Rembrandt: impoverished artist or brawler?

As the Dutch celebrate Rembrandt's 400th birthday on July 15, some of the myths about his life are being demolished. For centuries, his personal story was shrouded by the romanticism of admirers who preferred to perpetuate the legend of an artist toiling away in obscurity in an all-consuming quest to unravel the secrets of the soul.

Ernst van de Wetering, author of Rembrandt: the Painter at Work, dismisses the notion of Rembrandt as the impoverished artist driven to heights of creativity by his fiery emotions. Rather, he conceptualized his craft dispassionately, in a constant search for greatness. His inventiveness and originality did not come without hard work. He made small studies of light and shadow, of facial expressions before incorporating them into historical works or biblical allegories.

During his lifetime artist had 25 conflicts with his family, creditors, patrons and even sitters who claimed he cheated them.

Rembrandt was never the poor struggling artist. He won fame from an early age and commissions kept flowing. But he was a miserable money manager and profligate spender. He went bankrupt and was evicted from his home in 1658. Four years later he even sold his wife's gravesite to pay off debts.

He painted self-portraits throughout his life, not to satisfy his ego nor to explore his soul, but because he was a name brand and they sold well.

first appearing in Pravda