Rembrandt | Page 5

private property sold, but his collection of
pictures and engravings found comparatively few bidders, and realised
no more than 5000 florins. A year later his store of pictures came under
the hammer, and in 1660, Hendrickje and Titus started their plucky
attempt to establish a little business, in order that they might restore
some small part of the family fortune.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.--PORTRAIT OF AN OLD MAN
Rembrandt painted very many portraits of men and women whose
identity cannot be traced, and it is probable that the original of this
striking portrait in the Pitti Palace at Florence was unknown to many of
the painter's contemporaries. This is one of Rembrandt's late works, and
is said to have been painted about 1658.]
For a little time the keen edge of trouble seems to have been turned.
One of Rembrandt's friends secured him the commission to paint the
"Syndics of the Drapers' Guild," and this is one of the last works of
importance in the artist's life, because his sight was beginning to fail.

To understand why this fresh trouble fell upon him, it is necessary to
turn for a moment to consider the marvellous etchings he produced
between 1628 and 1661. The drawings may be disregarded in this
connection, though there are about a thousand undisputed ones in
existence, but the making of the etchings, of which some two hundred
are allowed by all competent observers to be the work of the master,
must have inflicted enormous strain upon his sight. When he was
passing from middle age, overwhelmed with trouble of every
description, it is not surprising that his eyes should have refused to
serve him any longer.
One might have thought that the immortals had finished their sport with
Rembrandt, but apparently their resources are quite inexhaustible. One
year after the state of his eyes had brought etching to an end, the
faithful Hendrickje died. A portrait of her, one of the last of the
master's works, may be seen in Berlin. The face is a charming and
sympathetic one, and moves the observer to a feeling of sympathy that
makes the mere question of the Church's participation in her relations
with Rembrandt a very small affair indeed.
In the next seven years the old painter passed quietly down towards the
great silence. A few ardent admirers among the young men, a few old
friends whom no adversity could shake, remained to bring such
comfort as they might. With failing sight and health he moved to the
Lauriergracht, and the capacity for work came nearly to an end. The
lawyers made merry with the various suits. Some had been instituted to
recover money that the painter had borrowed, others to settle the vexed
question of the creditors' right to Saskia's estate. In 1665 Titus received
the balance that was left, when the decision of the courts allowed him
to handle what legal ingenuity had not been able to impound.
In the summer of 1668, when he was about twenty-seven years old,
Titus married his cousin Magdellena, and this little celebration may be
supposed to have cheered the elder Rembrandt a little, but his pleasure
was brief, for the young bridegroom died in September of the same
year, and in the following year a posthumous daughter was born.
By this time the immortals had completed their task, there was nothing

left for them to do; they had broken the old painter's health and his
heart, they had reduced him to poverty. So they gave him half a year to
digest their gifts, and then some word of pity seems to have entered
into their councils, and one of the greatest painters the world has seen
was set free from the intolerable burden of life. From certain
documents still extant we learn that he was buried at the expense of
thirteen florins. He has left to the world some five or six hundred
pictures that are admitted to be genuine, together with the etchings and
drawings to which reference has been made. He is to be seen in many
galleries in the Old World and the New, for he painted his own portrait
more than a score of times. Saskia, too, may be seen in several galleries
and Hendrickje has not been forgotten.
[Illustration: PLATE V.--THE COMPANY OF FRANCIS BANNING
COCQ
Generally known as the "Night Watch." This famous picture, now to be
seen in the Royal Museum at Amsterdam, is the best discussed of all
the master's works. It has been pointed out that it is in reality a day
scene although it is known to most people as the "Night Watch." The
picture was painted in 1642.]
There is no doubt that many of Rembrandt's troubles were self-inflicted;
but his punishment was largely in excess of his sins. His pictures