Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/76

 242 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS Rembrandt, even if obliged to paint the stock subjects of the day, was deter- mined to treat them in his own way, and not to follow set forms that happened to be adopted in the schools. He used real men and women for models, and painted them as he saw them, not as he was bidden to look at them through his teacher's spectacles. In six months he had learned at least one thing, that Last- man had nothing more to teach him. The man of genius must ever be his own master, though he remain the hard-working student all his days. Back to Ley- den and to his father's house, Rembrandt had not returned to lead a life of idle- ness. He worked tremendously in these early years. Even needed models he found in the members of his family : he has made the face of his mother as fa- miliar as that of a friend ; his own, with the heavy features, the thick, bushy hair, the small intelligent eyes, between them the vertical line, fast deepening on the fine forehead, he drew and etched and painted, again and again. More elaborate compositions he also undertook. As in his maturity, it was to the Bi- ble he turned for suggestions : Saint Paul in prison, Samson and Delilah, the Presentation in the Temple — these were the themes then in vogue which he pre- ferred, rendering them with the realism which distinguished his later, more fa- mous Samsons and Abrahams and Christs, making them the motive for a fine arrangement of color, for a striking study of light and shadow. A pleasant pict- ure one can fancy of his life at this period ; he was with his own people, for whom his love was tender ; busy with brush, pencil, and etching-needle ; he was strengthening his powers of observation, developing and perfecting his style, occasionally producing work that won for him renown in Leyden ; and, gradu- ally, he gathered round him a small group of earnest fellow-workers, chief among them Lievens, Gerard Dou, and Van Vliet, the last two, though but slightly his juniors, looking up to him as master. These were the years of his true apprenticeship. Leyden, however, was not the best place for a young painter who had his fort- unes to make. It was essentially a university town ; interest was concentrated upon letters ; art was but of secondary consideration. It was different in Am- sterdam, the great commercial centre of Holland. There, all was life and activ- ity and progress ; there, was money to be spent, and the liberal patron willing to lavish it upon the artist. Holland just then was in the first flush of prosperity and patriotism, following upon her virtual independence from Spain. Not a citizen but glowed with self-respect at the thought of the victory he had, in one way or another, helped to win ; the state, as represented by the good burghers, was supreme in every man's mind. It was natural that individuals and corpora- tions alike should seek to immortalize their greatness by means of the painter's art, which, in Holland, had long since ceased to be a monopoly of the church. Hence the age became essentially one of portrait-painting. Many were the painters whose portraits had already achieved distinction. De Keyser was busy in Amsterdam ; a far greater genius, Franz Hals, but fifteen years Rembrandt's senior, was creating his masterpieces in The Hague and Harlem. It was as in- evitable that Rembrandt should turn to portraiture, as that he should find com-