Digital Rare Book:
The Work of Rembrandt
Reproduced in over five hundred illustrations; with a biographical introduction.
Abridged from Adolf Rosenberg
Published by Brentano's, New York - 1913

Extract:

What Rembrandt looked like at this time may best be seen from the picture of himself painted in 1658, now in Vienna. He had lost the rich costumes of his wardrobe, so that he paints himself in a simple dress, adding only the few local colors which he needed to correspond with his feelings. Toward the end of the fifties, owing to lack of orders, he began painting portraits of himself once more. The pictures are remarkable of their kind; but they show how terribly Rembrandt had changed. The face is bloated, the body heavy, and the eye weak and lusterless. It has never been proven that Rembrandt accelerated this change by drunkenness. It seems more likely that the painful labor of etching in poor, badly lit rooms, in which he lived after his expulsion from his house, had affected his eyesight. The numerous pictures of himself during the last decade of his life show Rembrandt as dressed in a dirty walking coat, on which he is said to have wiped his brush; but he is still erect and working, with brush and palette in his hands.

Shortly before 1664 Hendrickje had died, and in September, 1668, Titus had also passed away. Utterly alone, forgotten by those who had once admired him, Rembrandt died in the first week of October, 1669. That he died in greatest poverty is seen by the inventory, taken after his death, which shows that he left nothing except his clothing and tools. Thus ended a career begun under the most favorable auspices.

Rembrandt had been so completely forgotten, even during his lifetime, that his pictures could be bought for six cents apiece. The price, however, soon rose to five dollars, and later to several hundred dollars. From that time on the price has risen steadily, and now a picture like " The Night Watch " may no longer be valued in any money.

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