IN THE NETHERLANDS. \xiii
dent gusto, have familiarized us with her countenance; the best are
those in the galleries of Dresden and Cassel. After Saskia’s death
(1642) Rembrandt’s private affairs took a turn for the worse. He
had furnished his spacious house in the Joden-Breestraat with re-
fined taste in the style of a nobleman’s mansion. The walls of his
apartments were covered not only with works from his own and his
pupils’ hands, but such Italian masters as Palma, Giorgione, etc.,
were likewise represented. He possessed also numerous antique
busts, vases, weapons, and costumes, as well as a choice collection
of engravings, drawings, and etchings. The great financial collapse,
which since 1653 had continued in Amsterdam, bringing wide-spread
and ruinous disaster upon the community, did not suffer our painter
to escape. He was declared bankrupt in 1656, and an inventory of
his effects was taken by the commissioners of the ‘desolate-boedel-
kamer’. The sale of his antiquities and paintings, which to-day
would represent a value of thousands of pounds, realized in 1657
only 5000 florins. The house itself and the collection of engravings
were brought to the hammer in the following year. Rembrandt
thenceforward resided in a modest dwelling in the Rozen-Gracht
along with his son Titus (d. 1668), comforted by the faithful affec-
tion and ministrations of his servant Hendrikje Jaghers or Stoffels
(d. ca. 1663). The close of his life found him poor and living in
complete retirement; still busy notwithstanding, and still capable
of laughter, as a portrait of himself from his own hand (painted
about 1668) gives evidence. He was buried on 8th October, 1669.
Of about 550 paintings attributed to him only about 30 now
remain in Holland.

In Rembrandt's career as a painter we notice an uninterrupted
and brilliant process of development. It is true that even his early
works show his fondness for effects produced by strong and full
light thrown upon the principal figures, but it is not till after sey-
eral years residence in Amsterdam that his pictures are suffused
with that rich golden-brown tone which invests his masterpieces
with their subtle and peculiar charm. About 1654 his pictures re-
ceive a still darker brown tone, relieved, however, by a definite
scheme of colouring, in which a deep red is conspicuous, while they
retain their unfaltering breadth of execution. These several methods
of Rembrandt are admirably illustrated in his masterpieces exhibited
in the various galleries of Holland. The ‘Regent’ picture in the
Hague Collection, known as ‘The Anatomical Lecture’, which con-
tains portraits of Professor Nicholas Tulp and the members of the
Surgeons’ guild, belongs to the year 1632. This picture is an ex-
cellent example of the master’s art, which has enabled him to
animate a momentary action of this portrait group with dramatic
life, by force of a concentrated expression and accentuation of tone.
The ‘Night Watch’, preserved in the museum at Amsterdam, Rem-
brandt’s greatest work, was painted ten years later. It bears the date