Rembrandt Paintings

We will begin with a short Rembrandt biography. Then we will move on the Rembrandt paintings, Rembrandt art.

Rembrandt was born in 1606 in Leiden, The Netherlands, and he died in 1669 in Amsterdam. He is my favorite painter of all time.

Early in his adult life Rembrandt was famous and wealthy but he lived beyond his means and ended up losing his home and his fortune. Though bankrupt in his later life he maintained a dignified countenance.

Rembrandt's self-proclaimed goal was to achieve "the greatest and most natural movement and emotion." He created roughly 600 paintings that portrayed the earthy and the spiritual in a preternatural way. He is generally considered a Dutch Baroque Artist. Among the most famous Rembrandt paintings are "The Night Watch" and "The Prodigal Son."

I would like to present Rembrandt art to you now. Each of the Rembrandt paintings are masterpieces. I love them to the degree that I commissioned copies to be produced of all but one of them (that will be rectified) and they are proudly displayed in my home, except for two I made gifts of to loved ones.

The Ten Commandments represented the only occasion in human history when God wrote with His own hand (or finger). When Moses came down from the mountain with this most precious gift to humankind and saw his people worshipping the golden calf (idol worship was not new nor is it out-of-date now) he was so angry that he smashed them to bits. Nonetheless, isn't it interesting that 3500 years later the Ten Commandments are still engraved on monuments, architecture and plaques ubiquitously in Western Civilization (if anyone remembers what that is). I am surprised that we succumb to vehement opposition to the Ten Commandments in the United States. They codify some pretty good ideas that I can't imagine such hostility against unless this truculence emanates from dark spiritual forces.

"Belshazzar's Feast" by Rembrandt commemorates the Biblical story from the book of Daniel about Belshazzar. In a nutshell it means that we will die for our sins. Belshazzar was the prince of Babylon.  This story is the root of the idiom "I see the handwriting on the wall."

In this, one of the most beautiful Rembrandt paintings, we see Mary the mother of Jesus as she visits her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth says to Mary, "Though art blessed among women."

The Prodigal Son is my favorite parable in the Bible. If one digs deep, there is so much content here I could write all day about it. Suffice it to say the prodigal son was a wastrel like me, who came crawling home to his Father with an attitude of repentance and submission and surprisingly is received with great joy and honor, which makes the older son, who has always done all the right things, angry and jealous—unable, with his hard heart, to enjoy his Father's happiness. In fact, I think he is holding a dagger in this painting.

Such is the depth we can find in most Rembrandt paintings, but especially in the Rembrandt Prodigal Son.

Rembrandt's "Christ in the Storm" represents the concept that the world is a dangerous place and our struggles can overwhelm us until we call on Jesus who is able to calm the stormy seas of life's troubles.

The Apostle Paul wrote more of the New Testament than anyone else. This is miraculous considering Paul (Saul) hated Jesus before his conversion. This tells us that no matter how rotten and vicious a person may be, who is today completely opposed to God, that person might still be chosen by God in the future to be one of His greatest servants. God nearly always makes very unusual choices among persons (by human standards).

"The Night Watch" is the most famous of the Rembrandt paintings. I hope you have enjoyed this small gallery of Rembrandt art, and the brief Rembrandt biography. Thank you.