t The exterior of Rembrandt’s home looks much as it did when he lived here in the Golden Age
g OUDE ZIJDE g Contents
G5 ⌂ Jodenbreestraat 4 v 14 q Nieuwmarkt # 10am–6pm daily ¢ 27 Apr, 25 Dec ∑ rembrandthuis.nl
The former home of Amsterdam’s most famous artist – creator of The Nightwatch, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp and over 300 other works – has been transformed into a sensitive museum allowing an intimate glimpse into the life and times of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.
t The exterior of Rembrandt’s home looks much as it did when he lived here in the Golden Age
Rembrandt was an established portraitist, married to the daughter of a wealthy bourgeois family, when he bought this red-shuttered house on the edge of the Jewish district in 1639. By 1656, however, his fortunes had changed. No longer an artistic star, he was forced to sell his home.
Furnished according to the 1656 inventory, the house is now a museum dedicated to the artist. On the first floor, the studio where Rembrandt created many of his most famous works displays a superb collection of his sketches, and there are exhibitions of works by his contemporaries.Younger visitors will love the cabinet of curiosities on the second floor, with its stuffed crocodiles, narwhal tusks, skulls and fossils. Daily 17th-century etching and paint-mixing demonstrations – at no extra cost – enhance the experience.
Experience Oude Zijde
t A canvas set up in the artist’s former studio
Sephardi Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition began to arrive in Amsterdam in the early 17th century. They settled on the eastern fringes of the Oude Zijde. Many Sephardim were already wealthy when they arrived in Amsterdam, and in Rembrandt’s day this part of town was an up-and-coming neighbourhood. Its exotic, striking young women and craggy elders were the perfect models for Rembrandt’s series of paintings inspired by Old Testament myths.
Rembrandt painted himself into many of his works as a spectator.