what anciful Rembrandt and his young wife ? The
date, 1645, was assigned by Vosraaer on very slender
grounds, for, as Bode points out, the manner of paint-
ing is closely connected with l635, while the tact also
that it is signed ' Rembrant ' (without the d) confirms
the earlier date. The picture thus acquires a double
interest from its personal connection with the painter
and his household. There is a painting by F. Bol of
a similar subject in Lord Northbrook's collection, which
affords an interesting comparison.
The next date in order is 1 641, No. I(j0, ' A Lady,' better known as ' The Lady with the Fan,' signed ' Rembrandt, l641 ' — not Rembrant (without the </), as in the catalogue. The compiler should have known that Rembrant is believed never to occur after l63S. This picture and a corresponding one in Lansdowne House, exhibited a few years ago in Burlington House, belong to the most charming period of his female portraits. His finest portraits of Saskia date from it, as also his famous ' Mother of Jan Six.' They are characterised by an equal soft light, by the avoidance of harsh shadows, and by a smooth, beautiful handling. It seems as if Rembrandt had at this time set himself to please, almost to flatter, his female sitters ; the ex- pression is invariably subtle and refined, and the work is altogether delicate and beautiful.
A long interval now occurs, for Rembrandt's house- hold had been broken up by the death of Saskia in 1642, and he seems to have lived much in the country houses of his friends Six and Uytenbogaert. It was then that he turned his attention to landscape. It is impossible not to feel the sadness of the painter in his aspect of nature, or to miss the strong personal impression of the scene as it appeared to him in his loneliness. The great etching of 'The Three Trees ' dates from l643, and betrays a mind oppiessed by gloom, touched not by the tender melanchol)- of Ruysdael, but by the unrest of a man weighed down by great disaster. We have in No. 118 and No. 154 two small landscapes painted in these years. In them he revels in the warfare of the elements, the dark thunder-cloud and the happy sunshine uncon- sciously reproducing the tumult of his soul and giving expression to the idea,
' We receive but what we give, .And in our life alone does Nature live ; Ours is her weflding garment, ours her shroud.'
About 1650 he seems to have painted No. 158, ' The Unmerciful Servant,' a large and important picture, full of dramatic force and restrained expres- sion. Dr. Bode, with great doubt, is inclined to assign this picture to a period ten years later, but the smooth handling, the golden tone, and the peculiar reds and yellows point rather to about 1(550. The lights are softer and the shadows more transparent than in his early days. His breadth of touch and subordination of detail become yearly more marked, as in No. 117. ' An Old Man,' in Jewish dress, painted evidently about I65C. Mass, tone and colour now dominate the painter, and the brush is handled with bold free- dom. The work is sure, and the hand of the master is everywhere visible. The legend that it represents Rembrandt's father is apocryphal. He died about 1632, and, so far as is known, there is no portrait of him. It was from his mother that Rembrandt drew his marked individuality ; to her he was deeply at- tached. How touching is the fact that thrice did he give her name, Cornelia, to his daughters in succes- sion ! No. 162 again brings us close to Rembrandt's household. It is called, ' Portrait of a Young Man,' and is closely allied to one or two well-known pictures of l658. Clearly this is no ordinary portrait, for it is painted with love, and has that distinct mark of close relationship to the painter which is to be seen in some of Rembrandt's best work. Dr. Bode has pointed out the likeness to Titus, the only son of Rembrandt, then a youth of seventeen. Truly Rem- brandt had good reason to be interested in this bright lad with the full-flowing curls, for at this very time the boy was engaged with the faithful Hendrickie Stoffels in the support of the household by the sale of etchings, a device by which the painter, to get relief from his creditors, became the pensioner of the family. The deed of arrangement before a notary public has been recently discovered, signed with a cross by the good but illiterate Hendrickie, Rem- brandt undertaking to give his aid in the production of work. Here we get back to the origin of Hou- braken's ill-natured fables as to Rembrandt's ways of selling his prints. It was dire necessity that com- pelled this strange partnership, and we are lost in wonder as we remember that many of his finest etch- ings and paintings were jiroduced under such circum- stances. Let us take a parting look of the grand old painter as we see him in No. 157. It is said to be painted in 1()5S and signed Rembrant, but beyond ' Rembran ' nothing is to be seen. The brush-work is splendid, and the modelling fine, but from the exaggerated size of features and of the hands, one would be inclined to place it years later, when his eye was getting dim and his hand was losing its firm mastery. But the bearing of the man shows no sense of depression; brave and self-reliant to the last. He had done his work, he had outlived his popularity, and he cared not though it should be judicially recorded of him at his death, as was the case, that 'he left behind him no property except his wearing apparel and his materials for painting.'
John Forbes White.
