for the head of state. 6 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:23,000 I had more pupils than any other painter. 7 00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:27,600 That was 20 years ago. 8 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:32,320 Now, my pupils are more popular than me. 9 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:35,480 And I'm fodder for the gossips. 10 00:00:35,480 --> 00:00:37,880 "He's got a bastard child." 11 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:41,840 "He never pays his bills, he can't paint like he used to." 12 00:00:43,160 --> 00:00:45,000 But they're right about that. 13 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,680 These days, I paint better. 14 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:49,320 And there were always some people 15 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:53,400 who knew I was catching something closer to what being a human is. 16 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:55,880 Ugly. 17 00:00:56,840 --> 00:00:57,880 Damaged. 18 00:00:58,920 --> 00:00:59,920 Old. 19 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:07,040 What ends up on the canvas, what ends up in your eyes... 20 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:08,680 ..that's all that matters to me. 21 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:43,880 We are standing here in front of an anatomy lesson, 22 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:46,440 at least part of an anatomy lesson. 23 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:49,760 It was severely damaged by fire in the 18th century, 24 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:52,040 but there's still this moving fragment 25 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:54,080 of the middle section that survived. 26 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:56,400 And it shows us the dead body 27 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,040 with a brain dissection going on 28 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:05,800 and Rembrandt is emphasising the dead state of this corpse. 29 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:08,360 You can almost feel the weight of this corpse. 30 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:15,160 So it's a very realistic rendering of the scene. 31 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:19,520 There's no escape, we have urge to look on what is happening here 32 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,480 and to enjoy these wonderful brush strokes. 33 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:27,240 This is looking like almost Impressionist painting 34 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,840 and it's Rembrandt at his very best. 35 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:36,680 His name was Joris Fonteijn. 36 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:41,120 People on the street called him Black Jack, a petty thief. 37 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:44,520 And then he pulled a knife while robbing a draper's shop, 38 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:48,960 so they hung him and gave the body to the surgeons' guild. 39 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:58,560 It's my second painting of an anatomy lesson, of course. 40 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:03,960 24 years since I made The Anatomy Lesson Of Dr Nicolaes Tulp. 41 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,520 I've been married. 42 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:09,720 Widowed. 43 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:11,560 I have a son by my dead wife, 44 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:14,640 a daughter by the woman I live in sin with. 45 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:16,000 My Hendrickje. 46 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:19,800 I'm a different man now. 47 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:22,920 I'm a different painter. 48 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:28,120 You can see what happens between these two portraits. 49 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:33,080 I mean, there's such an evolution between 1632 and 1656, 50 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:37,000 where, first of all, just on a basic level, 51 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,120 the kind of brush work that Rembrandt is using 52 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:42,040 has just loosened so much, 53 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,280 and the kind of way he conveys meaning 54 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:48,240 is just opened up in all kinds of ways. 55 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,600 It has been said in art history that apparently the surgeons' guild 56 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:56,400 was so satisfied with the result of the Dr Tulp painting, 57 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,480 that 24 years later they approached Rembrandt yet again, 58 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:01,800 so he was still popular. 59 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:04,360 I think it could have been slightly different. 60 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:08,200 If you look at the fashionable portrait painters of those years, 61 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:09,960 like Rembrandt's pupils, 62 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,680 they had better things to do in the mid-50s, 63 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:15,320 making great paintings for the Town Hall, 64 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:18,200 or portraying the elite of Amsterdam. 65 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:23,440 They might have wanted to avoid the circumstances 66 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:26,840 in which you had to make your sketches for a painting like this, 67 00:04:26,840 --> 00:04:29,000 in a rather smelly anatomy hall. 68 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:33,040 Rembrandt, on the contrary, he could really use the money. 69 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:39,080 I have a certain sympathy with this ruin of a man. 70 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,320 My pupils get the best work, 71 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:45,560 while I watch surgeons take Black Jack to pieces, 72 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:49,640 looking for his soul inside the brain. 73 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:53,520 His organ of thought, all thoughtless now. 74 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:56,400 What do I know? 75 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,960 I'm just a painter, desperate for the thousand guilders 76 00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:01,640 that I'll get when this is finished, 77 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:04,720 but I can tell you where the soul of this city lies, 78 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:07,120 in money bags and banks 79 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:08,840 and counting houses. 80 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:27,160 I love all phases of his face to draw, because... 81 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:36,760 ..it's a good story-telling face, as he shows in his self-portraits also. 82 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:39,800 And I think he is... I always have the feeling 83 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:42,560 he is not a man of many words, 84 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:46,720 so if you want to show something about his emotions, 85 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:50,120 you have do that through his expression. 86 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:54,720 And it all falls apart around his 50s, 87 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:59,680 it all starts sagging down as we all must endure at a certain point, 88 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:05,240 and, of course, there's always this big bulbous nose 89 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,080 that sort of holds it up. 90 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:09,360 Eyes begin to sag. 91 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:15,000 Big sort of fat lips, I hate to say it, Rembrandt. 92 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,480 And he wasn't so famous any more. 93 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:22,120 And he wasn't that popular any more. 94 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:26,040 The taste of the public had moved on, of the audience, 95 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:30,480 and he was really not doing very well financially. 96 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:42,040 The debts were mounting when I painted my boy Titus. 97 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:46,080 He was about 14, better-looking than I ever was, 98 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:48,560 with a hat, just like his dad's. 99 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:54,720 I love him. 100 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:56,000 But I even owe him money, 101 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:58,800 according to the will his mother wrote before she died. 102 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:04,120 Half of our estate, if I every re-marry. 103 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:06,240 Money that I haven't had for years. 104 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:10,560 So no marriage for me and Hendrickje. 105 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:12,520 Love is all we can afford. 106 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,200 It's this house that sunk me. 107 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:22,560 That's why I had to borrow 9,000 guilders to pay it off. 108 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:25,240 I tried to sell it last year and buy a cheaper place. 109 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:28,000 Of course, deals all fell through. 110 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:31,600 I've come to hate money. 111 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:34,200 But only slaves can live without it. 112 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:40,280 Once, I was the most successful painter in the city. 113 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:44,960 Now, I need some way to stay out of debtors' prison. 114 00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:54,040 What we're looking at is a wonderful painting by Johannes Lingelbach, 115 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,680 a painter from Frankfurt, who ended up in the Netherlands 116 00:07:56,680 --> 00:08:00,800 after a long stay in Italy, and it's a wonderful coincidence 117 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:06,120 that this painting is dated in the lower left corner 1656, 118 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:10,360 the very year that Rembrandt not only painted his second anatomy lesson, 119 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:15,000 but probably shortly afterwards he was going to this Town Hall, 120 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:16,960 going to the first floor, 121 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:19,920 to the right, to the Chamber Of Insolvency, 122 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:24,680 and declaring his insolvency in this year the painting was done, 1656. 123 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:33,840 And that's it. 124 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:37,680 I'm a self-declared bankrupt, in the hands of the city. 125 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,040 It's shameful, but safer. 126 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:50,960 Now, no-one can knock on my door and demand full payment. 127 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:54,640 I'm protected by the courts. 128 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:03,520 I've been a law professor for over 25 years, 129 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:08,240 I've business experience in law for over 40 years. 130 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:11,800 So, after a rather active professional life 131 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:13,920 I started, at the end of 2017, 132 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:18,720 to study more systemically and thoroughly his bankruptcy. 133 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:22,120 And why? Because it's better than playing golf 134 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:25,720 or go to the garden. Because I like it. 135 00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:28,280 There are all types of stories around it. 136 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:31,800 I think the majority in the Netherlands thinks 137 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:36,160 that Rembrandt had what we call "holes in his hands", 138 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:38,600 meaning that you spent too much. 139 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:41,360 If you sell for 1,000 and you spend 2,000 140 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:44,720 and you do that over a longer period, 141 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:47,520 it's not going well with you, especially in the Netherlands 142 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:52,160 where still the attitude is you have to pay your bills. 143 00:09:56,280 --> 00:10:01,920 A few days after Rembrandt got involved with the Desolate Boedels-Kamer, 144 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:06,040 the city organisation that was dealing with bankruptcies, 145 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:08,280 they wanted to know, of course, 146 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,640 what did he possess, this Rembrandt? 147 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:16,920 And they went to his house, and they made a whole list, 148 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:21,280 an inventory of what they found in his house. 149 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:23,440 And they went from one room to another. 150 00:10:27,680 --> 00:10:32,040 It would have been the morning of the 25th July 1656, 151 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:34,760 that would have been the first of two days devoted to taking 152 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:37,680 the inventory with the notary, 153 00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:39,520 assigned by the Desolate Boedels-Kamer, 154 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:44,120 and Rembrandt would have accompanied the notary every step of the way, 155 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:47,640 because we see all kinds of detailed descriptions 156 00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:50,480 that a notary would not have known about. 157 00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:55,280 The inventory list is for us and for me personally, 158 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:58,400 working as a curator at the Rembrandt House Museum, 159 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:00,040 it's an amazing treasure 160 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,600 of understanding more of the person Rembrandt, 161 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:08,480 the man, the collector, the art lover, the artist, 162 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:11,600 the way he lives in the house, the way the house was used, 163 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:12,960 and most of all, 164 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:16,280 it's important that this inventory list still exists. 165 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:20,200 If I start with the voorhuis, 166 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:24,240 which is first part of the house when you enter, 167 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:29,000 and then they make a list of the paintings first. 168 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,720 And what kind of paintings do we see? 169 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:34,280 The first painting we encounter is... 170 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:36,320 HE SPEAKS DUTCH 171 00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:38,680 ..a small painting by Adriaen Brouwer, 172 00:11:38,680 --> 00:11:41,600 representing a pancake baker. 173 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:44,040 A painting from a woman with a little child 174 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:45,480 from Rembrandt himself. 175 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:46,840 A painting we don't know about, 176 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:48,720 a painter's studio of Adriaen Brouwer. 177 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:50,440 Tantalising, never been traced. 178 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:54,720 And, then, a small landscape by Hercules Segers. 179 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:58,800 Like Brouwer, an enigmatic painter from the earlier generation, 180 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:02,240 a great talent. Then we move on to the antechamber. 181 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,600 Here it continues and there were a lot of paintings, 182 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:10,440 again from Rembrandt himself, but also from others. 183 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:14,200 Here there was a painting of the Samaritan, 184 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:16,280 The Good Samaritan by Rembrandt. 185 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:18,960 Two Greyhounds From Life by the same. 186 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:21,200 We're baffled. We don't know anything like that. 187 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:23,800 Faces, faces from Brouwer, Porcellis. 188 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:26,880 This is interesting. Rembrandt has a lot of Porcellis too. 189 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:29,040 These are all monochromatic seascapes. 190 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:35,320 None of the artists I loved were really fashionable. 191 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:37,280 There are people I made friends with 192 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:40,080 just because we both loved Porcellis, 193 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:42,440 with his wild and stormy seas. 194 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:49,320 Or Brouwer's mad, grinning faces, his roaring peasants. 195 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:50,920 Or Hercules Segers, 196 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:54,720 and his imagined impossible, crazy landscapes. 197 00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:58,000 They're my discoveries. 198 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:01,680 I love looking at these wonderful pictures... 199 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:05,640 ..at the light escaping from another artist's mind. 200 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:17,280 Then they go to the art room 201 00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:21,600 and there you find all kinds of materials, 202 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:25,800 no paintings but things from porcelain, 203 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:29,440 also statues from the old Greeks, 204 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:31,760 Socrates, Homer, Aristotle. 205 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:40,440 This room, he calls his "kunstkammer"... 206 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:47,080 ..or the Chamber Of Wonders And Art, The Wonders Of Nature, And The Wonders Of Man. 207 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:52,320 Not only man makes things. 208 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:54,880 God makes things too. 209 00:13:54,880 --> 00:13:57,200 Everything is extraordinary. 210 00:13:57,200 --> 00:14:02,360 And this is the room where I keep everything extraordinary I've found. 211 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:05,200 Fragile corals from the tropic seas, 212 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:08,360 exotic animals preserved and stuffed. 213 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:11,560 Flayed limbs cast in plaster. 214 00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:13,840 Weapons from distant kingdoms. 215 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,440 Things cast upon the shores of history. 216 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:23,960 And my collection of prints and engravings, 217 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,560 which I never could stop buying. 218 00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:32,840 Listed separately in the inventory of the kunstkammer... 219 00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:35,880 ..are the art books, the kunstboeken. 220 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,280 This was even more important. 221 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:42,680 This was vital for Rembrandt and he may have felt more pain 222 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:46,240 at having to potentially part with these. 223 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:48,800 A book of wood cuts by Lucas Van Leyden, 224 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:52,360 a book of copper engravings by the same artist. 225 00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:56,600 A book of drawings by the leading masters of the entire world. 226 00:14:57,720 --> 00:14:59,400 Goodbye. 227 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:02,800 Prints by The Elder Bruegel. 228 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:07,400 He must have had a sense of assurance that he could sell these 229 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:10,040 things for something like what he paid for them, 230 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:12,640 and that would have definitely floated him 231 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:14,480 out of his financial troubles. 232 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:22,880 Was this enough to get out of it? 233 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:24,600 That's the question. 234 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:33,360 If the inventory is complete... 235 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:36,240 ..does it reflect the true... 236 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:37,920 ..goods in his estate? 237 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:40,920 I doubt. 238 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:46,160 Normally when people go into bankruptcy in present days, 239 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:50,040 there's always some sniff of fraudulent action 240 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:55,680 or hiding assets, which is rather common for the human being, 241 00:15:55,680 --> 00:15:58,920 and I think it's rather common for the human being 242 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:01,280 350, 360 years ago. 243 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:05,200 And maybe Rembrandt has what we call black money, dirty money. 244 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:07,480 You wouldn't know. 245 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:13,040 What, am I supposed to go like a lamb to the slaughter? 246 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:18,160 I can promise you that our great burgomasters have back pockets, 247 00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:21,320 and nobody knows how full of money those are. 248 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:26,160 Besides, I need to protect Titus, Hendrickje 249 00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:28,560 and our little daughter Cornelia. 250 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:32,720 So, yes... 251 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:35,720 ..I planned for this. 252 00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:40,960 If you look at the events prior to his bankruptcy, 253 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:43,640 you can see that he's actually preparing for it. 254 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:50,400 So in 1655, and that's one year before, he applies for... 255 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:52,040 HE SPEAKS DUTCH 256 00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:55,160 ..which is this certain kind of insolvency procedure. 257 00:16:55,160 --> 00:17:01,760 In 1655, Rembrandt has a voluntary sale of some of his good. 258 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:05,200 Rembrandt rented rooms at an inn, 259 00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:09,280 in order to have a grand sale of his possessions. 260 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:12,560 We do not know what was sold, 261 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:16,720 we do not know the income that arises from it, 262 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:19,000 we don't know anything about his sale 263 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,480 and we don't know where the money went. 264 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:25,680 But we do know he didn't pay the debt for renting these rooms 265 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:27,480 and that's why we have a record of it. 266 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:38,000 This is 1655, right before his insolvency, 267 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:43,720 and around this time, he loses the copper plates he made so far, 268 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:46,840 which is 90% of all the prints that he ever made. 269 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:55,840 I'm sure he had to sell them, and years later, 270 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,320 all the major print publishers 271 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:03,160 turned out to have copper plates by Rembrandt in their stock. 272 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:09,560 Probably the ones that he had to sell around the mid-1650s. 273 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:17,600 Most of the copper plates are too worn down to print from. 274 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:21,360 What I'm really selling is my fame as a print maker, 275 00:18:21,360 --> 00:18:24,640 it's greater these days than my reputation as a painter. 276 00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:29,680 And then I turn to the millstone around my neck. 277 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:33,080 The thing I should never have bought. 278 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:38,840 It might be convenient not to own it any more. 279 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:46,480 The date is 17th May 1656. 280 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:48,960 This is the moment that... 281 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:54,720 ..Rembrandt tries to manipulate the situation... 282 00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:58,880 ..that the house, which is of course all the time... 283 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:04,680 ..the most valuable thing around Rembrandt in his life... 284 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:09,400 ..that the house is not his... 285 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:11,440 ..but his son's. 286 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:13,560 In transferring the deed to Titus, 287 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:17,280 he gave over to his son his greatest financial asset. 288 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:19,880 He also must have known that his creditors 289 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:23,240 would have wanted to get a hold of that asset as well. 290 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:25,320 This is defraud. 291 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:29,000 I mean, this was not done, and he is doing it. 292 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:30,400 This is defraud. 293 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,440 He was making a conscious choice to protect himself 294 00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:35,760 and to protect his family 295 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:41,000 rather than fulfil his obligations to his outside creditors. 296 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:44,480 But, honestly, when I think about it and I ask myself, 297 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:47,920 "What would I have done in a similar situation?" 298 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:49,720 I'm not sure that I would have made decisions 299 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:53,400 that were different from what Rembrandt decided to do. 300 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:54,960 That's the way I feel about it. 301 00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:01,760 Ever since Titus's mother died, 302 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:05,440 under the terms of her will I've owed him half the estate. 303 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:08,400 I'm simply doing my duty as a father. 304 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:12,880 Now I'm prepared, the house is set aside, 305 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:14,720 we have some money. 306 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:16,920 I declare myself insolvent. 307 00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:22,320 The Chamber Of Insolvent Estates takes my inventory... 308 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:24,840 ..and the auctions begin. 309 00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:33,240 They squeeze my possessions. 310 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:35,400 The money dribbles out. 311 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:43,400 I have to wait while all the auctions happen. 312 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:47,040 I have to hope that things sell for good prices. 313 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:54,720 I feel as though I'm up for sale myself. 314 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,600 And it all takes more than two years. 315 00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:07,720 We see in this volume that the Desolate Boedels-Kamer 316 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,440 is trying to get a solution 317 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:16,480 for Rembrandt's problems by selling his stuff. 318 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:20,440 He comes back and comes back in this book, 319 00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:26,120 and there comes in some money but it's by far not enough. 320 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:33,200 The auction returns are so low that one of the men I borrowed from, 321 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:38,400 a wealthy burgomaster, insists that my house is sold. 322 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:40,000 So it is. 323 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:44,800 My last attempt to defend my boy's inheritance. 324 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:46,480 Nothing goes right. 325 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,200 I sent Titus to one of the auctions to buy back my own large mirror 326 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:52,840 with the ebony frame. 327 00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:57,880 A useful item, if you're famed for your self-portraits. 328 00:21:57,880 --> 00:21:59,720 He was successful. 329 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:03,000 And hired a workman to carry the mirror back. 330 00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:05,400 So here we are, 331 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:08,640 walking over the bridge with the workman, 332 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:10,800 the mirror on his head. 333 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:12,720 Titus starts to warn people, 334 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:16,280 "Excuse us, this is a precious piece we have here", 335 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:19,200 and as the workman steps off the bridge, 336 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:22,840 clearly a step down, there is a crack, and the mirror 337 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:24,720 falls to pieces. 338 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,680 This must have been a crushing moment for Titus, 339 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:29,920 and also later for Rembrandt. 340 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:34,840 This was the gesture of a loyal son, a prized family possession, 341 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:38,480 likely used for some of the famous self-portraits that we know, 342 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:39,960 and it was destroyed. 343 00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:48,400 Poor Titus came back with fragments, little pieces of busted luck. 344 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:51,880 I had to use another mirror to paint myself again. 345 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,480 I'm tired of the city courts 346 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:57,920 and under-bidders picking my pockets. 347 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:01,440 Still, can't go on forever. 348 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,720 And I'm as much myself as I ever was. 349 00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:25,240 This is an astonishing piece of work. 350 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:31,800 What we're seeing is someone literally two years after bankruptcy 351 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:36,840 portraying himself in a manner that initially makes the viewer 352 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:43,360 believe that you are dealing with a slightly irritated monarch. 353 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:48,600 The artist's stick comes across as a sceptre. 354 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,880 It's telling that during this time of turmoil, 355 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:56,840 the conclusion of his bankruptcy proceedings, 356 00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:00,600 that Rembrandt presents us with this image of himself, 357 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:02,560 still on top of his game, 358 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:07,080 sitting in an armchair like a throne, wearing golden robes, 359 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:11,160 his head height high in the picture looking down at us 360 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,400 with a deep introspective expression. 361 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:18,440 Rembrandt presents himself as the prince of painters. 362 00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:22,000 Declaring to everyone who would see this self-portrait 363 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:26,440 that he is still the most prominent painter in Amsterdam. 364 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:30,360 He has wrinkles that he's not afraid to show. 365 00:24:30,360 --> 00:24:38,320 He has a sombre expression but, yet, still present and lively... 366 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:42,080 ..as the shadow passes across his face. 367 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:45,440 We see the build-up of paint 368 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:51,360 that is an expression of his powers at their height. 369 00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:55,000 No other artist could paint in such a fashion. 370 00:24:56,360 --> 00:24:59,120 In this painting, Rembrandt shows 371 00:24:59,120 --> 00:25:06,400 that no matter what life has thrown at him, "I am Rembrandt still." 372 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,840 Where I'm sitting is not a republic. 373 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:23,680 I make the rules here. 374 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:30,160 How the life of a face is best captured, 375 00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:33,040 how thickly paint should be applied. 376 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,440 How free an artist should be to work in any way he wishes. 377 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,400 When he moved into a smaller house, 378 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:47,840 and his bankruptcy proceedings had been completed, 379 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,240 all of the sales were done, 380 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:53,080 you would think that Rembrandt had a fresh start, 381 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:59,000 but he was not completely clear of potential creditors coming forth 382 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:01,480 and making claims upon him. 383 00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:08,160 In order to protect himself, from such potential claims, 384 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:14,440 he entered into a scheme with Hendrickje and Titus. 385 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:19,480 They created an art business and hired Rembrandt as their client, 386 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:22,160 so Rembrandt could say he didn't have assets, 387 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,200 he was just drawing a salary. 388 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,320 What we see here on microfilm, 389 00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:32,960 because the original is heavily burned, 390 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:40,360 is a contract. A contract dated December 15, 1660, 391 00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:43,960 and this is a contract between his son Titus 392 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:46,960 and Hendrickje Stoffels. 393 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:52,720 You see obviously very clear "Titus van Rijn", his signature, 394 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:57,000 and here is "Hendrickje Stoffels", but she couldn't write, 395 00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:59,760 she made this cross here. 396 00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:01,800 Well, Rembrandt could. 397 00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:04,400 And he was the genius behind this. 398 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:10,360 The third line is Rembrandt van Rijn, his own signature. 399 00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:15,400 "Yeah, the only nasty thing is 400 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:18,720 "that I cannot directly receive money from that painting, 401 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:25,040 "but if Hendrickje and my son Titus will receive that money, 402 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:26,840 "then in the end... 403 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:28,240 HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE 404 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:32,360 "..comes into my pocket, and nobody knows." 405 00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:36,200 So this is fraud, I think. 406 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:42,000 In essence Rembrandt was using this business... 407 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:47,760 ..run by Hendrickje and Titus, to launder the money he had earned 408 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,320 during this period of his bankruptcy, 409 00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:52,400 and preserve it for himself. 410 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,040 One of the things you can see with this business 411 00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:01,320 is that it also serves as a surviving relative scheme. 412 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:05,240 What Rembrandt does here is make sure that his lover Hendrickje 413 00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:08,480 and their daughter Cornelia will get money 414 00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:11,360 in case he might come to pass away. 415 00:28:11,360 --> 00:28:14,600 So, what Rembrandt's actually doing is protecting his family. 416 00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:19,280 He was not a criminal, maybe a little crook. 417 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:20,800 Well... 418 00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:22,560 That's something we like, 419 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:25,840 when people are doing things that they are not allowed 420 00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:27,840 and they get away with it. 421 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:31,960 Only not if you are the victim of this guy. 422 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:33,640 Then you don't think it's funny. 423 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:41,400 I don't steal anybody's money. 424 00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:44,880 I just mean to stop other people taking mine. 425 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:47,960 But the truth is, 426 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:50,840 there's no-one I trust more on Earth than Hendrickje. 427 00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:55,240 12 years we've been together, married or not. 428 00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:59,360 She protects me from the people that I paint for. 429 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:02,880 If I can work in peace at all, it's thanks to her. 430 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,400 I'm no longer fashionable, 431 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:11,040 except with those who are no longer fashionable themselves. 432 00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:16,000 I find that the short queue of clients 433 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:20,880 who ask me to take their likeness are mostly as old as myself. 434 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:22,480 Or older still. 435 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:30,240 Standing on the edge of their eternal rest. 436 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:35,560 The Portrait Of Margaretha De Geer is, for me, 437 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:40,000 one of my favourite paintings of women by Rembrandt. 438 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,960 Rembrandt was an extremely empathetic portraitist of women. 439 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:47,560 Showing them with authority often, 440 00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,400 that they so often didn't have in other portraits. 441 00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,520 The portrait we have here is of a very significant woman 442 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:56,600 who was the wife of Jacob Trip 443 00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,640 of the famous Trip family of the Netherlands. 444 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:03,600 They were a very wealthy couple, a very significant couple 445 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:07,400 and it's certainly very interesting to realise that, 446 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:10,320 even around 1661, when this was painted, 447 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,880 he still could command that kind of patronage. 448 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:17,480 Margaretha projects a real gravitas 449 00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:23,000 but I don't think a sternness or harshness. She looks thoughtful. 450 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:28,600 And she looks both at us and perhaps a little bit internally as well. 451 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,360 Rembrandt really seems to have developed a speciality 452 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:35,520 in painting age and the process of ageing. 453 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:38,680 Studying what happens to faces, what happens to skin, 454 00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:42,400 how eyes get more watery, how hair gets wispier, 455 00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:46,880 and all these things he tracked and showed in his portraits. 456 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:53,440 As we age, we become poorer and poorer copies 457 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,000 of our younger selves. 458 00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:01,880 Every old face carries the memory of something finer, firmer. 459 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,320 More foolishly hopeful. 460 00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:06,560 Mine included. 461 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:11,440 So, when I'm commissioned to make a painting of the Apostle Paul, 462 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:13,480 I sit for it myself. 463 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:17,320 My face all hills and valleys, lines and blemishes. 464 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:20,120 It's perfect. 465 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:26,800 He depicts himself as St Paul. 466 00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:32,120 But on the other hand, it's Rembrandt himself. 467 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:34,960 You see Rembrandt as he is. 468 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:44,000 He really only focuses on what we need as the viewer 469 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,160 to construct the image in our head. 470 00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:53,080 We see a turban which is just a few brush strokes but we see a turban. 471 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:59,280 His hair, which is fantastically painted with this dry brush work, 472 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:04,920 only a few grey curls, but it feels as if you can touch it. 473 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:10,680 In everything, he only touches it and it becomes the real thing. 474 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,080 The rules of art were Italian beauty, 475 00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:18,840 classical beauty, 476 00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,240 and what does Rembrandt do? He's a rebel. 477 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,480 He paints us as we are... 478 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:24,920 ..with all our wrinkles, 479 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,080 with this kind of saggy cheeks, 480 00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:32,680 and we see him, but at the same time we see ourselves. 481 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,680 Word goes around among us artists. 482 00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:49,120 The burgomasters want to decorate the Town Hall with paintings 483 00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:51,360 glorifying our Dutch history. 484 00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,120 Do they ask me? 485 00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:57,400 Of course not. 486 00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:04,120 They ask my pupil Govert Flinck to make all 12 paintings. 487 00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:07,640 He paints as I used to. 488 00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:11,200 All fineness and finish, but with added flattery. 489 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:15,160 He starts his sketches... 490 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:16,360 ..but he dies. 491 00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:25,200 So the burgomasters have to ask other artists 492 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:29,200 to complete this great cycle, and I'm one of them. 493 00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:39,760 Hardly any of these great men have spoken to me for years. 494 00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:41,040 It's a chance at last 495 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:44,800 to reclaim my place as the greatest painter in the country. 496 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,600 They give me the very first scene in the cycle. 497 00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:52,640 The moment when our ancestors, the Batavians, 498 00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:56,520 led by Claudius Civilis take an oath to rise and revolt 499 00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:58,560 against their Roman overlords. 500 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,400 Rembrandt paints the leader, the main leader 501 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,560 sitting behind a table together with, 502 00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:12,240 well, all of the great other chiefs of the Batavians. 503 00:34:12,240 --> 00:34:18,680 And the way he uses light as a main tool is absolutely incredible. 504 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,760 It's as if the table cloth is illuminating 505 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:25,400 in a way that's never been seen before. 506 00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:29,680 But for some reason, and we do not completely know why, 507 00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:33,560 the burgomasters of Amsterdam didn't like the painting at all. 508 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,840 So it must have been installed... 509 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,400 ..and hung there for a just a few months... 510 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,080 ..and then he had to take it down again. 511 00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:47,960 What we believe is that Rembrandt cut this five-and-a-half 512 00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:52,640 by five-and-a-half metres painting back to two by three metres, 513 00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:56,480 which is actually the painting we are seeing right now in Stockholm. 514 00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:03,760 They sent it back. 515 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:06,800 They asked for changes. 516 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,160 They forgot who they were asking. 517 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:12,920 We do not know what happened 518 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:15,680 after the moment the painting was taken down. 519 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,200 So there are of course several theories 520 00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:24,760 and there is a chance that it was in his house 521 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:27,280 up to the moment of his death. 522 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:30,120 I take a more practical view of this, 523 00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:34,560 because if I would get a painting this large back to my studio 524 00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:37,520 and I wouldn't be able to resell it anywhere, 525 00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:39,880 and it's a complete waste of space, 526 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:44,960 I would take my Stanley knife out the same afternoon and... 527 00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:47,280 ..yeah, and cut it down to size. 528 00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:52,880 But it remains to me completely incomprehensible how... 529 00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:56,200 ..why they refused it, because it is... If you look at it now, 530 00:35:56,200 --> 00:36:00,000 it is one of the most amazing moments in the history of art. 531 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,440 When you look at the other paintings that are in the Town Hall still, 532 00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:07,320 that are so polite in a sort of grand style 533 00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:09,000 that are kind of boring, 534 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,440 this was just so out of whack with that. 535 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:13,480 That's almost a discordancy. 536 00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:17,040 It was too much for them to handle, perhaps. All across the board. 537 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:22,840 You're absolutely right. The other ones are institutionally dull 538 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:25,880 And here you have one of the most heroic moments 539 00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:31,720 of Dutch history is meant to be depicted, and you see quite a band. 540 00:36:31,720 --> 00:36:35,920 A rag-tag band that looks like a sort of a, you know, 541 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:40,600 a last supper gone awry, where you have 11 figures, 542 00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:45,160 and here they are, like a bunch of drunken louts. 543 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,800 Only Civilis looks really dead serious, you could say? 544 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:51,720 Well, maybe a few others too. They're a rag-tag bunch. 545 00:36:51,720 --> 00:36:56,120 There's a laughing, smiling, drunken figure at right. 546 00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:57,640 People are leaning over, 547 00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:01,640 hardly anybody stands up straight as they swear this oath. 548 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:09,720 The burgomasters wanted a painting to enlarge our history, 549 00:37:09,720 --> 00:37:13,280 to make our Dutch Republic seem grand and noble, 550 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:14,600 but it isn't. 551 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:18,400 The leading men of the Batavians 552 00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:21,520 were as human as our burgomasters are today. 553 00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:24,680 Vain. Venal. Crazy. 554 00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:25,680 Drunk. 555 00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:31,360 I gave them the Claudius that the Roman histories describe. 556 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:33,760 A man with one ruined eye. 557 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:41,280 He stares us down. I surrounded him with drunks and priests. 558 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:45,560 I gave them something I could actually imagine happening. 559 00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:47,920 Naturally, they gave it back... 560 00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:50,480 ..having no imagination themselves. 561 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:57,720 Rembrandt is totally obsessed with his own search, 562 00:37:57,720 --> 00:38:01,360 his own idea of what art should be... 563 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:07,240 ..and I think he was convinced that others would... 564 00:38:07,240 --> 00:38:09,880 ..understand or should understand. 565 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:13,320 I think Rembrandt never bothers. I mean, he just... 566 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:17,240 He creates what he thinks is the only right thing to do. 567 00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:20,480 He simply does not relate, I believe, 568 00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:24,800 to what the commissioner thinks to be the right solution. 569 00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:28,360 Yeah, I think he clearly didn't take that really into account, 570 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,320 and I think we've discussed a lot of things 571 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:32,040 about the decorum of this picture. 572 00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:34,320 I mean, obviously he wasn't really concerned 573 00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,000 about whether he thought it was decorous or not. 574 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,800 He may have given it a thought, but in the end, 575 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:41,600 I don't think he really cared. 576 00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:44,480 We know from so much of his work 577 00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:49,080 that when the choice was between money and prestige, 578 00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:51,040 especially later in life, 579 00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:55,360 and making a painting that really would make a contribution to art, 580 00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,800 to the art of painting, he chose the latter. 581 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:03,400 I think the exciting thing is, with Rembrandt, with every painting, 582 00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:09,360 he takes a step into the unknown, so he cannot think about his client. 583 00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:14,040 Good art is never painted to satisfy the client, 584 00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:15,920 and Rembrandt is a great artist. 585 00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:25,800 Rembrandt's legacy is of course his art. 586 00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:28,240 During these periods of financial distress 587 00:39:28,240 --> 00:39:31,800 and personal turmoil, his art hardly suffered. 588 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,520 In fact, most would say it flourished, 589 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,240 because through all the turmoil, 590 00:39:37,240 --> 00:39:42,400 Rembrandt maintained his supreme autonomy over his work. 591 00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:48,200 There was a common question asked of painters in the 17th century 592 00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:51,240 that still gets asked of painters today. 593 00:39:51,240 --> 00:39:54,440 How do you know when a painting is finished? 594 00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:59,240 Rembrandt's answer to that question was, "A painting is finished 595 00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:03,000 "when the master has realised his intention in it." 596 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:07,360 This anecdote is an extraordinary declaration by Rembrandt... 597 00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:13,280 ..of the power that an artist has over his product. 598 00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:19,440 To be misunderstood by pompous fools, 599 00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:22,080 well, it's a sort of badge of honour, 600 00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:27,600 But there was another commission that year that went much better. 601 00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:31,400 More men at table, but this time a group portrait, 602 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:34,440 for the leading members of the drapers' guild. 603 00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:37,960 I painted them as though I'd interrupted their meeting 604 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,360 and now they all stare out at you. 605 00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:43,280 What are you doing here? 606 00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,800 Well, this painting, I mean, The Syndics 607 00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:55,000 was made exactly at the same moment 608 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:57,640 as Rembrandt painted his Claudius Civilis. 609 00:40:57,640 --> 00:40:59,280 But it's completely different. 610 00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:01,560 I mean, if we would not know the dates, 611 00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:06,160 if the paintings would not have been dated, we could have believed 612 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:10,240 that they were made in completely different time periods, 613 00:41:10,240 --> 00:41:12,680 in his later stage of his life. 614 00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:15,640 I think when we talk about Rembrandt's late style, 615 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:18,400 it's about different aspects. 616 00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:22,480 It's about his way of portraying, really, human beings, 617 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:24,000 of flesh and blood. 618 00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:27,920 I mean, you can almost hear blood running through their veins. 619 00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:30,280 And he doesn't idealise, so it's... 620 00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:33,920 I mean, there's a very short distance between us as beholders 621 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,240 and the people that have been portrayed. 622 00:41:36,240 --> 00:41:39,960 The way he involves us in the story, 623 00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:42,840 he makes us part of what he wants to tell. 624 00:41:42,840 --> 00:41:47,280 I mean, they look at us as if they are disturbed by us 625 00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:49,440 just entering the room. 626 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:51,240 It's quite tempting to think 627 00:41:51,240 --> 00:41:54,040 that we are not really welcome in this area. 628 00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:03,440 I make them into actors in this little drama. 629 00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:08,920 I play with where they're placed, until it all seems right to me. 630 00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:10,760 I paint. 631 00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:12,720 I paint out. 632 00:42:12,720 --> 00:42:14,840 I repaint. 633 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:20,880 I move people around in the picture, until they say, "Leave me here." 634 00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:27,240 The X-ray would have been made many decades ago. 635 00:42:27,240 --> 00:42:30,440 The next image is not a full image, 636 00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,480 essentially the majority of the painting was scanned, 637 00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:36,480 and then this gave much more detailed information 638 00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:39,160 about what was really going on with those changes. 639 00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:42,560 And, so, for the first time you could see that there was 640 00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:48,320 an earlier position here of the servant in the background. 641 00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:51,440 And he seems to have been here at the lower right. 642 00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:55,240 So it sort of seems he was positioned some three, four times 643 00:42:55,240 --> 00:42:58,200 before he actually had his final position... 644 00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:01,120 ..here in the background. 645 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:07,760 I think this is probably the kind of change you see invariably 646 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:10,600 in these more complex compositions. 647 00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:15,440 I think he was constantly sort of changing and experimenting. 648 00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:16,600 How else could one explain 649 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:19,320 the kind of things that you encounter in these paintings? 650 00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:28,960 Of course, there's no extra money for the struggle. 651 00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:31,040 But I can't be satisfied with a picture 652 00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:33,520 that any of my competitors could paint. 653 00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,360 This year's been hard. 654 00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:42,000 My little family mustn't starve. 655 00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:46,520 So, I sell my Saskia's grave in the Ouderkerk. 656 00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:49,680 She's been dead for 20 years. 657 00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:56,600 There's plague in Amsterdam. 658 00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:58,280 The city reeks. 659 00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:14,320 So this is a very old book from the Westerkerk 660 00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:22,160 and registered here on 24th of July, 1663, 661 00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:25,600 is the burial of Hendrickje Stoffels. 662 00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:33,800 And they had to pay 10 guilders and 30 pennies for this burial, 663 00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:38,160 not much. This was the average sum for an adult. 664 00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:40,480 Nothing special. 665 00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:46,840 Yeah, so this is the registration of the death of Hendrickje in 1663. 666 00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:56,320 The plague took her from me. 667 00:45:01,720 --> 00:45:02,960 I hid behind her. 668 00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:05,560 She spoke for me. 669 00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:09,720 What have I lost? 670 00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:12,720 Everything. 671 00:45:12,720 --> 00:45:14,320 Nothing. 672 00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:15,360 The world. 673 00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:22,120 My wife, in all but name, a mother for Titus and Cornelia. 674 00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:26,320 Ten guilders for a rented grave. 675 00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:31,000 Hendrickje. 676 00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:46,600 He has lost the second great love of his life - Hendrickje Stoffels. 677 00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:49,640 And, so, inevitably you would have to think 678 00:45:49,640 --> 00:45:54,920 that he is sinking back on this spirit of adversity. 679 00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:57,120 The fact that despite all that 680 00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,960 he sticks to what he perhaps loves best in the world, 681 00:45:59,960 --> 00:46:02,920 which is to paint, and to make innovative painting... 682 00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:06,600 ..is to me an incredible and astonishing accomplishment, 683 00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:09,640 not just of painting, but of will. 684 00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:14,200 Rembrandt has created probably the best portrait of himself 685 00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:17,880 that he made in a long career of making self-portraits. 686 00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:20,840 Let's take the most extraordinary aspect of this. 687 00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:24,360 This passage of the hand, where you see him holding, 688 00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:27,360 with kind of a rough outline of his hand, 689 00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:32,120 first of all a palette, a bunch of brushes like a spray, 690 00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:34,920 and this long stick with a knob at the end 691 00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:36,680 which is called a mahl stick, 692 00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:40,800 something that painters use to steady their hand when painting. 693 00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:44,400 And this hand almost disappears. 694 00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:47,440 Indeed, there's almost a little violence 695 00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:50,440 in how he does this painting. 696 00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:53,360 When people say that Rembrandt is really a modern painter, 697 00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:55,720 this is the sort of thing they think about, 698 00:46:55,720 --> 00:47:00,560 where this indeed becomes an almost abstract set of forms. 699 00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:12,320 It's almost all that's left of me, a painter. 700 00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:15,920 But I paint him as I paint now, 701 00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:20,560 a true face in a picture that fades towards the edges, 702 00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:22,760 melts beyond the frame. 703 00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:28,920 In my life, stupid ironies abound. 704 00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:31,360 Almost ten years after my insolvency 705 00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:34,960 the country's highest court decides that Titus's right 706 00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:37,600 to his inheritance from his mother 707 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:41,720 precedes all the other debts that I incurred thereafter. 708 00:47:41,720 --> 00:47:45,080 They force my one time creditors to repay the money, 709 00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:47,160 and give it to Titus instead. 710 00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:50,200 Over 10,000 guilders. 711 00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:55,240 The old debt, that prevented me from marriage is discharged. 712 00:47:55,240 --> 00:47:57,120 So I can marry now. 713 00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:01,080 Now that my Hendrickje's dead. 714 00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:09,280 And now, of course, 715 00:48:09,280 --> 00:48:13,680 two newly weds commission me to paint their portraits. 716 00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:15,760 But as historical figures, 717 00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:19,440 as Isaac and Rebecca from the book of Genesis. 718 00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:21,400 They travel in a strange land, 719 00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:24,560 and for safety pretend to be brother and sister, 720 00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:27,440 rather than husband and wife. 721 00:48:27,440 --> 00:48:29,640 In a secret moment... 722 00:48:29,640 --> 00:48:30,840 ..they embrace. 723 00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:35,920 This painting is not just a portrait, 724 00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:39,040 and in this case a very exceptional portrait, 725 00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:42,400 but it's also about the pleasure of painting. 726 00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:47,680 This is in the latest decade of his life and you see, 727 00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:51,640 well, how he really dares to play around with different textures 728 00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:53,800 for example, and techniques. 729 00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:57,800 Even using pallet knives here and there as well. 730 00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:00,480 Scratching into the wet paint, 731 00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:04,840 but also almost, well, sculpting in paint over here. 732 00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:09,840 I think one of the greatest, let's say ten square centimetres 733 00:49:09,840 --> 00:49:12,880 in art history, is this particular part. 734 00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:14,440 It's abstract art. 735 00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:17,520 It's Mark Rothko, 1665. 736 00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:21,240 Rembrandt is always relevant and Rembrandt is always contemporary 737 00:49:21,240 --> 00:49:26,520 even 350 years after he made this in his workshop in Amsterdam. 738 00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:35,840 When Vincent van Gogh saw this painting for the first time, 739 00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:38,720 he was totally blown away by the painting, 740 00:49:38,720 --> 00:49:40,720 and he wrote to his brother Theo 741 00:49:40,720 --> 00:49:44,440 that this was the most intimate painting that he had ever seen, 742 00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:47,520 the most sympathetic painting he had ever seen. 743 00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:50,000 It's all about touch. 744 00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:51,160 Yeah, I think... 745 00:49:52,240 --> 00:49:53,720 ..maybe I'm exaggerating, 746 00:49:53,720 --> 00:49:56,560 but I think that Rembrandt invented intimacy. 747 00:49:57,560 --> 00:50:02,080 He looked and searched for the most natural gestures 748 00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,680 to express certain emotions. 749 00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:07,400 In this painting, for example, 750 00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:12,320 it's how he's placed Isaac's hand on Rebecca's bosom, 751 00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:15,880 and then she's gently stroking that hand, 752 00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:20,320 and then there are the two other hands that frame... 753 00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:23,280 ..these two central hands, as it were. 754 00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:25,280 That's simply marvellous. 755 00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:30,520 But in a certain sense, I think this is also a portrayal 756 00:50:30,520 --> 00:50:33,640 of Rembrandt's profound love for Hendrickje. 757 00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:38,760 I remember what it was like to be a lover. 758 00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:46,240 And Isaac was much older than Rebecca too, 759 00:50:46,240 --> 00:50:48,480 as I was older than Hendrickje. 760 00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:52,440 And so this picture has a ghost in it. 761 00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:55,080 Or two. 762 00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:58,200 Yes, two. 763 00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:03,960 God wants me to be solitary. 764 00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:10,360 And now it's... 765 00:51:11,520 --> 00:51:14,640 ..the final registration on Titus. 766 00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:19,320 "Titus van Rijn, the son of Rembrandt", it's written here, 767 00:51:19,320 --> 00:51:26,280 and he was buried on a Friday, on 7th September in 1668. 768 00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:33,240 So five years after Hendrickje Stoffels, Rembrandt's son Titus, 769 00:51:33,240 --> 00:51:35,760 he died as a young guy. 770 00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:42,920 My boy was only 26. 771 00:51:44,240 --> 00:51:46,800 He leaves his pregnant wife behind. 772 00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:50,280 And me, of course. 773 00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:56,320 We see that in 1669... 774 00:51:56,320 --> 00:51:59,320 ..there was a baptism,. 775 00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:04,920 A baptism of Titia, the daughter of Titus van Rijn 776 00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:06,520 and Magdalena van Loo. 777 00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:10,040 And who was... 778 00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:14,280 ..the godfather of this child? 779 00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,000 Rembrandt van Rijn himself. 780 00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,920 So in 1669, 781 00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:28,600 Rembrandt is the godfather of his grandchild Titia van Rijn. 782 00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:32,800 And, yes, maybe he's holding the child. 783 00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:54,280 This is the moment in 1669 when he paints Simeon 784 00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:58,160 in the temple, carrying the little Jesus. 785 00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:03,640 And we know that according to the Gospel Of Luke 786 00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:08,720 Simeon was promised not to die before he saw the saviour, 787 00:53:08,720 --> 00:53:10,640 and this is that moment. 788 00:53:10,640 --> 00:53:16,640 And we see Simeon, closed eyes, with the little baby, 789 00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:18,440 and his hands in prayer. 790 00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:26,000 It's quite striking to see that Simeon was allowed to die... 791 00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:29,400 ..at this particular moment, but so was Rembrandt. 792 00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:36,920 This was the painting that was still on Rembrandt's easel 793 00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:39,320 when he died, 62 years old. 794 00:53:55,400 --> 00:54:00,400 A final document, also 1669. 795 00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:06,560 A few months after he was the godfather of his granddaughter... 796 00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:08,720 ..we see the end of Rembrandt. 797 00:54:08,720 --> 00:54:13,560 Rembrandt van Rijn was buried in the Westerkerk... 798 00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:17,000 ..for 15 guilders. 799 00:54:20,040 --> 00:54:24,360 It's obvious from what we know now that this was not his own grave 800 00:54:24,360 --> 00:54:26,400 which would have been also illogical, 801 00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:28,640 seeing his financial situation. 802 00:54:29,960 --> 00:54:34,640 So these people, they were in rented graves and after a while 803 00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:37,840 they needed some more space in the church. 804 00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:40,040 They removed the old graves 805 00:54:40,040 --> 00:54:44,520 and the old remains were put together, and, yeah... 806 00:54:45,600 --> 00:54:46,880 ..disposed. 807 00:54:51,840 --> 00:54:55,680 Usually, the story of Rembrandt... 808 00:54:55,680 --> 00:54:59,320 ..and as all romantic artists' stories should end, 809 00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:03,080 the artist alone, and unknown, and unloved. 810 00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:09,840 I remembered his daughter being still alive. 811 00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:12,240 I thought it would be nice if she took care of him. 812 00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:23,040 She faces him while he's working, of course, on another self-portrait. 813 00:55:23,040 --> 00:55:27,840 And at the end, as Cornelia leaves, 814 00:55:27,840 --> 00:55:32,000 she gives him a little kiss and he is there all alone 815 00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:34,280 in his studio. Finally that moment has come 816 00:55:34,280 --> 00:55:36,320 and he looks through the window. 817 00:55:36,320 --> 00:55:39,360 He sees her leave and disappear in the snow. 818 00:55:45,080 --> 00:55:49,920 In the end, there's Rembrandt in his room with all his things, 819 00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:52,920 and a self-portrait on his easel. 820 00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:55,160 He looks to the ceiling, 821 00:55:55,160 --> 00:55:59,120 he looks outside, he looks at the moon, 822 00:55:59,120 --> 00:56:01,600 and the passing clouds. 823 00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:07,080 And as it gets really dark you see his fading self-portrait... 824 00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:09,400 ..and it all ends in darkness. 825 00:56:28,440 --> 00:56:31,440 There's an incredible economy in the way he's painted this. 826 00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:37,440 He does away with his sketched layer in the painting... 827 00:56:39,360 --> 00:56:42,560 ..he just paints directly on top of a brown ground, 828 00:56:42,560 --> 00:56:45,720 in an incredibly quick, experimental fashion. 829 00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:49,720 I think it was painted quite quickly, 830 00:56:49,720 --> 00:56:52,640 even though there are changes that have happened in the hat. 831 00:56:52,640 --> 00:56:54,640 You know, initially we see in the X-ray 832 00:56:54,640 --> 00:56:56,040 that it was a white painter's cap 833 00:56:56,040 --> 00:57:00,640 but there are other parts that were obviously painted very quickly, 834 00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:02,720 probably a matter of hours. 835 00:57:02,720 --> 00:57:04,760 The face of course is brilliant. 836 00:57:04,760 --> 00:57:07,800 and of course the flesh paint is, is fabulous, 837 00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:10,040 the way it's just manipulated, 838 00:57:10,040 --> 00:57:16,000 and to create this sort of texture of the ageing skin. 839 00:57:17,160 --> 00:57:21,720 I see somebody who is still fully in command of his skills 840 00:57:21,720 --> 00:57:26,480 and still experimenting and still a searching artist. 841 00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:28,560 That's what I see in the painting. 842 00:57:36,840 --> 00:57:41,200 It's a picture full of the artist, and of his life... 843 00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:44,960 ..and of his achievements and his failures... 844 00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:48,400 ..and of his art. 845 00:57:50,880 --> 00:57:53,320 Of course, he would not have known 846 00:57:53,320 --> 00:57:55,920 that this was his last self-portrait. 847 00:57:58,640 --> 00:58:04,480 But perhaps he had a faint feeling it might have been his last. 848 00:58:11,600 --> 00:58:13,720 How do you know when something is finished? 849 00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:17,320 Well... 850 00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:19,840 ..creeps up on you. 851 00:58:19,840 --> 00:58:22,600 You think there's hours of work to do, 852 00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:26,400 and then the brush lifts from the last stroke, 853 00:58:26,400 --> 00:58:30,120 and you take two paces back... 854 00:58:30,120 --> 00:58:31,480 ..and there. 855 00:58:32,880 --> 00:58:34,400 It's finished. 856 00:58:37,440 --> 00:58:39,160 Your whole life.