Young Rembrandt: A Biography

by Onno Blom Narrated by Nick Afka Thomas

Overview

A captivating exploration of the little-known story of Rembrandt's formative years by a prizewinning biographer.
Rembrandt van Rijn's early years are as famously shrouded in mystery as Shakespeare's, and his life has always been
an enigma. How did a miller's son from a provincial Dutch town become the greatest artist of his age? How, in short,
did Rembrandt become Rembrandt?
Seeking the roots of Rembrandt's genius, the celebrated Dutch writer Onno Blom immersed himself in Leiden, the
city in which Rembrandt was born in 1606 and where he spent his first twenty-five years. It was a turbulent time, the
city having only recently rebelled against the Spanish. There are almost no written records by or about Rembrandt, so
Blom tracked down old maps, sought out the Rembrandt family house and mill, and walked the route that Rembrandt
would have taken to school. Leiden was a bustling center of intellectual life, and Blom, a native of Leiden himself,
brings to life all the places Rembrandt would have known: the university, library, botanical garden, and anatomy
theater. He investigated the concerns and tensions of the era: burial rites for plague victims, the renovation of the city
in the wake of the Spanish siege, the influx of immigrants to work the cloth trade. And he examined the origins and
influences that led to the famous and beloved paintings that marked the beginning of Rembrandt's celebrated career
as the paramount painter of the Dutch Golden Age.
Young Rembrandt is a fascinating portrait of the artist and the world that made him. Evocatively told and beautifully
illustrated with more than 100 color images, it is a superb biography that captures Rembrandt for a new generation.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 06/01/2020

Art critic Blom (The Scar of Death) employs Rembrandt’s early works and the history of his hometown of Leiden, Netherlands, to trace the Dutch painter’s artistic evolution from student to legendary master in this thoughtful, illuminating work. Filled with illustrations of Rembrandt’s early etchings, sketches, and paintings, the book examines the artist through his surroundings, with the author, also from Leiden, stating, “I built my sentences from the stones of my city.” Self-assured and determined, young Rembrandt (1606–1669) combined the three-stage process of “translation, imitation and emulation” in studying and interpreting others’ works before creating more accomplished paintings of his own. Rembrandt studied Latin and classic art in school and at Leiden University; observed Leiden’s religious battles and foreign travelers, apprenticed with respected painters including Jacob van Swanenburg and Pieter Lastman; and shared a studio and competed with fellow painter Jan Lievens. Once established on his own, Rembrandt attracted the attention of influential patrons like Constantin Huygens and devised elaborate etchings filled with images of himself—or historic “selfies” (as seen in The Laughing Man)—that helped establish his reputation as a creator of intimate and emotionally naked works (Andromeda) and led to his renown with history paintings (The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq, more commonly known as The Night Watch). This portrait will delight both casual art fans and connoisseurs alike. (Sept.)

Financial Times - Jonathan McAloon

"A meticulous picture of 17th-century Leiden…Blom is an insightful art critic, especially when he dips into blockbusters of Rembrandt’s maturity."

New Statesman - Sue Prideaux

"Young Rembrandt is well-researched and it certainly widens our understanding of the local historical context."

Times (UK) - Michael Prodger

"Fascinating…Blom’s method is persuasive: he follows the painter around Leiden’s streets and over its bridges…to create the world that shaped him. As a result, the book is a biography of the city too."

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2020-04-28
A Dutch biographer and literary critic re-creates the textures of Rembrandt's world.

Drawing on the significant resources of the Rembrandt Research Project, Rembrandt Documents Project, and the multivolume Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings as well as histories and archival material, Blom offers an assured, discerning biography. The author illuminates the esteemed artist’s early life, beginning in Leiden, where Rembrandt was born in 1606, and ending in Amsterdam, where he painted his “breakthrough” work, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, in 1632. Blom creates a multifaceted view of Leiden, which had emerged from political siege, famine, and plague to become Holland’s prosperous second city and was the place where Rembrandt grew up, studied, and worked until he moved to the Dutch capital in 1631. The son of a malt-miller, Rembrandt was restless, strong-willed, and ambitious; enrolled in the University of Leiden when he was 14, he left after two years, possibly because of religious strife besetting the institution. His parents supported his art apprenticeships in Leiden and briefly in Amsterdam, where he focused on history painting, copying his teacher’s works. Blom follows Rembrandt’s artistic evolution, honing a style of etching notable for its “looseness, bravura, and ostensible nonchalance” and experimenting with self-portraits “to see how different emotions, moods and temperaments were expressed in the face.” Included among more than 100 illustrations are many self-portraits, images that serve as “a kind of autobiography.” Along with social, cultural, political, and religious contexts for Rembrandt’s life, Blom details the nitty-gritty of making art, such as the complicated, time-consuming process of grinding pigments and improvising paint tubes from knotted pig bladders. As Rembrandt became increasingly well-known and admired, his work was purchased and commissioned by members of the court. The author notes, however, that he died alone and destitute; by 1669, his work had gone out of fashion.

A fresh, well-researched, nuanced portrait. (100 illustrations)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173132819
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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