Rembrandt | Page 4

Saskia gave
birth to the one child who survived the early years, the boy Titus. Then
her health failed, and in 1642 she died, after eight years of married life
that would seem to have been happy. In this year Rembrandt painted
the famous "Night Watch," a picture representing the company of
Francis Banning Cocq, and incidentally a day scene in spite of its
popular name. The work succeeded in arousing a storm of indignation,
for every sitter wanted to have equal prominence in the canvas. They
had subscribed equally to the cost, and Rembrandt had dared to
compose the picture!
It may be said that after his wife's death, and the exhibition of this fine
work, Rembrandt's pleasant years came to an end. He was then
somewhere between thirty-six and thirty-eight years old, he had made
his mark, and enjoyed a very large measure of recognition, but
henceforward, his career was destined to be a very troubled one, full of
disappointment, pain, and care. Perhaps it would have been no bad
thing for him if he could have gone with Saskia into the outer darkness.
The world would have been poorer, but the man himself would have
been spared many years that perhaps even the devoted labours of his

studio could not redeem.
Saskia's estate, which seems to have been a considerable one, was left
to Rembrandt absolutely, in trust for the sole surviving child Titus, but
Rembrandt, after his usual free and easy fashion, did not trouble about
the legal side of the question. He did not even make an inventory of the
property belonging to his wife, and this carelessness led to endless
trouble in future years, and to the distribution of a great part of the
property into the hands of gentlemen learned in the law. Perhaps the
painter had other matters to think about, he could no longer disguise
from himself the fact that public patronage was falling off. It may be
that the war with Spain was beginning to make people in comfortable
circumstances retrench, but it is more than likely that the artist's name
was not known favourably to his fellow-citizens. His passionate
temperament and his quick eye for truly artistic effects could not be
tolerated by the sober, stodgy men and women who were the rank and
file of Amsterdam's comfortable classes. To be sure, the Stadtholder
continued his patronage; he ordered the famous "Circumcision" and the
"Adoration of the Shepherds." Pupils continued to arrive, too, in large
numbers, many of them coming from beyond Holland; but the public
stayed away.
Rembrandt was not without friends, who helped him as far as they
could, and advised him as much as they dared; but he seems to have
been a man who could not be assisted, because in matters of art he
allowed no outside interference, and he was naturally impulsive.
Money ran through his hands like water through a sieve, though it is
only fair to point out that he was very generous, and could not lend a
deaf ear to any tale of distress.
Between 1642, when Saskia died, and 1649, it is not easy to follow the
progress of his life; we can only state with certainty that his difficulties
increased almost as quickly as his work ripened. His connection with
Hendrickje Stoffels would seem to have started about 1649, and this
woman with whom he lived until her death some thirteen years later,
has been abused by many biographers because she was the painter's
mistress. Some have endeavoured to prove, without any evidence, that

he married her, but this concession to Mrs. Grundy seems a little beside
the mark. The relations between the pair were a matter for their own
consideration, and it is clear that Hendrickje came to the painter in the
time of his greatest trouble, to serve him lovingly and faithfully until
she passed away at the comparatively early age of thirty-six.
She bore him two children, who seem to have died young, and,
curiously enough, her position in the house was accepted by young
Titus Rembrandt, who, when he was nearing man's estate, started, in
partnership with her, to deal in pictures and works of art--a not very
successful attempt to support the establishment in comfort.
In the year when Hendrickje joined Rembrandt, he could no longer pay
instalments on the house he had bought for himself in the Joden
Breestraat. About the following year he began to sell property, hoping
against hope that he would be able to tide over the bad times. Three
years later he started borrowing on a very extensive scale. In 1656 a
fresh guardian was appointed for Titus, to whom his father transferred
some property, and in that year the painter was adjudged bankrupt. The
year 1657 saw much of his