Rembrandt was a man who disregarded social convention. He did not bother
about keeping company with educated people or contemporary writers. Joachim  Von Sandtart says: "He did not in the least
know how to keep his station and always associated with the lower orders". Another
contemporary of his, Houbraken observed this about him too. Though in context with an
older Rembrandt, he said, "In the autumn of his life, Rembrandt kept company mostly
with common people and such as practiced art".
Rembrandt had a
temperamental nature. Fillpio Baldinucci writes about his appearance: "The ugly and
plebian face with which Rembrandt was ill-favored was accompanied by untidy and dirty
clothes, since it was his custom, when working, to wipe his brushes on himself and to do
other things of a similar nature".
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Rembrandt worked with extraordinary intensity and did not like anybody to disturb him. Baldinucci says of that, "When Rembrandt worked, he would not have granted an audience to the first monarch in the world, who would have had to return again and again until he found him no longer engaged". The visitors to his studio, who wanted to examine his paintings too closely, were frightened away by his saying, "The smell of the colors will bother you." |
Criticism And
Praise
Max Leibermann says,
"Whenever  I see a Frans Hals, I feel the desire to paint;
but when I see a Rembrandt, I want to give it up."
Andries Pels criticizes
him in his Gebruik et des toonels with the following words:
"What a loss it was
for art that such a master hand
Did not use its native strength to better purpose.
Who surpassed him in the matter of painting?
But oh! The greater talent, the more numerous the aberrations
When it attaches itself to no principles, no rules,
But imagines it knows everything to itself."
This criticism was that
Rembrandt departed too much from the traditions and this led to the wasting of his genius.
He neglected the principles too much and was excessively independent. |
