Rembrandthuis

This is Rembrandt’s studio. It is the actual room in the actual house where he lived and worked. The house is now the Rembrandthuis, or Rembrandt House Museum.

About Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in 1606 and was successful enough that at thirty three he could buy this substantial house in the middle of Amsterdam for his family, including a studio and space for three apprentices to learn their trade.

He and his family lived here for nineteen years until he had to sell the house to pay his debts.

It was not that he was unsuccessful or fell out of fashion. It was because he collected everything – swords and armour, fabrics from Asia, the busts of Roman Emperors, stuffed armadillos, exotic seashells, daggers from Turkey, headdresses from the Amazon.

He also bought paintings by other artists, some of which he sold because he was also an art dealer. And some he kept because he couldn’t stop.

It is thanks to this that we see in his paintings some of the things he collected, such as rich brocades and armour.

And we know the details of the other things he collected because they were listed in the inventory on the sale of the house.

Now fast forward to 1906 when the City of Amsterdam bought the house and opened it to the public in 1911.

And now we can walk in the front door, into the anteroom where he displayed paintings by his contemporaries, into the kitchen, into the room where he greeted guests, and up the stairs to the upper floors and to his studio.